To shave my head to get rid of lice?

[HairIsOverrated]

Tldr: I've probably got lice (though not 100% sure), I'm struggling to get rid of them and I want to stop wasting so much time and effort on this issue. I just want to cut/ shave my hair but I can't go to a hair dresser to get a proper short hair cut. If i just shave my head I'm worried about what other people think.

Ds brought lice home from school about a month ago. No problem. We used hedrin twice, wet combed a few times and that got rid of them. Unfortunately, he seems to have passed them on to me. I found one louse about a month ago in my hair and a few nits. My hair is slightly longer than ahoulder length but very, very thick. It's a nightmare to wet comb. It takes me over an hour and im pretty sure im missing large chunks of hair.

I have used hedrin shampoo 4 times now and once lyclear. I wet comb every few days but I still have nits and my head itches like crazy. After thst initial louse I never found another one but I am pretty sure that's because of my lousy wet combing technique. Im just not getting to all the roots. Dh thinks it's just dandruff or dry skin or thst my scalp is irritated from the constant treatment but I think I've still got lice. My head itches non stop. I have got a rash on my forehead and my neck and I csj still find nits on the nit comb (yup, it's a nitty gritty).

Anyway lice or not im just fed up of it. Im fed up of the wet combing, having to wash bedding and all my clothes all the time and I don't even properly hug my kids anymore because im so scared of passing the lice on to them. I just want to grt rid of this problem. Ideally i would like to just cut my hairvery short to.make wet combing easier but i can't even go to a hair dresser to get a proper short hair cut because I'm sure no hair dresser wants someone with a potential lice infection. So my only option is to use a long hair trimmer at home.

Dh shaves his head so why csnt I?

I dont care what i look like but I do care about what other people might think. If I shave my head everyone will either think (correctly) that i have got lice or that i am undergoing chemo. And they will ask questions. And I dont want to tell people I've got lice. Especially not on the school run. ds' son's school still has a lice problem so people will provably think it's because of us. But it's not. Ds doesn't have any lice and we have since cut his hair really short so it isnt hard to check.

I've got so many other things going on at the moment I dont want to waste time and energy on this nonsense.

Yabu: just put in the hours to wet comb your hair and get rid of the lice the traditional way.
Or live with them. Or act as if i I don't have lice till I actually see a live one and hope the itching will eventually go away. Having to face people's questions and telling everyone at the kids' school that this is a lousy family isn't worth it.

Yanbu: just cut the damp thing off. Life is too short to spend so much time on doing completely stupid things when there is a quick and effective solution.

I feel your pain. I also can’t wet comb my own hair thoroughly enough and worked out i was the weak point as I kept reinfecting my son who I can effectively wet comb.

my advise would be to stick to it. Treat yourself and son with the shampoo at the same time. Keep combing your son. Give up combing yourself. Treat with shampoo 7 days later. And a further 7 days.

if in 2 weeks you feel the same go for it. Maybe a cute pixie cut instead of the full shave.

it’s hair it grows back!

That's a bit drastic but yes they are vile. Somebody child passed them on to me and my exH (my DS has grown up) we both have thick waist length hair, his is very curly so you can imagine how horrendous that was.
We got rid of them in one day.
Big sheet on the floor, one put the product on the others hair and then combed it all out.
The lice didn't come back.
We went to bed with the product in and wore scarves wrapped round our heads.
The hedrin stunk the bedroom out though.

Shave it off! It’s only really short for a few weeks and then it’ll just look like a pixie cut. Think how freeing it will be.

I don’t blame you but why don’t you go halfway and try for a short layered bob/messy pixie cut and then it’ll be tons easier to sort. Daily suffocation with thick cheap conditioner (B&M or Home Bargains) and wrap in cling film and invest in the nit comb until you blitz the bastards. I feel your pain though - I travelled around India and Thailand in the 90’s and had vicious lice - I shaved my head too but I could get away with it when travelling.

Maybe avoid the drastic grade 1 if you can - your self esteem may be able to take it but kids can be cruel and your DC may cop it in school.

Thanks. The problem is I can't get a pixie cut because I can't go to a hair dresser for as long as i suspect I have got lice. So it has to be a cut I can do at home. I'm pretty sure I won't manage to actually cut my own hair and I dont even want to invest a lot of time and effort to learn how to do that. I could just use dh's long hair trimmer. It would be neat but very, very short. Too short for people to not ask questions or to think that this is just a fashion choice.

Also ds' hair is easy to do but dd like me has long and thick hair. Thankfully she didn't get lice (even though we used hedrin as well just to be sure) but I feel like im a ticking time bomb. It's just a matter of time till she will get them from me. And she definitely isnt open to cutting her hair very short.

And yes, your DH may be right. Between the constant treatments and the sheer thought of head lice, it’s no wonder your itching!!

Honestly, take the opportunity for a brand new short style, embrace the new you and blitz the fuckers with scalp friendly conditioner.

Get your Dh to comb your hair lots of conditioner every other night and you should get rid,or get him to clipper it, then they are easy to deal with.

