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Treat Head Lice with permanent hair dye

Submitted by Cherrie Eden

This tip is good for a woman who dyes her hair reguarly, however can be used by others. At the first sign of lice use permanent hair dye (clariol, etc.) it will kill the lice. Worked for me one time.

Visitors comments

I dunno... Comments By: anon a commercial preparation would cost the same.   I agree. Comments By: Angelique It worked for me a couple of times.   nits? Comments By: julie Does the hair dye kill the nits too, or do i have to comb hair out after??? TipKing says: I have not tried this. I would think that you have to comb the dead eggs (nits) out   no way this works Comments By: binky this has never worked for me . they always come back bigger meaner and dyed. it may stop the itch for a short time but it doesnt kill them   it does work proven factor Comments By: samantha violet i had gotten head lice one time and i figured that the chemicals from hair dye would kill it instead of pay over thirty bucks to get all the stuff or even more its cheaper plus u get a new hair color works out great. well it does work but u still have to comb out the nits of course. but there ya go   definately Comments By: Desperate mum of 3 long haired daughters I always colour my hair and never get nits...EVER, even though my 3 daughters do get them regulary, so i dyed my daughters hair..the same colour of course! but yes it worked...ALL DEAD, it's a bit unconventional I know colouring kids hair but I thought "HEY, what the heck, i'd have to use chemicals anyhow to kill them", and there friends were very jealous too when there hair looked like it was direct from one of those glossy 'Timote or Pantene' adverts..l.o.l.   it works Comments By: Jessi R I have 4 step children and 3 of them are girls with very long hair, there mother is a very unclean person and alows them to catch and keep head lice for years, yes thats what I said years, the oldest just turned 10 and she has had them over 80% of her life in school and the younger 2 are just as bad, she will bring them to my house infested to the point where I can stand about 6 feet away from them and see the bugs crawling in and out of there hair, me and there father have spent hundreds of dollers treating them and the house, the cheldren come to us all the time crying because they are being called "lice baby" at school, the biggest problem we have is that they are only with us for the weekends, we started treating there heads with otc's at first but then we realize that there mother was not repeating the treatments and while they were with us she refused to treat the house, so we would treat them and send them back to a house that was infested, we finaly got tired of basecly throwing money down the drain on otc's and a friend of mine who is a beautistion and she told me to dye ther hair, I did and it worked not only did it kill the grown lice it also sterolized the eggs, I have to repeat dyeing it when it starts growing out but that is simply because there mothers house is still infested, but if you take the time to treat your house the rigth way you should only have to dye one time and it will fix your problem   hair dye dog shampoo tea tree oil Comments By: Itchy and pissed a few years ago I was given a gift by the daughter of my long time friend a big "haven't seen you in forever" sweet little girl....FILLED WITH LICE hug. I didn't know it at the time that she had the bugs or I would have stayed my distance. later in the same day after sitting on the family couch and playing with all the kids I was informed of the lice. I immediatly went home and bathed my head and that of my boyfriends for he to had been subjected with dog shampoo.. flea and tick .. mind you I didn't use it full strienth and I made sure not to taste it or get it in our eyes... it seemed to do the job. and neither of us were infected. but a few yes later i was staying at some friends house who had children.once again not being informed that they had the lice as well. It was too late at this point and I allready had them .. I tryed the over the counter things like rid and so on but noting was working. so i dyed my hair right after another treatment with dog shampoo. not only did I not have them any more but.. I didnt get them back.. soon every one in the house was trying my dog shampoo.. and hair dye treatment. and it worked.. I also put tea tree oil in small amounts in my hands with a small amout of water and rubbed it on my hair. I dont know if this did any good but I didnt get the bugs back... unfortunatly I love to hug the children in my life.. and this morning after 2 weeks ago spending alot of time playing with my boyfriends neice i was itching.. took out my dogs flea comb and low and behold... a bug...greeeeat I combed out my hair and got rid of twenty or so of them and a bunch of egg casings and nits.now i am off to the shower to do my dog shampoo and dye job.. wish me luck..   dyed my hair also Comments By: tacia im 16, and i went to an all girls school, i got nits every week! now that i dnt go to skool anymore, my boyfriend still does, i live with him ,, and he brought the nits home with him! i treated my hair, as my hair is very long, it took heaps of treatment to do the job. the day after i went to the hairdressers n she sed she cudnt do my hair coz i had nits still! i had jst done my hair!!!!!! i rang riot through the house, stripped all the beds and went straight in to the bathroom with my boyfriend and did our hair agen!!! with KP-24, mind u, not weak stuff!!! i dyed my hair today!!! and ill use KP-24 agen tomorrow, so maybe next week ill be able to get a hair cut!! thanks for reading my tale!!   DONT WORK UNLESS YOU COMB OUT NITS Comments By: Elise I dyed mine and my nieces hair and did not comb out the nits in my head and they came back now i got bugs and are doing every thang possiable that i can to get them out shaving cream for 30 min and vinger with mouth wash worked for me no combing out the nit just the bugs   just combed nits for 3 hours! Dye tomorrow! Comments By: Nicole C When i was 8, i went to my baby-sitter's and kept getting lice. i got it 12 times. X.x;;; After we left (we used Rid btw) the sitters, it was finally able to go away. So here i am, almost 9 years later, and havn't got it since... TILL NOW! I don't know how i got the wicked little bastards yet, but i suspect the bed that i slept in at my grandma's. My mother and I just spent 3 hours picking out nits. turned out, i only had a single bug on my whole head. just a load of eggs. D= I told my boyfriend, since we spent the day together yesterday. