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.

Get yourself a set of electric clippers from Amazon or Boots and give your head a no.2 cut using the appropriate guard. Your DH should be able to do bits you can't see.

Of course you can go to a hairdresser. You just tell them when you're making the appointment that you think you might have headlice. They'll wear gloves and be able to make sure all equipment is disinfected after they've used it on you. A professional hairdresser can also assess the health of your scalp and help determine if you do have active lice, or if the itching is a result of irritation.

Lots of people got into cutting their own hair during Covid and no one (as far as I know!) assumed they had lice. Obviously with a dramatic style change people will notice and comment but all you have to say is that you fancied a new look.

Be aware that it's very addictive!

3 heads of long thick hair in our house. The only thing that works (and works in a single go) is HEDRIN ONCE. This is the thing that can really do the job if used exactly as instructed. I barely even comb after treatment as it’s too much to do 3 heads. Takes up hours. So we do the Hedrin Once treatment, leave for 20 mins and wash. Wash all bedding, hoodies, towels. Repeat next weekend. All done.

Alberto Balsam tea tree oil shampoo and conditioner works wonders. My mum used to use it on us as kids and it would stop us ever getting them!

I would think carefully before doing this.

First I would carefully check whether you genuinely do have lice. A decent chance you’ve just really irritated your scalp causing itching and you’re combing out scalp flakes. Frankly we use nitty gritty combs for dandruff removal so they don’t just remove bits.

If budget allows I would try and go see a hair lice specialist. They can tell you the situation and remove using special devices if you do. Just google ones near you.

If you did have lice then I would treat everyone else in the house with the OTC treatments, wash all the bedding same day, to avoid anyone reinfecting you.

Only it above fails would I consider a drastic haircut.

I’m not recommending Hedrin - it’s not worked for us. I’m recommending Hedrin ONCE which is not always available everywhere. You have to hunt it down. When I find it I buy 3 large and stock up.

When we had this issue my hairdresser said I should have gone to her. So long as she was warned it would have been fine she would have dealt with it.

Has your hairdresser specifically said no?

This, absolutely.
You need to know for certain whether you actually have lice.
I used to catch them from one of my kids and regular wet combing (with a proper nit comb) does work... do it over a white basin or a white towel so you can see if you have "caught" anything.

Use a hair straightener, the heat will kill the eggs.

I will probably get flamed to hell and back for even mentioning this, but we've used puppy flea shampoo a couple of times to kill the buggers stone dead. Cat/kitten flea shampoo is even milder, but we just used what we had in the house.

Just cut you’re own hair in a crappy short style, treat the problem and then go to hairdresser to get the hair neatened up!

Thanks everyone. Lots of good advice here. I guess the first thing is to ask my usually hair dresser if they could cut my hair even if I've got lice and if they could check if I do. It's kind of embarrassing but I guess that's the best.

If that isn't an option I'll try the hedrin liquid or hedrin once that pp linked. I should probably also ask in a pharmacy if they could give me something stronger.

I haven't found any specialist lice removal services anywhere near our house.

I quite like the idea of chopping off my hair really short. I just never go for really short hair cuts because they seem to require more styling and regular cutting / trimming for which I dont have time.

If I do cut my hair really short wearing covering it with a hat is a good idea but I can't do that indoors and dc have got lots of birthday parties and socials coming up.

In terms of what people think: say you’ve done it to raise money for charity. Even set up a gofundme page and raise a few quid for your fave charity for real.

Good luck I reckon shave it and go from there

Shave your head, wear a hat for a few weeks (it’s winter, no one will comment), then go and get the lice-free regrowth tidied into a pixie before Xmas. Job done!

I don't think i could get close enough to the root to kill the eggs with a hair straightener.

Have you googled nit treaters near you? I think there’s somewhere near me that will come and treat your head for nits - like in motherland. Or possibly you go to them. But then you’d know it was done properly. Or could your husband not do it properly for you?

Shaving your head sounds so freeing though!! And it’s hat season.

You’ll almost certainly find a hair dresser who’ll cut it for you. Either a salon based one or one that comes to you.

If you want to go wild, do it. But do it for tye right reason.

When you’re using treatments, are you using enough? With that much hair you’ll need a lot more than a child does.

That's a really good idea but I kind of don't want to say I have done it for charity when im not doing it for charity and I wouldnt want to ask people to donate just because I've cut my hair even if it was for charity

Haha I also don't want to use flea treatment but thanks for sharing and glad it worked for someone

I also have thick hair. Hedrin didn’t clear it for me, also I was relying on DH combing the back which he wasn’t good at.
in frustration I covered my hair in coconut oil, put a shower cap on for an hour, combed it all out, and they never came back. It was tricky to wash out but was so slippery I don’t think anything could hold on.

I'm working on something right now and just clicked for a short change of focus so cannot RTFT and apologise if this has been said but there are lice clinics (I think mostly london but have a look) who have a kind of hoover to hoover them out. I think they are called the Hairforce because i thought what a good name.

You could try the hoovering but they might also be able to give you a basically decent shorter cut to fix the issue with easier combing, then you can get it tidied thereafter. I'd try that first.

Are you sure you actually have them? You said it’s been a month since your DS bought them home, if the treatments weren’t working you’d be crawling with them but now. If you keep treating and combing to the point you have then yes, you’re going to get an irritated scalp. The rash on your forehead and scalp are probably an indication of this. It sounds like you’ve become a bit fixated on it.

I would get a treatment for a dry scalp from the pharmacist and see if that relieves your itching. And get your DH to check you for nits? It’s far easier for someone else to check you.

As someone who was plagued with lice as a (neglected) child, I think you’d know by now if you definitely have them? I used to itch my head and they’d fall out, or be under my fingernails. Surely you’d see the lice and not just nits in the comb? Can your DH not help you comb?

Don’t do it. It won’t stop the lice from coming back, even if it does make it easier to treat.

Nitnot is amazing. One treatment and all the fuckers were blitzed.