Please please help - head lice. Worst infestation I've ever seen

[LEMtheoriginal]

I am horrified and disgusted. My poor dd

We had visitors just before Xmas and we used headrin two weeks - sorted. Or so we thought.

Just done DD'S hair with here in once as she was itchy and I've never seen anything like it

I have been combing them out of DD'S hair since 7pm and it's horrific. Like millions of them I am mortified. Like a black film of nits and it's never ending.

I need to know what to use or should I take her to the Dr? I feel we need something stronger but what??

[AuroraBora]

As your daughter is 12 get some proper straighteners (ones that get very hot) and straighten the whole of her head, running the nit comb alongside the plates if you can. Take your time running the plates down the hair so the lice get baked for longer, and give her a good comb too, to pull them away from the scalp.

When you run the straighteners over them they will die, and I imagine it must kill the eggs too.

[Riverside2]

Wellthen "Removing as many adults and adolescents as possible will hugely slow them down"

I have a major issue with overpopulation but even I wouldn't go that far

Sorry OP, my friend got Lice like this from her kids. Is there an extra major outbreak?

[QueenDramaLlama]

She's caught them since I'm afraid, they can multiply quickly.
The combing didn't work for us but what did work was to shampoo, then again 9 days later, so any eggs that hatched in the meantime were killed by the second dose before they could reproduce.
Good luck.

[starlight36]

Straighteners sounds a good idea. We used nutty gritty and conditioner to get rid of an infestation but a combination of regular blow drying and nitty gritty defence spray seem to have kept us lice free since whilst they have done the rounds a few times.

[Pollaidh]

Nitty Gritty comb in good light first. Get every egg and live one you can see.
Then Hedrin Once.

Also comb everyone else in the house.

Then we wash all sheets, towels, pillowcases etc just in case.

Then you've got to check every day or two for a fortnight, combing out any left behind. You might find you've missed a few eggs, but the Hedrin will hopefully have stopped them hatching.

In the future nit comb once a week to check, and make sure long hair is tied back in a pony tail or plaits. Every single time DD wears her hair down she gets nits.

[paulweller73Murielswedding]

Could she dye her hair a similar colour to her natural shade? Works for me. My girls are too little but we are constantly battling bloody nits.

[SteamTrainsRealAleandOpenFires]

Why do so many kids in the UK have head lice?

Because we don't have Nit Nurses anymore.

[noeffingidea]

I used to use dettol. Wash hair, rinse then follow instructions on bottle for dandruff treatment (I think it's 50mls dettol to 200 mls warm water) and use as a final rinse, making sure it goes over all the hair. You can see them fall out. You still have to comb the eggs out though.

[SandunesAndRainclouds]

Nitty gritty comb
Tea tree oil in conditioner
Comb and keep combing until nothing on the comb
Rinse with vinegar
Repeat daily / every other day until clear

[Blackteadrinker77]

My eldest DD caught them what seemed like non bloody stop. I was at my wits end.

I went to the GP with her in the end. Whilst there an old woman sat talking to us and we got on to the reason I was there.
She told me to throw away any hairbrushes and use the old fashioned head lice comb as your daily hair brush. On dry hair morning and after school.
I thought she was mad as we have very thick hair, I thought it would never go through.

How ever I tried it and after that day my DD never had them again as the comb caught them as soon as one walked on to her hair.

My DD2 never had them ever as I brushed her hair before and after school with the comb.

[Lambside]

Lyclear left on overnight. Then the conditioner and combing with a nitty gritty comb. Wipe the lice and eggs off onto loo paper.
Repeat combing every couple of days.

[totalturmoil]

I feel itchy now.
If you live near them and have a bit of spare cash, try lice assassins. They get rid of them straight away and very thoroughly. It's a salon sort of place and they use heat treatment.

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

Hedrin once is brilliant.

[NotAnotherEmma]

Hmmm I just read they're blaming cell phones for lice...is there nothing we won't blame phone's for? 😅

When I was a kid we just blamed hairbrush sharing, because we didn't have fancy new fangled gadgets to blame...also because hairbrush sharing does spread lice.

[deaddeadgood]

I am so fucking itchy right now

[Madcats]

When people suggest "conditioner" and nitty gritty you need to make sure the whole family gets 'done" - 1/2 bottle each for 30 minutes (just find a movie to watch). I agree that clingfilm/bag will stop it dripping. The swines need to suffocate and not breed. Wipe the comb with tissue/kitchen towel after each comb.

This approach has saved us from a couple of playdates from hell (so that is a plus).

I used to get really annoyed with families that just shrugged. Definitely warn other parents. Our school emails.

Good luck OP (no need to bother a GP)

[PeppermintPasty]

I once took about 300 of the sticky little bastards off my 7 yo's head. I had to do it in stages over the course of one weekend. I divided her hair up and laid her head on a towel on my knee, got a high powered torch, and just looked and looked again. It was terrible, and i was amazed she tolerated it. Kept going over and over her head, did each section about 5 times each session. Nearly finished us off, but the only way with such a big infestation.
I feel your pain.

[Lovemusic33]

Keep combing. Dd had them really bad a couple christmas’s ago, I was mortified and felt so guilty that I hadn’t noticed (I was going through a nasty split with now ex), I found 100’s , got rid of the lice quite easily but the eggs were there for ages as she had such long hair, she refused to let me cut it.

[Crazy8]

I used headrin followed by conditioner and combing with a nitty gritty. I then used hair straighteners once my DDs hair was dry. I got rid of them in no time.

[Abracadabraapileofbollocks]

I use a nit comb every morning to style both of my daughters' hair and also for weekly deep conditioning. No nits, any that do find them are hopefully getting hauled out or badly damaged this way.
Every week i also clean the hairbrushes with a dettol solution.
When they had nits we used the right dose of the stuff each (how many doses stated on the bottle is generally divide by 3 i find). Get the hair thoroughly coated. Comb during and after all treatment. Wash it all off. Then, from dry, condition and comb every day or at least every other day for 12 days. I would also blow dry / straighten for the first few days aiming for as much damage to any tenacious ones and the eggs as possible.

[Abracadabraapileofbollocks]

And wecalways did the follow up treatment as per instructions to get any hatchings.

[sadie9]

The Hedrin does work. Bring it right to the edges and over the hairline. And you need to go back over the head and do the checks again for any that got missed. But it will work if you do it again on Day 4. And then check the hair all over and then check again in a couple of days to see if you can see any new eggs close to the scalp or find any live ones.

[Beahun]

m.youtube.com/watch?v=zY4Nvab6uLM

It's a tutorial I used after my DD came home from school with those bloody nits. Hate them with a passion. She had it 3 times now! I told her to stop hugging her friends. I never had it as a child so when my DD had it first I thought she just had dry scalp.
Hope you'll manage to concur it!

[Inthedeepdarkwinter]

www.chc.org/

I followed the method on here with the Bug Buster Kit (it's about £8), there's two combs, one thin you do first to get adults then one very fine for eggs, with conditioner, it tells you what days to do them on to break the lifecycle.

Lots of nits are now resistant to Hedrin and other treatments, I would not rely on them.