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.

Nits stick to the hair. Check the hair you naturally shed. There will be either empty white or full brown egg cases. They are stuck to the hair when you run your nails along it.

If you have live lice for a while, they will be big almost like ants or mosquitoes. They aren’t hard to see on a comb.

Key tip- saturate your hair with cheap conditioner. Comb with nitty gritti over white paper or a white sink. Rinse your comb in a bowl of water between passes.

You will see a live louse float in the water, eggs glued to your hair, egg cases glued to your hair. If you have lice!

I also itched mercilessly after DC had lice. I kept the comb in the shower and combed every time I washed my hair for a few weeks until I could believe I was clear.

And take an antihistamine for your skin.

From what you've said the only solution which is going to work for you is cutting your hair very short.

I have short hair and I cut my hair with clippers during lockdown because it was the only option - there was no hairdresser to cut it! My hair definitely didn't looked shaved, just short, the clippers let you do various grades

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B013GH0AE4?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2&th=1

Apologies, read pages 1 and 6 only so on the off chance it hasn't been mentioned: there are "nit vacuuming" services who will come to you and basically comb your hair for them strand by strand. Otherwise I'd echo others and chop your hair short at home, but not a full shave.

@HairIsOverrated so you aren’t finding live nits/lice - you are only finding what you think are eggs.

the eggs could be dead/left overs from when you did have them (if you had them at all). They stick to the hair shaft like they are super glued on.

It could be you actually have given yourself a scalp sensitivity with aggressive combing and treatments and it’s scalp you are now finding.

the ‘feeling’ etc is often psychosomatic. Have you seen the size of a live nit? They are so small and light you can’t really feel them running down your scalp like oil…

I do feel that it’s worth asking a trusted friend or hairdresser if they can just check before you go drastic with the shears.

Everyone has their own method. Posting following a lice occurrence in DS's class approx 2 months ago.

Our default approach is now Full Marks headlice treatment applied x 3 with a four day gap in between each application. Apparently it dehydrates the lice and causes them (and the eggs) to die, but I find you need to repeat a couple of times to get all the bastards.

You have to do everyone in the family on the same day so there are no lurkers to re-infect you all. And then follow up with Vosene lice repellant shampoo for a couple of months afterwards - we just use it as our default shampoo for the kids now. I use a nicer tea tree shampoo for me which apparently also has a deterrent effect.

Shaving your head is of course one solution but perhaps a bit...drastic...unless you fancied doing it anyway?

Going over your hair with straighteners is also recommended, though I haven't tried it myself.

I feel you! Shave and put a hat on for school if anyone asks laugh and say bad hair day! Which it is!

I don’t know where you are based but I know that there are nit clinics in and around London that will treat them for you. They could do your whole family at the same time but that is of course having to throw some money at the problem.

Also there is a treatment you can leave on overnight which works best on my daughters long thick hair. We still comb it through then do the conditioner and comb trick the next day.

I found a normal nit comb to be better for thick hair than the nitty gritty comb, the nitty gritty comb couldn’t get to the scalp in as it got stuck.
Try putting loads of conditioner on your damp hair, separate it out, then comb it slowly with a normal nit comb. What you could be finding are the dead eggs rather than actual nits, you can irritate your scalp with the treatments and over combing, oils or head and shoulders might be worth a try to see if that calms the itching.

As an experienced former louse hunter I would suggest you use the Hedrin and nitty gritty come with overnight soaking. Wash out with the most horrific cheap shampoo you can get, then that evening, soak your hair in vinegar, wrap in a towel and leave for 30 minutes. Hair needs to be sodden to the roots!

The vinegar dissolves the glue the lace generate to attach the eggs to the hair. Wash out the vinegar. Repeat the Hedrin 7 days after first treatment, but you shouldn't find anything.

I've very recently convinced myself I had nits and then accepted I don't under pretty much exactly the same circumstances. I'd found one live louse in my hair whilst treating my son who had them quite badly and then spent weeks combing my hair every time I washed my hair, thought I was finding eggs but had to accept that after a few weeks of no fully sized fellas I didn't have them and I'd just gone a bit mental.

