Ughh! You've got my sympathy right now. I always had long hair as a kid and got them all the time. I suppose it prepared me for a job where I had to deal with that bed bugs on a semi-regular basis, but still no fun at all.
If you haven't tried it and are still at that point, get one of the battery powered combs at the drug store. It zaps any bugs and nits that are still alive after the first step so you don't have to do it again.
Oh that super sucks! I too ended up with them every time someone at school showed up with them. I hope you and your home are free of those little bastards asap.
Also, pointers: Bedding/pillows - wash it and bag it in trash bags for 2 weeks. Same goes for any hat worn by someone in your household during the outbreak. Absolutely comb through with the nit comb If the RidX (or whatever you're using) fails, look into using a different brand/formula.
Good luck and stay in Jersey, far away from my hair.
@JerseyFrank and the closer together the teeth are with the nit comb the better. Also do it with a wet head. That slows down the lice so you will be more able to catch them. My cousin (PhD in entomology) invented a lice comb that actually works well and used that technique to get rid of lice on her kids (very curly thick hair so not as easy to comb - she'd first comb with wider apart teeth and work her way down to the narrow ones - they are narrower than flea combs). You have to comb that way for a week every day, then every other day going back to daily if you find a lice (back to every other day once you have a day with no lice), and then every three days, going back to daily if you find a lice, etc. Took her about 3-4 weeks to completely get rid of them in her kids but she didn't want to put all the pesticide on her kids' heads due to the fact that it is also absorbed into the skin and no one has studied the long term effects of this. Pesticides are a contributing cause to a number of nasties like Parkinson's, Non-hodgkin's lymphoma… Unfortunately the company she sold her comb patent to went out of business. But the key is a lice comb with the teeth way further together than flea combs and the wet hair. It takes about 1/2 hour or so to do one head (doing it in front of the TV helps) as you have to do it in tiny sections. I realize this is a pain, but I can also attest (unfortunately first hand in this household) that it works.
@Kidsandliz My mom started using oil in my hair instead of shampoo because of the chemicals. Just comb it through really well so every strand is coated and then cover with a shower cap for about an hour to suffocate them. Using that with the electric comb seemed to do the trick on the first treatment. Unfortunately, there's no way to shortcut all the washing, boiling, and bagging everything up
@Kleineleh There was a formulation a long time ago called Not Nice 2 Lice or something like that - it was an oil treatment that handled it when all of the chemical shampoos failed. You put the oil in your hair every night for 2 weeks, slept with a shower cap on, and combed. That handled a problem that had been rotating for months.
@Kleineleh nice. Everything in moderation. We'll go with whatever the doctors recommend. Hopefully my years of figurative nitpicking has given me an edge here.
The primary host has long hair. She sleeps with 100 or so stuffed animals on the upper portion of a bunk bed. I've filled 1/4 of a 2-car garage with plastic bags of stuff that need to be washed and/or quarantined.
So far my son is in the clear, but we just got these photos done yesterday, so he's certainly going to be infested soon...
I went through this during the summer with my 2 girls and am still paranoid anytime I have a slight itch on my head. I feel your pain. Good luck with getting rid of them quickly.
We had them once....bad mojo! We bagged everything, shaved the boys heads and my wife sat and went through their hair strand by strand for about 10 days, pulling any that hat nits or lice on them. They also use Paul Mitchell shampoo and conditioner...seems to work well to keep them away. My wife did feel like this:
My niece was plagued with them during an exceptionally bad outbreak at her school a couple years ago. It got so bad they closed down the school for 48 hours. My sister took her to a lice clinic where they checked her hair out, confirmed she had the bastards, and applied the first treatment. During that visit the workers told her that it is extremely rare for a grown man to contract lice. In their experience (at this clinic) they had only seen 1 man come in that was infected. They attributed it to higher testosterone levels.... I think it has to due with shorter hair. But regardless, have a guy head up the quarantine and clean-up efforts if you are concerned about getting them too.
Ugh, that sucks. My daughter brought them home from school on Christmas Eve a few years ago. That was a nice treat. Putting out cookies for Santa while nit-picking.
