Best product for head lice?

[Paddlinglikehell]

I started this in Gen Health, but then thought may be better here.

Just found a head louse on the book dd was working on, she said it fell out her hair. Have nitty gritty and will do the conditioner and comb through, but what it the best, IYO, headlice shampoo.

Is is the first time we have had them, dd is 8, so have no idea which will be easiest/ nicest .

Thankyou..

[DrSeuss]

None. They are all rubbish! Sorry! Do the condition and comb, or take her swimming a lot!

[pourmeanotherglass]

We've had them several times (girls now age 9 and 11)

I use the Full Marks solution (pink box) with a good nit comb. The first time we had them, I tried combing them out with just conditioner, but dd1 has really thick hair, and you only have to miss one for it not not work. After a couple of weeks of combing every other day, I got fed up, and resorted to the chemicals.

The full marks stuff can be squirted on, left for 10 mins, then combed out (in front of the telly). You then need to repeat after 7 days (because nothing gets rid of the eggs, you have to wait for them to hatch and comb again, and apparently 7 days is the optimum time for them to all have hatched but not laid new eggs). Its often safest to repeat again after another 7 days, just to make sure, but you normally won't find any this time.

[MrsFruitcake]

Nitty Gritty comb and lots if conditioner. Do it every night for a week. Hard work but results are better and is much nicer than all those smelly chemicals IMO.

[Wallison]

I've used both Full Marks and Hedrin and found they both worked as long as I followed the instructions (ie redid it if the packet said to).

I think I've seen something on telly about a Hedrin product that you can put onto hair and shampoo out in a timeframe that looks from the advert to be almost immediately, which sounds time-saving.

The products do work though and in my experience there is no need to be going down the combing with conditioner every day route, which is as sure a path to misery as I have ever heard.

[OldRoan]

I nitty-gritty my hair every time I wash it since getting headlice on a teaching placement.

I don't do a thorough strand by strand comb, but put on conditioner, then wide-tooth, then fine-tooth, then finish with nitty gritty. It only adds a few minutes on now I good at it, and I feel happier when it is done. Every weekend I give it a proper comb through to check.

How good is your DD with having her hair washed/combed out? If you can train her to sit quietly whilst you do it, I think a wet-comb routine is the best option. Children with curly/knotty hair, or who hate having it washed... I used hedrin once (I think it's called) and it was good, but nitty gritty got more out which Hedrin seemed to miss.

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

We use nitty gritty and conditioner.

We do it every night for a week. Our ds's have short hair though, so it's not too arduous.

[Goldmandra]

All the treatments require thorough combing through so you might as well just get a decent comb and a big bottle of conditioner. If you want to add something to knock them out mix Vodka in with the conditioner - it's cheaper than the special potions.

TBH the only effective treatment is combing thoroughly with conditioner every two or three days for three weeks.

You can reduce the numbers more quickly with the potions but you only have to have missed one and you can have a headful again in no time so you have to make sure you're getting any rogue critters within a couple of days of hatching before they can lay eggs.

[Wallison]

Actually, I would disagree that combing with conditioner is the only effective treatment - like I say, I've used the chemicals and they worked. A lot of the dead ones just fall out anyway, any left can be got with a quick going-over with the Nitty Gritty which you only need to once each time you treat, rather than every night or every other night forever.

[Goldmandra]

Maybe you've been lucky in that you've not left any eggs behind Wallison. Even our school nurse told me that it doesn't matter what you use, to guarantee you've got everything you need to repeat the combing regularly until any eggs left behind would have hatched and the resulting lice cleared.

By the law of averages I imagine some people will clear them all on the first or second comb through, especially if the infestation is caught early and the hair is less thick and long. However I found out the hard way and so did quite a few of my friends (and a fair few on MN too) that you only need to miss on or two and you're back to square one a few weeks later.

I find it very hard to get the oil out of my DDs' thick long hair and prefer not to use unnecessary chemicals on my children and they seem pointless when the combing offers a much more reliable solution.

Also you still need to comb and condition once a week to pick up new inhabitants and prevent major infestations in the future so it still needs to be done 'forever'.

