The teacher sends home a note that says a classmate has lice. Suddenly you’re searching your kid’s scalp like a mad person and your own scalp starts itching too. Are there essential oils for live and natural hair treatments we can use? The answer is yes!
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Essential Oils for Lice
I don’t know what it is about tiny bugs, but the very thought of them hiding out in our hair can make our skin crawl! Essential oils for lice and persistent management of the hair and scalp combine to make a very effective natural lice treatment.
Between 6 to 12 million children nation-wide are infected with lice each year. (1) So if you find yourself one of these, you are in good company! A huge problem is that the chemical most commonly sold to treat lice is permethrin chemical based. Side effects to these chemicals include rash, numbness, tingling, burning, and more. (2)
Worse, lice are developing more and more resistance to these harsh, toxic treatments that are sold on store shelves. Which means that even treating your children with it can leave lice alive and kicking, or crawling and biting as the case may be. That’s why I love this natural lice treatment protocol instead. It works!
The most important step in this process is to make sure you follow up the essential oils for lice treatment with a thorough combing with a nit removing comb.
Do NOT try using those cheap plastic combs that you get in the boxes at the store – it will make both you and your child miserable, I promise, and they aren’t as effective in removing nits. The best comb out there is the Terminator, Nit-Free Comb. You will not regret picking this up I promise!
Bonus – You can add these essential oils for lice to your homemade natural shampoo for even more protective power.
- 3 ounces of extra virgin olive oil
- 5 drops eucalyptus essential oil*
- 5 drops peppermint essential oil*
- 5 drops lavender essential oil*
- 5 drops lemon essential oil*
- 5 drops tea tree essential oil*
- 5 drops rosemary essential oil*
- Enzyme treatment
- Terminator Lice comb
- Combine oil and essential oil ingredients.
- Put hair into a ponytail or bun and saturate hair completely with the mixture. Then put a one-time-use plastic shower cap on the hair.
- Encase your pillow with plastic and also put a towel over the pillow.
- In the morning, shampoo and condition your hair.
- Comb through your entire head, using the special terminator lice comb through the strands.
- Wipe off the comb thoroughly with a paper towel with each stroke so you don’t wipe what you’ve combed out back into the hair.
- Repeat this process every night (or every other night) until the lice are gone. We usually do this process for 2 to 3 weeks.
- Twice a week, use an enzyme treatment, being sure to pick that out with the Lice terminator comb that helps to break apart their skeletal structure.
This recipe is for ages 3 and up only due to the peppermint. If you are killing lice on a child under age 3 replace peppermint with geranium.
Because lice can hold their breath for up to 11 hours underwater, oil is the only thing that will suffocate them when using natural lice treatments.
You can use this same essential oil combination and add it to your shampoo or conditioner base, as well, as an addition to the overnight treatment. Add the essential oils to 3 oz of unscented shampoo such as Desert Essence or Fairy Tales brand.(The Fairy Tales brand is gentle, but it does have sulfates in it. So if you’re sensitive to a lot of that like I am, go for another brand.)
