Head lice... help!

[LokiCokey]

After advice... my DD has head lice, have treated twice but so many people recommend combing over treatment. My issue is that wet combing doesn't seem to work on my DDs hair. I've tried several combs, including the much recommended Nitty Gritty and it just doesn't shift them off the hair. What am I doing wrong???

Nothing. I put tea tree oil in conditioner and combed out the conditioner (plus kids don’t complain as it’s less tangled) and this worked like a treat.

I've used lots of conditioner but not tea tree. Although I've used tea tree prevention spray and shampoo. Combs slide through the hair fine they just don't remove the nits...

How often are you doing it? Do you wipe the conditioner off the comb after every pass through and are there nits on the towel? If so, it’s removing the nits. Depending on the infestation, you have to do it thoroughly every 2-3 days for a few weeks to catch the full lifecycle of the lice.

Nits are the empty egg shells and lice are the insects. Are you getting lice out or nothing? Are you doing it in small enough sections?

When I first treat the hair I get dead lice out no problem but after that I can see eggs attached to the hair and as I comb over those sections they don't come off

Sorry doing it every other day, wiping the comb over each time

The nits are glued to the hair shaft. Can you use your nails to get them off?

@dementedpixie that's what I've resorted to but it's not easy and so many people swear by the nitty gritty comb for getting them off I thought I might be going mad!

If they are white they are empty and will just grow out with the hair if you cant get them all off

Just keep going, if you keep getting then licence then they will diminish eventually. It's an absolute nightmare and it can take ages.

The lotions don't work at all, the only good thing is the satisfaction of catching the lice on the comb and then squishing them dead.

The chemist told me to leave the conditioner in for 5-10 minutes because that destroys the stickiness so the eggs are easier to get off.

They don't like tea tree or peppermint so we use a peppermint shampoo.

Yes to the preventative spray.

I read on here that normal hairspray also helps because the lice can't get through it. I put DDs hair in dutch plaits too.

Sympathies OP it's a real ball ache.

You need to section the hair off. So put most of the hair up leaving only an inch strip at the nape of her neck, douse in a leave in nit mousse and comb. Once you've gone through that inch throughly, do the next inch. Continue until you've treated her whole head, then braid and wash out 24h later. Have a bowl of water next to you while you do this and give the comb a rise after every other pass.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Haveble-Kit-Power-3-Removes-Eggs-Lice-Treatments-Made/dp/B09NSSHLZW/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=3EML2BSWS1EJ7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.g2qgRP9FUb94_-U-xAPy8WryZOPJ6gEctxW1NDFhpywafXsLkgIgOUmp-gxzEmQo_TS0QpYJjfa1l4GCrgJPdOPOCrPXM7Iqjy4NyI0Z3guJoTiHYw3pLQi8fu9bsHtfJ37OuXqTZiI40KNRyrxHvKz6ofqCWWu8FZRlhPbiW4s5qrPC0BvivV8BdgZqTsKIEaoeZWfAXb67RrC0iBi1zQ.T47RFC2iStQHAs-UQj5tDw0dIvL50b8DeYgpbDowNKs&dib_tag=se&keywords=nit+comb&qid=1738357303&sprefix=nit+comb%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1

I've got this.

Straighteners kills the eggs. Do all the conditioner combing and wash then dry and straighten from the roots. Make sure you get right at the roots without burning child.

I tried everything & eventually neem oil proved to be Kryptonite for nits and lice. The US military use it I read. Plus lots of conditioner and combing.

These tips are all great and largely what I'm doing already... I'm just still confused... those of you who swear by combing are you just removing lice or eggs or both? As it's the eggs that don't seem to budge or are they the "nits" and empty so no big deal?

@CherryRipe1 interesting... had to google it! do you use it like a conditioner?

My DD has only had nits once so far (🤞) and I had to do a combo of combing and removal of eggs with fingernails. When we first realised she had them it was 9pm so had no way of getting a comb so I had to go through her whole head by head. That was a fun evening!

You have to keep going with the combing. The eggs will hatch and then you get them.

or use straighteners, definitely kills them!

This. Definitely straighteners so long as she’s old enough to sit still for you!

It was during the era of Ask Jeeves and "dial-up" internet! I cant find it now but it is insecticidal. This was the best I could find (scroll down to dermatological insects)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234637/
I just combed it in daughter's hair neat on a Friday & left it in over the weekend. (Perhaps it could be diluted with almond oil or olive)? Washed out Sunday evening. It reeks horribly & is very viscose. It took numerous shampoos to remove it. It is meant to destroy the nervous and reproductive system from memory. It bloody worked & daughter never got reinfected but now the internet is much more informative I would read up on any possible contraindications and harms neem could cause if you wish to try it as plants can be potent. Back then things were more hit & miss. I've just remembered it helped clear up a stubborn patch of eczema partner had & some plant pests.

Basically I just came to the dreadful realisation that I had to comb so often that eventually I would get all the lice out before they could lay anything. My daughter got so infested that it took weeks (I hadn't realised she'd got them until too late, never happened again).

Never managed to get any eggs out myself, lotions never worked... Just combing every other day... I had a newborn too... It's bloody miserable.

@CherryRipe1 ask Jeeves... that's a blast from the past!

Thanks for the various tips. I think I'll just accept the constant combing for the rest of her school days!

No they don't. The eggs sit too close to the scalp for straighteners to get to without burning the child!