We got them twice the last couple years. The first time, no matter what we did, and what we washed, and how many times we treated my daughters hair, they were impossible to get rid of. They were still crawling around after the lice treatment. After a month, I got tired of trying to clean everything all the time, and getting nowhere, so we ended up cleaning nothing, and just brushing her conditioner saturated hair with a nit comb every day for 2 weeks. Then they were gone for over a year. When I saw them in her hair I dreaded the trouble we'd have. This time, we did one treatment and cleaned nothing but her pillowcase and brush, and they were gone.
Wear hair product. Always. They are less likely to get in hair that has hairspray or gel in it because of the texture. They're also less likely to get in oily hair, but that isn't as much of a solution. For those who are worried about the volume of chemicals in the lice shampoo, try puppy flea shampoo. It's not actually approved for human use but it's the same pesticide in a lower concentration and it isn't quite as rough on hair.
ETA: Source: I worked 4 years in a community based birth to 5 program.
@earlyre Tea tree oil is a great preventative (what I use on my daughter's hair mixed with leave-in spray conditioner) but it's not an effective treatment.
@JerseyFrank You probably would have been better off leaving it long and putting it in a bun every day. That's what I do with my daughter, after spraying it with leave-in conditioner mixed with tea tree oil and then coating her hair with hair spray. She's gotten it twice over the last two years, so I'm super vigilant with it now.
@PurplePawprints I can't get the lice comb through in a reasonable time and pain level with the long hair. I just got done picking nits for an hour and it was soooooooo much easier now.
@JerseyFrank That makes sense. My daughter's hair is not very thick and is pretty fine so I'm sure that does make a difference. Good luck! I wouldn't wish this on anyone.
My girls have long hair, with the older one being really thick hair, the younger really thin hair. We didn't cut any of it. I used coconut oil. It kept it wet (they won't crawl as much) and made it easy to get through the hair easier. Before we were just using a water spray bottle. Plus after shampooing it was soft and smelled good. They lay their eggs up towards the top of the head, so cutting the bottom will help comb, but the nits will all still be at the top.
All non-bald household members confirmed. This is a nit from my wife's head. I compared it to a nit sampled on 12/5 from Patient Zero, and they are virtually identical, except this guy is just emerging.
RID has made lice stronger and resistant, sort of like antibiotics.
Lice only live on human hair, not stuffed animals (unless there is human hair on said stuffed animals)
Mayo is much better for sandwiches than for lice prevention. Dimethicone is the preferred oil of lice salons.
Lice salons exist, and boy are they pricey.
Lice can't jump. They crawl. Mothers tend to get lice from their children, but fathers typically don't. Its about the hugging.
Lice like clean hair.
Selfies have increased the spread of lice by a large yet unmeasurable factor.
40% of the people who have lice never feel the itch. They arent allergic to the saliva. Those poor souls only feel the movement of the critters when the volume of critters gets so large that they're all over the place.
The busses that take you from the Orlando airport to a Disney world property are almost guaranteed to have infected hair all of the time. Lint roll the headrest on public transportation. Remember, they only live on the hair.
You've scratched your head at least once since beginning this post.
The industry secretly judges those mothers who bring their kids in completely infested and yet they have not a single nit. Shameless unfair generalization: Mothers who love their kids are infected as well.
Wife is a lice tech at previously mentioned salon. It's an insanely profitable business and im thinking about franchising.
Wife brought home some oil to help a friend out with a possible infestation. It was on the kitchen table during dinner and looked exactly like the water bottle that was drinking water from that day. A piece of chicken got lodged in my throat and I grabbed the wrong bottle, took a huge swig and nearly swallowed and spit it all over the table. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever had in my mouth.
@marklog Before this thread, I had never even heard of a lice clinic, or salon. Thanks for sharing the info! We had to bag stuffed animals because, like pillow cases, they were cuddled/slept on and probably had hair on them.
@JerseyFrank 2 weeks after you're sure you got them all, check everyone again, thoroughly. Then a week after that, and a week after that. If those checks are clear, you're good.