Any neighbours that can help cut it? Any relatives studying hair and beauty? Mobile hairdressers?

They're pretty hard cuts to do on your own though and you can't go to a hairdresser.

OP if you haven't found anymore then maybe you don't have them how. Once the thoughts in your head the mind can do funny things. Can you get someone to have a good look?

Try nit wits. It's non comb method. Worked for us. I cant use comb on me or dd as our hair falls out

Cut it yourself much shorter, don't go nuts and shave it yet. Just order some hairdressing scissors and look up on youtube "easy home Bob haircut" or you could go for a "shaggy wolf cut" it's flattering and means you don't need it all same length... think winona ryder.. you can do it! Put the shaver down!

You need DH to pour heaps of conditioner and tea tree oil mixed in, and comb each section of your hair out with your nitty gritty. I would recommend a rat tail comb so you can part it into sections and unfortunately it'll take ages but you could possibly split it over two days on the weekend - French braid or tightly braid it in-between
You could even do the front bits while he does the back
I recommend watching the new Alien TV show together while he does it, it's really good lol

Thanks everyone. I wish I could edit my op to make it clearer/ remind people that I can't go to a hair dresser while I've got lice.

Ideally, I could shave my head before the Xmas holidays. Then I'd have about 2 weeks for my hair to grow out a bit before going back to work and school. And I could tell people that I just wanted a drastic change for the new year.

Unfortunately, I dont want to wait for so long. Also, my elderly mum is planning to visit next month and stay with us for a few weeks and I definitely dont want to pass the lice on to her.

Thanks everyone. I wish I could edit my op to make it clearer/ remind people that I can't go to a hair dresser while I've got lice.

Ideally, I could shave my head before the Xmas holidays. Then I'd have about 2 weeks for my hair to grow out a bit before going back to work and school. And I could tell people that I just wanted a drastic change for the new year.

Unfortunately, I dont want to wait for so long. Also, my elderly mum is planning to visit next month and stay with us for a few weeks and I definitely dont want to pass the lice on to her.

You’ve posted about this before and everyone told you to use headlice treatment instead of shampoo. Get hedrin once, put it onn for the max amount of suggested time and repeated at the treatment a week later.

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/head-lice/

Go for it. It's hat season too, perfect.

I think being colder is a benefit. Wear a lot of winter hats when out and about. I love a winter beanie. Dont mention your hair to people when on the school run.
I wouldn't mention nits anyway. Just say you wanted a big change .
I would love to shave mine of. I want to first see if I suit it and then just get back to my natural hair colour .
Only other suggestion is if you have one of those fab nit hair places near you. They get rid of all nits/eggs .

Could you send me a link to which treatment you mean? I tried lyclear, which isnt a shampoo but I can't find any hedrin product that is fundamentally different to the shampoo.

Donate a tenner to cancer research and tell people you did it for charity/raising awareness.

Why are you using hedrin shampoo though? You need the actual treatment, hedrin shampoo is just a deterrent, it doesn't actually kill them.

I have long (beyond my shoulders) thick hair and really think that the wet combing isn't that bad. First, do you have a nitty gritty? Second, are you using lots of conditioner? Third, are you sectioning the hair and being systematic? Wash your hair. Smother in thick conditioner, comb that through with a normal brush, then a wide tooth comb to get the knots out. Then go in sections with the nitty gritty which is the only one with wide enough teeth for thick hair. Rinse the comb between strokes. It will scrape the nits odd the hair and break the legs of any lice. If you do that twice a week you break the cycle and also catch any new ones introduced. It will take less than 10 mins.

It could actually be that your ds just keeps bringing more home because they are rife in someone untreated in his class.

Nitwits works for us first time.

This one. It’s important it covers all of your hair. You will need to apply very small section at time, the same method as applying hair dye. As you have thick hair you will need a big bottle. You need to make sure every bit of hair is covered. I think you need to wait 15 mins and then you will need a large bottle of shampoo neat rubbed in before you use water to since it off. The next time you wash your hair you will need to rub neat shampoo into dry hair and rinse.

www.boots.com/hedrin-liquid-gel-250ml-10091639?traffic=paid.shopping&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19973634862&gbraid=0AAAAA-AdmwR5C1XozzN3eX55_1rCPIsAu&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2dL5xsbnkAMVPpZQBh3H4yrXEAQYASABEgIWJvD_BwE

there are specialist hairdressers will treat you.
might be expensive though as combing long hair takes some time.

It says that it kills lice and removes eggs on the packaging. The lyclear one is supposed to kill both eggs and lice.

This is the one I used:

https://amzn.eu/d/9sbM3oE

teen DS had nits before the summer - we tried lots of over the counter and they kept coming back and he has long thick hair. We eventually went to the pharmacist who gave us some super strength stuff (also used for scabies) and did a couple of treatments of that which seemed to work.
I always combed my hair after doing his and once or twice found a louse which I think had jumped on to me during combing as I never found any at other times. I was constantly itching and combing my hair 3 times a day but never found any others so think it was in my head.

As someone with afro hair who can't use a nit comb, Nitwits is the best solution for my hair I've found.