Tea tree for headlice. Does it really work?

[ceolas]

Have just treated our first episode of head lice this morning. Thankfully only one out of the 3 affected. I used Full Marks mousse but have heard tea tree is a good preventative treatment.

Any experience of this?

i use tea tree on dd and since xmas, so far so good. she had loads of lice before then. when she has her hair washed, i use tea tree shampoo, then a spray leave in tea tree conditioner. then every morning i spray with a home made mixture of water with concentrated tea tree oil in it. sounds a bit ott but prevention is so much easier than cure.

Any recommendation on a leave in conditioner? Can you blow dray afterwards?

i find avon one is good as long as it a conditioner to leave in then any i think does the job

i use this

just spray on and leave to dry as normal, helps with the tangles too. i got it from a local chemist.

I think so, i have used tea tree shampoo and conditioner on dd since last nov when she started pre school and she has not had any head lice (touch wood) although it has been doing the rounds at pre school.

On a slightly different note, we were told by our vet to wash our dog with tea tree shampoo once a month as he had an allergy to fleas, he never had them again in over 8 years.

I'm having a problem with ants here . I wonder if tea tree oil would work on them.

I have used tea tree in the DSes shampoo for ages now and they ahven't had headlice. Mind you they do have very short hair

Me again...

Tea tree conditioner left on the hair then combed through with a nit combe works every time.
There is always out breaks at DCs school but as yet we have been nit free

wispers no we don't have dirty hair

Treated with Full Marks this morning but she's been scratching behind her ears again this afternoon. I'm assuming therefore that I didn't get them all

Assuming also that I can't use FM again so soon. Couldn't get a leave in conditioner this afternoon so going to wet comb with Asda's tea tree conditioner before bed.

SIL says I should keep her off school tomorrow. Do you think I should?

I think the best thing for headlice is wet combing and keep doing it every 3 days or so. When one of mine had them at 3, I'd slather on some cheap conditioner and sit her in front of a dvd while I combed it out.
I still wet comb with the cond about every two weeks ( they are rampant at her school ) and so far she's been nit free, so it seems to work for us
(nitty gritty comb is great btw for this!)

And what about staying off school? Necessary?

I put a few drops of teatree oil into any old conditioner and comb through with it

every day for a week if they.ve had critturs

every three days if they're around at school

or every week or two anyway, when I'm on the case and don't forget

actually its now been a couple of years!!! since they've had 'em, so it does seem to work

You do need loads of conditioner though, and I think the double-row -of-teeth nit combs are best

They do say stay off school

no, you can't stay off school, that's a bit draconian I think!
there will always be kids with headlice at any given time in most schools, not fair to make them stay off school I think

(no we don't stay off either)

i found the only way to get rid of them was dry or wet comb with a metal nit comb every day for at least 2 weeks.

Agree with the other wet-combers here. Do it every day till the lice have gone then make it part of the bathtime routine once a week until secondary school.

My DD started pre-school 4 days a week in September and we still haven't had any nits. I use Dr Johnson's Teatree and Neem oil shampoo (still on same bottle!) once a week on both my kids, comb Tresemme conditioner through with a nitcomb then rinse. They don't get their hairwashed more than that as nits like clean hair and I'm too lazy anyway! But they have fine straight hair anyway, curly hair is easier for nits and lice to stick to.
Tea tree oil tends to evaporate out from home-made potions quickly.

You don't need to keep them off school if you've treated and nitcombed - they won't have nits. Until tomorrow because someone else's mum won't have been so diligent, you have to comb daily during an epidemic.