Not so fun facts about lice treatments: RidX is developed and sold by Bayer. Bayer was spun off from IG Farben. IG Farben developed the chemicals/process to put Prussian Acid in cans. Those cans were sold as a delousing agent in the 1930s and 40s... under the brand name, "Zyklon B".
@JerseyFrank I would be heartbroken if I lost one of my monsters -- I know, I am a sap for putting myself in their shoes. :) I have no idea what my personality type is, but steel coated marshmallow is how my mother describes me .
Ughh! You've got my sympathy right now. I always had long hair as a kid and got them all the time. I suppose it prepared me for a job where I had to deal with that bed bugs on a semi-regular basis, but still no fun at all.
If you haven't tried it and are still at that point, get one of the battery powered combs at the drug store. It zaps any bugs and nits that are still alive after the first step so you don't have to do it again.
Oh that super sucks! I too ended up with them every time someone at school showed up with them. I hope you and your home are free of those little bastards asap.
Also, pointers:
Bedding/pillows - wash it and bag it in trash bags for 2 weeks.
Same goes for any hat worn by someone in your household during the outbreak.
Absolutely comb through with the nit comb
If the RidX (or whatever you're using) fails, look into using a different brand/formula.
Good luck and stay in Jersey, far away from my hair.
@JerseyFrank and the closer together the teeth are with the nit comb the better. Also do it with a wet head. That slows down the lice so you will be more able to catch them. My cousin (PhD in entomology) invented a lice comb that actually works well and used that technique to get rid of lice on her kids (very curly thick hair so not as easy to comb - she'd first comb with wider apart teeth and work her way down to the narrow ones - they are narrower than flea combs). You have to comb that way for a week every day, then every other day going back to daily if you find a lice (back to every other day once you have a day with no lice), and then every three days, going back to daily if you find a lice, etc. Took her about 3-4 weeks to completely get rid of them in her kids but she didn't want to put all the pesticide on her kids' heads due to the fact that it is also absorbed into the skin and no one has studied the long term effects of this. Pesticides are a contributing cause to a number of nasties like Parkinson's, Non-hodgkin's lymphoma… Unfortunately the company she sold her comb patent to went out of business. But the key is a lice comb with the teeth way further together than flea combs and the wet hair. It takes about 1/2 hour or so to do one head (doing it in front of the TV helps) as you have to do it in tiny sections. I realize this is a pain, but I can also attest (unfortunately first hand in this household) that it works.
@Kidsandliz My mom started using oil in my hair instead of shampoo because of the chemicals. Just comb it through really well so every strand is coated and then cover with a shower cap for about an hour to suffocate them. Using that with the electric comb seemed to do the trick on the first treatment. Unfortunately, there's no way to shortcut all the washing, boiling, and bagging everything up
@Kidsandliz There was one study that linked repeated exposure to pesticides to cervical cancer, I believe.
@Kleineleh Mayo also works
Thanks for the advice, hippies.
@Kleineleh There was a formulation a long time ago called Not Nice 2 Lice or something like that - it was an oil treatment that handled it when all of the chemical shampoos failed. You put the oil in your hair every night for 2 weeks, slept with a shower cap on, and combed. That handled a problem that had been rotating for months.
@MsELizardBeth There is more than just cervical cancer. Parkinson's and some of the non-hodgkin's lymphomas have also been linked.
@JerseyFrank
You're welcome
@Kleineleh nice. Everything in moderation. We'll go with whatever the doctors recommend. Hopefully my years of figurative nitpicking has given me an edge here.
@Thumperchick I don't know if I could sleep in an oily shower cap, but where parasites are concerned, I'd certainly be willing to try
@MsELizardBeth Is store brand mayo ok, or should I get Hellmann's?
The primary host has long hair. She sleeps with 100 or so stuffed animals on the upper portion of a bunk bed. I've filled 1/4 of a 2-car garage with plastic bags of stuff that need to be washed and/or quarantined.
So far my son is in the clear, but we just got these photos done yesterday, so he's certainly going to be infested soon...
