Considering the increase in the number of people vowing only to eat organic food, it’s surprising that people aren’t always so rigorous when it comes to personal care products and finding a natural head lice treatment in particular.
If you’re not willing to eat foods containing pesticides, why on earth would you use them on your children?
Here, we look at why natural head lice treatment and non-chemical products are safer and more effective when it comes to lice treatment and what works.
Are non-chemical treatments more effective for killing lice?
If you are clearing an infestation yourself, then the best way to do it is by combing with a conditioner or detangler. The chemical head lice products have vastly varying rates of effectiveness. The permethrin products have been shown through proper research to have an 80%+ failure rate. Therefore, you really need to consider why you would even use them.
If you do not want to clear them yourself then the other non-chemical approach is to visit us at The Hairforce. At our clinics, we have a 100% success rate with a natural head lice treatment, without the use of any pesticides or chemicals.
Hand clearing: tips from the professionals
If you do decide to try and tackle an infestation yourself, we’ve got some handy tips. Hand clearing head lice can be time consuming, but it is the safest and most effective option. Lice cannot develop immunity to manual removal which it is why it is superior to using the head lice products:
- Use a metal comb long toothed nit comb. Plastic ones easily miss the lice and will not be firm enough to extract the eggs – the nits
- Detangle the hair first. Do this with a regular comb or even better a Tangle Teezer before using a nit comb. This will make getting the nit comb through the hair much easier
- Divide hair into small sections. This will allow you to see your progress and help you avoid missing anything
- Use a conditioner to allow the comb to pass smoothly through the hair. The comb must touch the scalp and be pulled right through the hair and out to the very ends of the hair. Wipe the nit comb on some white toilet paper and bin it immediately
If this all sounds like too much hard work, get in touch today and we can take you through how we clear in 2 easy sessions, 7 days apart. You can visit one of our clinics or we can come to you, whatever suits you.
Can I use a magnifying glass to check my child’s head?
A magnifying glass can be useful to look at head lice so you can see them better, especially if your eyesight is not that great. Many people misdiagnose head lice because they can’t quite see what they have found. They have six legs and you will be able to easily identify them under a magnifying lens.
Non-pesticide lice treatment
Does tea tree oil kill lice?
When it comes to tea tree oil as another natural head lice treatment, there is no scientific evidence that it kills head lice. No proper studies have ever been conducted on tea tree and head lice. Therefore, do not rely on tea tree or tea tree based products to help clear head lice as it won’t help you. Nit combing will. Head lice carry a lot of bacteria and tea tree is a natural antiseptic so if it does anything it will be helping with the bacteria only.
Does olive oil kill lice?
Olive oil will not kill head lice for you. At best, it is a combing aid, at worst it is a nightmare to remove from the hair.
Home remedies for head lice – are they effective?
There are a range of home remedies for killing head lice ranging from mayonnaise to mouthwash. None of them are a good idea, and none of them will magically kill the head lice for you.
Get nit combing with a good long-toothed metal nit comb and some conditioner and that will deliver the effectiveness you need.
Non-chemical Head Lice Treatment with The Hairforce
If you’d like to talk to us about the way we treat head lice infestations call one of our clinics. We have clinics across the UK.