Order some Derbac online its brilliant. The comb comb comb and re treat after 7 days - it kills everything!

Dd had nits when she was younger and we couldn’t get rid of the bloody things! She’s got long and ridiculous thick hair. In the end I took to going through meticulously with hair straighteners. I think it only took a couple of sessions and they were gone.

Have you been to the gp or nurse and asked them to double check that it really is nits?

We’ve just gone through something really similar with my adult son but with scabies. It’s been over 7 months and he’s convinced he’s still got it to the point of obsession. No one else in the family has ever shown any symptoms but we all were treated originally.

He’s treated it himself several times and I think that is part of the problem - over treating.

Doctor has told him several times he doesn’t have it now but are sending him to dermatology as he is beside himself with itching.

incidentally Derbac M which we used for scabies is also for nits.

I wouldn’t be shaving my head for this unless a healthcare professional confirms it!

My DD has very long, thick, curly hair that’s beautiful but a nightmare for lice. In the end we had professional lice removal, they used a vacuum and they have a 100% guarantee. @HairIsOverrated might be less drastic than a head shave?

My daughter also has very think, wavy/curly hair. It was quite difficult and expensive to get rid of lice when they were doing their rounds in primary school. Eventually I saturated her hair with neat vodka and left it in for 10 mins, which seemed to do the trick. Sounds bonkers but it worked due to the alcohol. The lice died and after washing it out, I applied a huge amount of conditioner to make combing through easier. It can be drying on the hair so I wouldn't recommend doing it too often. Hope you manage to get rid of yours

Go to your GP and say you have a possible scalp infection. If you say you suspect nits they'll just tell you to use nit shampoo but if they suspect something else, they'll see you. They will then very quickly confirm whether it is nits.

As a former chemo patient it's no big deal to shave your hair.
After my treatment when the hair re-grew it came out like fluff. I bought some clippers and put on a high setting and lopped it off again. It grows really fast so you'd only be bald for a few weeks.

It is drastic though. If you could get a hairdresser to agree to cut it short that would be best.

The oy thing I found that worked was using hedrin literally dousing your head in n then combing it through with a nitty gritty comb n do using more hedrin. I had to use it three times rather than the twice with a weeks gap. The hedrin is oily so should allow you to comb it through a bit more easily

https://www.boots.com/vamousse-head-lice-treatment-mousse-160ml-10185182?srsltid=AfmBOopDB4h6aJFECwPTjpI7gMSKTunEFCcXSJyk5JPRrTfPOC7goaCU

This works a treat 👌

If there’s one near you you could get professional removal. https://hairforceclinics.com/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23196045054&gbraid=0AAAAA-aWK__YMth-vgXq3DzZPpK5lcG3T&gclid=CjwKCAiAt8bIBhBpEiwAzH1w6TkkXO_QxAbsA3bCAW8NSBHxeD581qf1PBhBkE4oSgzb3vQvGwPRwhoC-SIQAvD_BwE

Not sure where you are located but there are nit clinics you can visit . Cutting all your hair off seems very drastic .

I really feel for you. I have very thick hair too and a young teen I got lice that just wouldnt go. I ended up getting an undercut shaved in so I had much less hair to treat but it didn't look obviously different. I was full of shame but a home hairdresser was kind and helped so I didnt have to go to a salon. My boys have only had them once so far but I live in fear of getting them again now!

Could you try straightening your hair with hair straightener. So you can comb thought it properly and the heat might kill a few to .

It’s possible I did it wrong but when I caught some from my niece I just absolutely drowned my hair in some very strong product from the pharmacy (sorry do not remember which) and left it overnight several times a few days apart.
I have fine and extremely curly oriental hair, combs would not work at all for me.
I think it’s possible you have irritated your scalp from all those attempts (and the fear - I sympathise, they are horrible little things!). Can you check with your local Boots or similar ? They are very used to these requests