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 had nits a few years ago from my DD and even after I treated and combed several times and couldn’t see them anymore, my scalp and neck continued to itch severely. I was convinced I still had them but it turned out to be a combination of a reaction to the HRT I’d recently started on, scalp dryness due to a build up of all the treatments and conditioner I slathered on my head, and probably a bit of psychosomatic ‘phantom’ itching. Reducing my HRT and doing a couple of apple cider vinegar rinses on my hair sorted it. Might be worth considering whether the cause is something else? Scalp itchiness is also a perimenopause symptom.

I shave my head in a number 5 all over. Not because of nits, more due to the fact I hate handing over money to the hair dresser. I quite like having it short.

Some klippers have longer settings than others.

Dh has remmington clippers that have different guards, he bought them during covid,

The anxiety of having headlice is horrendous but I do think you need to try and relax and not get so worked up, have you checked your Dds hair ?

Nitnot or Hendrin once - left in overnight are reapted up when it says and if long thick hair may need more than one family bottle.

Do everyone at same time in house whether you see nits or not and wash pillows at same time.

If you have kids in school likely you are having constant reinfection - you can try stay away sprays but they are limited.

Pretty much everyone I know who complained about constant infection with nits wasn't treating everyone in household at same time and weren't doing the second or if bad thrid doses of treatment or were very unlucky at near constant re-infection though a riddle untreated child usullay though school.

If you want to cut your hair just do it - you may have to do it yourself or you may find someone local who will despite nits - but I know a few women in worked in primary schools who ended up with short styles as it was easier.

Itchying could be something else though - DS scalp was awful with large flakes and spent a small fortune on medicated sampoos to get under control whihc usually stopped working when he got stressed like in exam periods.

Hi
this happened to my daughter, the lice were actually gone but the constant itching thinking about it actually made her hair drop out and she gave herself a really dry scalp which in turn made her itchy.
Got medicated Tgel shampoo to treat the scalp plus one a week with the lice stuff for a month to be really sure
and a couple of weeks later she was fine.
also had a mobile hairdresser come out one I explained the situation and cut her hair shorter to make all that easier

If you can't see any lice then you don't have lice. They are definitely visible to the eye and you would see them crawling around.
They tend to be found behind the ears and at the back of the neck, they need the body heat to survive.
You may be getting nit (eggs) out or you may be getting skin flakes from your very irritated scalp (not surprising given all the treatments you've used that your scalp would be irritated and itchy, plus the mere thought of them makes me itch)

Please don't be embarrassed, little children are walking plague factories, and quite frankly, it could be worse, you could have scabies!

Go to the pharmacy and see if they will check for you, I always offer to check, I don't mind head lice, as above, if I thought it was scabies I'd hide out the back! (Only slightly joking 🙈)

The normal hedrin that you leave on overnight is the one to go for, the shampoos are not effective as they don't have long enough contact time. Plus the repellents etc have no evidence so a waste of money. As is treating "just in case" as if they don't have them it won't stop them from getting them.

Two treatments 2 weeks with the hedrin you leave on overnight is recommended, to kill the lice and then to get whichever hadn't hatched before can start to breed again.

Now my head is scratching too lol

Ps you don't need to wash everything in the same way as you would if you had threadworms, lice can't live very long away from the host, no sharing hats or hairbrushes though is a good Idea. Plus they also can't jump.

Get this amzn.eu/d/aB3vFCp
it works like a charm and should be enough for at least a couple of treatments. Comb through whilst on or ask DH or a friend to comb for you then repeat a week or so later and they will be gone. The shampoo is the least effective treatment.

Use lots of conditioner to wet comb through. Get a mobile hairdresser and warn you might have lice and offer to pay extra.

I've seen vinegar suggested as way to losen glue of nit cases - though we found nitty gritty comb even with thick curly hair was enough.

Though DS has huge flackes on his scalp - started off with medicated shampoos - cola tar shampoos and Tgel - then usually ended up having to use selsun shampoo to sort him.

Can you actually leave nit treatment on overnight? Many here seem to be suggesting it.

Before doing the chop I would try an antihistamine and a scalp mask just in case you are actually having a reaction to the nit treatments and that is what is making you itchy. I would also post a photo of the nit comb so others can confirm for sure if it’s eggs or dandruff.

I would definitely ask your hairdresser if they can help before shaving your head. A slight longer cut will invite fewer questions compared to a full shave

Just shave it. Not right down to the scalp but maybe a couple of inches long? Say you're trying out a new look.

First off, I believe do whatever you wish with your own hair - I’m sure you can pull off whatever you want 🥰🥰

However, a less drastic approach which tbh I cant guarantee it will work for you, and may be against what you want to do, is to use a hair dye with ammonia

Worked a treat for me when my son got nits (we shaved him and DH) but I had cleavage length hair I was too vain to consider shaving 😂😂

I used vinegar on my children in the early 00s it didn't really do much tbh, I had girls with long thick hair and it was a.bloody nightmare but persistent combing really makes a difference.

NitNot was the ONLY product that removed lice and eggs from my daughters hair after trying three other products on numerous occasions.

Depends what you are using - old style chemicals insecticides had in my childhood then not a good idea but most treatments these days are silicone-based polymers that smother and if you read instructions it will suggest overnight or longer time frames as an option.

Why is your husband not helping you comb through the bits you're missing!!

I couldn't shave my head, but it's your body and your choice

What model of clippers does your DH have? You can buy sets of guards on Amazon, and although these aren't as cheap as some of the others, they do go up to 2.5" long, which is a lot less drastic a cut than the more basic ones
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yinke-Clipper-Guards-Cutting-Clippers/dp/B09QHW72BT/

I asked this, i don't understand why he isn't helping.

Normal conditioner works really well. It stuns them and then you just comb them out. Feels better than using insecticide shampoos. . I know from when my kids were at school back in the day. Wash with normal conditioner and use nit comb. Gets rid of them over a few days.

What makes you think you still have them if you have only ever found 1? If this has been going on for weeks you would be crawling in them and would be able to see them.
I would get someone to check you hair thoroughly. I'd be willing to bet you've irritated your head with so much treatment - the rash screams that.

Normal conditioner works really well. It stuns them and then you just comb them out. Feels better than using insecticide shampoos. . I know from when my kids were at school back in the day. Wash with normal conditioner and use nit comb. Gets rid of them over a few days.

I haven’t had to try it yet but my dds teacher said to us at the start of year meeting if your child gets nite to slather the head with Vaseline- yes it looks awful but it must either stop the spread or kill them?! Maybe someone else can confirm or deny this?

Try two things - dyeing your hair your colour, obviously yourself (use the dye with Ammonium), and/or use Hedrin Kills Spray (previously called Hedrin Once), once or twice a week for several weeks. Possibly combined with Hedrin Prevent. I had headlice from dear twins’ school and they returned a few weeks after the initial treatment, so I dyed my hair twice, and am doing Hedrin Kills Spray weekly on me and on the twins plus Hedrin Prevent thereafter, I’ll be repeating Hedrin for some time. I read about Hedrin Kills Spray (aka Hedrin Once) on here actually! Rinse it off v thoroughly as hair tends to stay oily after it.

Don't worry about washing bedsheets / pillows. They don't survive on bedding...