@JerseyFrank Great photo! Your kids are adorable. I assume they take after their mom. ;-)
@bluedog Only in good looks. The attitude is all me.
@JerseyFrank Love the pic! Brings back memories of me and my sister.
My head itches, now. Thanks!
I went through this during the summer with my 2 girls and am still paranoid anytime I have a slight itch on my head. I feel your pain. Good luck with getting rid of them quickly.
We had them once....bad mojo! We bagged everything, shaved the boys heads and my wife sat and went through their hair strand by strand for about 10 days, pulling any that hat nits or lice on them. They also use Paul Mitchell shampoo and conditioner...seems to work well to keep them away. My wife did feel like this:
My niece was plagued with them during an exceptionally bad outbreak at her school a couple years ago. It got so bad they closed down the school for 48 hours. My sister took her to a lice clinic where they checked her hair out, confirmed she had the bastards, and applied the first treatment.
During that visit the workers told her that it is extremely rare for a grown man to contract lice. In their experience (at this clinic) they had only seen 1 man come in that was infected. They attributed it to higher testosterone levels.... I think it has to due with shorter hair. But regardless, have a guy head up the quarantine and clean-up efforts if you are concerned about getting them too.
@jimmyd103 I'm bald and have a XY chromosome pair, so I'm on duty.
@JerseyFrank Sorry about that...
@jimmyd103 that's ok. It's not your fault I'm bald
@JerseyFrank Is @jimmyd103 to blame for your XY chromosome?
Ugh, that sucks. My daughter brought them home from school on Christmas Eve a few years ago. That was a nice treat. Putting out cookies for Santa while nit-picking.
We got them twice the last couple years. The first time, no matter what we did, and what we washed, and how many times we treated my daughters hair, they were impossible to get rid of. They were still crawling around after the lice treatment. After a month, I got tired of trying to clean everything all the time, and getting nowhere, so we ended up cleaning nothing, and just brushing her conditioner saturated hair with a nit comb every day for 2 weeks. Then they were gone for over a year. When I saw them in her hair I dreaded the trouble we'd have. This time, we did one treatment and cleaned nothing but her pillowcase and brush, and they were gone.
Lice are awful.
Wear hair product. Always. They are less likely to get in hair that has hairspray or gel in it because of the texture. They're also less likely to get in oily hair, but that isn't as much of a solution. For those who are worried about the volume of chemicals in the lice shampoo, try puppy flea shampoo. It's not actually approved for human use but it's the same pesticide in a lower concentration and it isn't quite as rough on hair.
ETA: Source: I worked 4 years in a community based birth to 5 program.
and WHY hasn't anyone blamed @lisaviolet yet? You know it's all her fault!
Because lice.
Just took this shot with a toy microscope...
@JerseyFrank
@JonT - Cuter version?
@KDemo Better...still not great.
Well, sounds like it's a good thing I've never gone through that wonderful experience!
Wait, why is my head so itchy....?
Next time I'll take her more seriously when she tells me she's feeling lousy.
GET IT??? ONLY TOOK ME 13 HOURS TO COME UP WITH THAT ONE!
Next up on the Komedy Kornhole stage, a man who's just itching to entertain you - give a warm welcome to @JerseyFrank!
@JerseyFrank It's the small things that make jokes brilliant.
@tightwad You mite have a point.
@JerseyFrank Not to nit pick here, but I'm pretty sure you combed the internet for lice jokes.
@Thumperchick
My Niece and the other Little cousins all 3 had 'em after thanksgiving (not sure who patient zero was). all 3 moms using tea tree oil to treat.
@earlyre Tea tree oil is a great preventative (what I use on my daughter's hair mixed with leave-in spray conditioner) but it's not an effective treatment.
So I cut her hair... Not bad for first time, i think.
@JerseyFrank Did you at least threaten to shave it all off if she wasn't good?
Don't get me started on the hairband. She insisted on wearing it and throwing it away.
@JerseyFrank You probably would have been better off leaving it long and putting it in a bun every day. That's what I do with my daughter, after spraying it with leave-in conditioner mixed with tea tree oil and then coating her hair with hair spray. She's gotten it twice over the last two years, so I'm super vigilant with it now.