Each to their own I suppose.

[DameDeepRedBetty]

Hedrin Once did the biz but is hideously expensive.

The Nitty Gritty and any old conditioner will keep the blighters under control.

Wiltshire nits are immune to Full Marks.

[Paddlinglikehell]

Well we did the comb through, got around five or six little 'bits', but no big ones like the one that dropped out! I am pretty sure I got them all. DD has long hair, but was very good, it went in a plait to school, rather than her two bunches!

Put some Headrin spray on in the morning and left it in yesterday, washed out last night, going to do another comb tonight with conditioner.

I changed the beds too, but wasn't sure if needed to do this. I am hoping we have caught them before too bad.

DP and I didn't have anything. I have no idea if there were any eggs, couldn't see them at all, maybe my eyes are going!

I haven't told school, DD is worried if a letter goes out, at she will be accused of bringing them! May need to have a quiet word.

[blueberryupsidedown]

With any product (Hedrin, Full marks) you have to repeat the treatment after 7 days, three times.

Sorry but I will contradict people above. Combing with conditioner takes a long time, patience, the children keep on re-infecting each other as it can take weeks and weeks to be lice free.

Hedrin (the 12 hour treatment) works really well. You put it on in the morning, make sure it's rubbed in well, and wash it 12 hours later. Repeat 7 days later. Stick to the instructions to the letter. The product doesn't smell bad or strong.

The products work if you can read the instructions and follow them.

[Wallison]

That has been my experience too, blueberryupsidedown. I've always used the treatments and they've always worked.

Paddlinglikehell, you really need to tell the school. Your daughter won't be the only one with nits and other parents need to know to check their kids.

[Goldmandra]

blueberry combing with conditioner or a special lotion takes a long time. If you comb thoroughly you remove the live lice so the children can't re-infect each other.

Like you said, anything you use needs to be repeated and it's the repeated thorough combing which removes the new head lice. We tried lots of potions before coming to this conclusion as my DD was in a class for years with a child whose mother refused to treat her. Whatever we used we were still combing out some live lice. We even experimented by keeping some in a jar and they lived for several days.

It would be much better for all concerned if people could get their head round the fact that combing and conditioning should be done once a week anyway to check their children's heads. It then becomes part of the normal routine, reduces the level of infestation when it is discovered and prevents transmission to friends and family. Much better for all concerned and a great deal cheaper than buying special lotions which you still have to comb through several times anyway.

If your child gets head lice

Day 1 - comb the head thoroughly in sections removing all the live lice and as many eggs as you can see. The eggs you should be concerned about are the darker coloured oval shapes near the root. The white ones are empty shells.

Day 3 - repeat sectioning and thorough combing with conditioner and _a decent nit comb.

Day 6 - repeat and continue for at least another ten days.


By this time you should only be removing new hatchlings. If you get them all before they have chance to reproduce you will have solved the problem.

If you're combing thoroughly you'll be removing any that are large enough to move to another head so they won't infect other children.

The eggs take a week or more to hatch then another ten days or so to become mature enough to lay eggs of their own. If you catch them in that time you have broken the cycle.

After that comb and condition once a week, checking for new lice. If you catch them early they will be much easier to deal with.

If you stick lotion on and assume it has worked it may well not have killed the eggs which are pretty resilient and when they hatch a new infestation will start. It will take a few weeks for the infestation to become bad enough for you to notice again by which time you'll assume it was a new infestation and by the lotion again.

More information on the NHS Choices Website.

[blueberryupsidedown]

If you have three children, all with long ish hair, and you do the combing technique on the kids and on yourself for ten days in a row, and possibly on your husband, it would take you about three hours a day. I don't have that time. I stick lotion on (no need for combing), wash hair as per instructions after 12 hours, REPEAT after 7 days, bob's your uncle. If you want to do it the long way it's up to you but I dissagree completely that the lotions don't work. They work if you follow the instructions, which includes to repeat three times, 7 days interval.

[Goldmandra]

I stick lotion on (no need for combing)

Which lotion can you buy which doesn't include combing in the instructions?

