The teacher sends home a note that says a classmate has the unmentionable. Suddenly, you’re searching your kid’s scalp like a mad person, and your scalp starts itching, too. Are there essential oils for lice and natural hair treatments we can use for the whole family, from school age kids to adults? 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! These essential oils for pests and persistent management of the hair and scalp combine to make a very effective natural lice treatment. You can use this for your school age kids when they bring critters home, and on the adults in the family to help prevent spreading it person to person!
Between 6 to 12 million children nationwide 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, which is chemical-based. Side effects of 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. This 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 prevention and treatment protocol instead. It works for the whole family!
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!
Once you’ve treated your kids, you can do the treatment on yourself as well, even if you don’t see visible nits, to help prevent the lice from spreading through the entire family.
Bonus – You can add these essential oils for lice to your homemade natural shampoo for even more protective power.
Natural Lice Treatment Protocol
Ingredients
- 3 ounces 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 *
Instructions
- 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 put a towel over it.
- 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.
Notes
- https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/gen_info/faqs.html
- https://www.drugs.com/sfx/permethrin-topical-side-effects.html