@PurplePawprints I can't get the lice comb through in a reasonable time and pain level with the long hair. I just got done picking nits for an hour and it was soooooooo much easier now.
@JerseyFrank That makes sense. My daughter's hair is not very thick and is pretty fine so I'm sure that does make a difference. Good luck! I wouldn't wish this on anyone.
My girls have long hair, with the older one being really thick hair, the younger really thin hair. We didn't cut any of it. I used coconut oil. It kept it wet (they won't crawl as much) and made it easy to get through the hair easier. Before we were just using a water spray bottle. Plus after shampooing it was soft and smelled good. They lay their eggs up towards the top of the head, so cutting the bottom will help comb, but the nits will all still be at the top.
All non-bald household members confirmed. This is a nit from my wife's head. I compared it to a nit sampled on 12/5 from Patient Zero, and they are virtually identical, except this guy is just emerging.
Contact the media!!
Lice facts:
RID has made lice stronger and resistant, sort of like antibiotics.
Lice only live on human hair, not stuffed animals (unless there is human hair on said stuffed animals)
Mayo is much better for sandwiches than for lice prevention. Dimethicone is the preferred oil of lice salons.
Lice salons exist, and boy are they pricey.
Lice can't jump. They crawl. Mothers tend to get lice from their children, but fathers typically don't. Its about the hugging.
Lice like clean hair.
Selfies have increased the spread of lice by a large yet unmeasurable factor.
40% of the people who have lice never feel the itch. They arent allergic to the saliva. Those poor souls only feel the movement of the critters when the volume of critters gets so large that they're all over the place.
The busses that take you from the Orlando airport to a Disney world property are almost guaranteed to have infected hair all of the time. Lint roll the headrest on public transportation. Remember, they only live on the hair.
You've scratched your head at least once since beginning this post.
The industry secretly judges those mothers who bring their kids in completely infested and yet they have not a single nit. Shameless unfair generalization: Mothers who love their kids are infected as well.
Wife is a lice tech at previously mentioned salon. It's an insanely profitable business and im thinking about franchising.
Wife brought home some oil to help a friend out with a possible infestation. It was on the kitchen table during dinner and looked exactly like the water bottle that was drinking water from that day. A piece of chicken got lodged in my throat and I grabbed the wrong bottle, took a huge swig and nearly swallowed and spit it all over the table. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever had in my mouth.
@marklog Before this thread, I had never even heard of a lice clinic, or salon. Thanks for sharing the info! We had to bag stuffed animals because, like pillow cases, they were cuddled/slept on and probably had hair on them.
@marklog I might want to purchase a franchise as well.
@marklog so when can I be sure that we're in the clear?
@JerseyFrank 2 weeks after you're sure you got them all, check everyone again, thoroughly. Then a week after that, and a week after that. If those checks are clear, you're good.
Not so fun facts about lice treatments:
RidX is developed and sold by Bayer.
Bayer was spun off from IG Farben.
IG Farben developed the chemicals/process to put Prussian Acid in cans.
Those cans were sold as a delousing agent in the 1930s and 40s... under the brand name, "Zyklon B".
@JerseyFrank "Zyklon" originally, and from Degussa, not IG Farben. IG Farben owned a minority interest in Degussa.
IG Farben didn't make Zyklon. They made Zyklon possible, if I understand it correctly.
@JerseyFrank And it doesn't matter. I just find it creepy to use a product to delouse my children that has the pedigree that it does.
@JerseyFrank Are the lice making you a little buggy?
Mayo hippies, this one's on you - Massachusetts toddler dies after lice treatment goes awry
@JerseyFrank OMG.. now you know why they print on plastic bags to keep them away from children! Those poor parents.
@mikibell yeah, tragic. My INTJ personality prevents me from feeling empathy, but that's really sad for them.
@JerseyFrank I would be heartbroken if I lost one of my monsters -- I know, I am a sap for putting myself in their shoes. :) I have no idea what my personality type is, but steel coated marshmallow is how my mother describes me .