Why do all head lice treatments make kids’ hair so greasy (and smell awful)?

[Loli1991]

Just having a little rant because I’m at my wits’ end 😅

Every time my kids get head lice, I dread the treatments more than the lice. They always leave the hair so greasy like I’ve poured chip oil on it and it takes two or three washes before it looks normal again.

Even the so-called “natural” ones are a pain. The tea tree smell is so strong it makes my eyes water, and I swear it irritates my child’s scalp more than it helps.

Conditioner and combing is gentler, but it’s such a long, miserable process. I just wish there was something that actually worked but didn’t leave the hair coated or the bathroom smelling like a herbal sauna.

Has anyone ever found a treatment that’s easy to rinse out and kind to sensitive scalps? Or are we all just doomed to greasy, stinky hair every time? 🙈

My children are adults now, but I used to use Quassia bark chips. Soaked in warm water, then strained the liquid into a bottle and sprayed onto hair and combed through.
It used to work well as a preventative spray too. No chemicals or awful smell.

T-Gel shampoo might work. It's for dandruff, but it might be gentle enough to work but strong enough to foam. Poor little soul having a sensitive scalp too 🩷. Perhaps combing is the only answer. The nitty gritty combs are par excellence! I was probably a bit regimental about it, but I felt the rage when my toddler caught them from my older child!

You've got this, it will pass.

I only needed to wash it once after it was washed out, shampoo lathered up really well. I washed twice for good measure.
not sure if it's because you wet it with lotion on and rub in then rinse before shampoo, guessing so.
Our hairs felt lovely after it 😅

Use olive oil instead of conditioner - still the problem with being greasy, but dry shampoo then rinsing and second shampoo gets rid of the greasy feel.

The solutions leave the hair greasy because they suffocate the lice. The chemicals that we used to use don’t work any more- the lice became resistant to them. My daughter had them BAD last year, weeks of daily combing with conditioner and nitty gritty comb still didn’t totally shift them. In the end I used nit not, plus a nitty gritty comb. To get the grease out afterwards I washed with fairy liquid!! Her hair looked amazing afterwards too 😄.

Have you tried the Simple conditioner? DS reacts to anything with perfume and gets horrible eczema but he can tolerate this.

Smell kills, oil makes them easier to slide off. Not much else you can do!