BTW you don't need to do anything for ten days in a row. I should have worded that better. You need to comb and condition every two or three days to clear an infection and then comb and condition once a week.

If you're already combing conditioner through when washing your children's hair it's no hardship to use a nit comb too once a week. It only takes an extra five minutes.

[Goldmandra]

I guess there isn't one that doesn't require combing then.

If you don't ever comb and condition, how do you know when your child has caught them?

Anyone who never combs but lobs a potion on every now and then and hopes for the best is quite likely to be never clearing their child's head, reducing the numbers with a potion then, when they have built up again, blaming another child for reinfecting theirs.

Also, if you don't comb and condition, when your child has lice they have to have so many for you to notice that they are probably sharing them with half their class every time.

[Wallison]

Err, you don't just lob a potion on every now and then - you treat them when they have lice. Of course you check regularly by combing, but once a fortnight is fine. Which is not nearly as time-consuming as once every two days (which I just do not have time to do). Also, there is no-one here to check my hair (am the only adult in this household) so if my son gets nits I treat him and also treat myself. I certainly wouldn't be up for combing my own hair every day, plus I'm sure I'd miss loads if I actually had them. And the lotion does kill them, so it is grossly inaccurate to say that you are only 'reducing the numbers' - if you do it properly, they are gone (I always do a sweep through a week later to check). This is a far more thorough approach than hoping to see them when you comb/condition, especially if there are several of you all hoaching with lice and with no means of getting rid of them other than combing. Incidentally, the most lice-y kids I know (as in I get texts off their mums to say to watch out for them on a pretty regular basis) are the ones whose parents don't use chemicals - sure, you might get all of the little blighters out of one kid's head if you do it every day. But with several children, and adults as well, all contaminating each other at every turn? No chance.

[Goldmandra]

Lots of long thick hair in our house and no repeated infections for years since I started the combing and conditioning once a week for prevention and every three days if we find recent arrival.

Nobody in our house is ever hoaching with lice because we catch them early every time and they don't get the chance to reproduce or infect anyone else in the family or at school.

Even the NHS Website says " However, no medicated treatment is 100% effective." Our school nurse advised me not to bother with them for similar reasons.

I'm still intrigued to know which lotion says no need for combing.

[Wallison]

Well, we don't get repeated infestations either, and I'm doing everything wrong according to you. So I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. But it does wind me up when you get people saying the lotions don't work - of course they do. If you don't use them properly, they don't work. But if you follow the instructions you will be lice-free.

[Goldmandra]

Fair enough

It winds me up when people are advised to shell out money on unnecessary products which IME and the view of the NHS don't work reliably. If you've got to comb through with a nit comb to remove rogue survivors and new hatchlings you might as well just use conditioner in the first place. It's cheaper, easier to wash out than the oil based treatments and better than soaking children's heads in pesticides.

I hope you continue to be the family the lotions always work on.

[Wallison]

You don't comb to remove rogue survivors - you comb to get rid of the corpses and the dead eggs, although most of them fall out anyway.

[Goldmandra]

How do you know what's left if you don't comb the lotion through?

You have clearly been lucky. Plenty of others, including me, have had different experiences. You assume that it's because we are too thick to read the instructions properly.

I can't understand why you don't believe that I have used the lotions in the past correctly according to the instructions, including combing, and I have removed live lice which have survived for several days. If everything was guaranteed to have died they wouldn't recommend that you use a nit comb too would they? That would be unnecessary.

Do you work for one of these pharmaceutical companies?

[Idespair]

I put "Hedrin Once" on.
Then every day for a week comb through with nitty gritty comb using either the nitty gritty oil stuff or conditioner.
Them at the end of the week, do another dose of Hedrin once.

The only thing with Hedrin is that it is an utter greasy bastard to shampoo out of the hair after you've done it. I used an entire bottle of shampoo to get the Hedrin out of my own hair! My hair looked quite nice afterwards

[VerySmallSqueak]

I didn't want to use harsh chemicals and found the nitty gritty and conditioner approach effective.