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS TELL EVERYONE YOU SPENT TIME WITH NO MATTER HOW EMBARASSING!!! IT WILL COME BACK TO YOU! So i'm checking his head tomorrow. Well, anyway, When i dyed my little sister's hair... they went away for her. And i'll go as far as i need to- to get rid of these freaking things. I was planning on dying my hair anyways, so it works out. I happened to catch it early before any eggs hatched. One hatched when it was caught in the comb.... lemme tell ya' that was FREAKY. Seeing it sqirm... egh.... So as far as i hear, it keeps the bastards away. i'm buying that stuff for the beds, couches and floors tomorrow. If my bf has it, i'm gonna pick his head and dye it too. AFTER GETTING IT 12 times as a 4th grader... I'm devastated to have this again...   Lice and Florida Comments By: Patsy I lived in Florida for 4 years and have never in my life seen more children with head lice in my entire life. It seemed to me that parents just gave up after several failures due to the fact that it is a huge problem down there. Well, Im a Northerner...I would not, could not give in to these little bastards. So, after trying EVERYTHING from oil treatments, mayonaise, dog shampoo, over the counter, and hours of ripping hair out with those little combs, I learned a few things. Yes, hair dying works the best!!! It kills live bugs, nits and eggs. Its still a good idea to comb through your hair just so you dont have any dead bugs falling from it in public. But one of the most important things to do is maintenance. For starters, keep a lice comb in your shower and tell your children to comb through after conditioning thier hair whenever they think about it. This way, if they caught a little bugger on the school bus, they wont have a chance to cause damage. Also, spray your childs head with hair spray every day they are to play among other children. Put girls hair in a tight pony tail too. Lice dont like dirty hair and hair products dirty it up enough for them so they cant get a grip on the hair shaft. This will work, but if you are in a place where lice is common, maintainence is crucial.   16 with lice? Comments By: Ashley [Mistake] Yeah, I go to a juvinille Delinquent school, and when one has it... you know how that goes. Well, I got them, and treated it, but I am itching still. I ant find any but I am worried I may still have them. I am taking your word for it, and getting some dye. AND DOG SHAMPOO. Embarrasing, uggh. Wish me luck.   Lice in Florida Part 2 Comments By: Sara McCall I have lived in florida for 14 years and I have never gotten lice until now. My whole time in school (mainly elementary) i saw child after child after child getting lice. and i never ever got it. Now i have lice and i dont know where i got it from because i dont wear hats or use other peoples combs. the only thing i can think of is riding puclic transportation or since i work at the movie theatre, going to see movies. I noticed that i had lice a few months ago and tried the hair dye thing and it seemed to work, just as i thought but i got it again, probably from one of the above stated reasons. tonight i used the regular lice treatment and im hoping it works.   comb, comb, comb!!!! Comments By: Bosco You can use rid-x or what ever lice treatment you prefer, but if you don't invest in a metal nit comb and go through the hair every day to every other day then treat again in 7 to 10 days repeat combing for a few days after that, until no eggs remain then they can come back. I would set my child in the tub(after treatment)slather the hair in hair conditioner and comb through 1 in. sections of hair at a time. I then would drain to inspect for nits on the bottom of the tub. Every day do this until they are gone. Some combs come with a magnifying glass on them which is helpful but they can be seen with the naked eye.   eww eww bugs... get them out... wtf!!! Comments By: Ashley [Mistake]™ Okay. I am 16. A little old to be worried about a school epidemic of lice, right? wrong. When you go to a little school like I did, if one girl has it, five have it. Well, I treated it with commercial lice killer. But I was still worried. I was itching, but I didn't know if it was nerves or the little bastards, so I dyed my hair. Twice. Then for two weeks, I shampooed my hair twice a day in dog shampoo. Well, I don't know what did it, but there gone! I am much more careful now whos head goes near mine. =]   head lice & children Comments By: trish I do believe that for an adult hair dye may help but after trying just about everything, believe me me the only real cure is to use lot,s of conditioner and a small tooth comb i know it,s hard for both you and the child but i believe it,s the only way.   Thanks for the tip! A few words... Comments By: Frazzled Single Mom I'm kind of picky about these things, but I must clarify: a) you can't catch nits. You can only "catch" bugs by making contact with either a nit that hatches or a bug. b) If you have nits, you have or had at least one bug somewhere. c) nits ARE lice eggs. Baby lice are called nymphs and these suck the most because they are smaller than the nits and so so hard to see. My kids have lice for the second time and it was a nightmare last year! We spent hundreds of dollars on stupid over the counter shampoos and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and nothing worked until I moved out of state, did the treatment 3 times in less than 2 weeks and didn't unpack their stuff for a long time. HAHA. Well they have them again, but we aren't moving this time so I am excited to try the hair-dye solution.   nothing seems to work for me! Comments By: anon i'm 19!! yeh 19, iv been working at a nursery and caught the little gits there, im now not working at the nursery but i am still infested, i cant get rid of them, iv tried all the treatments and comb through regulary.. iv got a little boy now and the last thing i want is for him 2 catch them but i want to get my hair done and cant ... how frustrating!!! i dunno if its cuz im tryin2 do it myself or what but i dont have any1 2 help me and its embarasing and horrible, im gunna try hair dye 2moro and hope with all my heart they they go and stay away!!!!!!! TipKing says: You need to be combing you hair morning and night with a nit comb. Especially if you are working in a nursury.   Listerine and Vinegar Comments By: Jenn Alrighty, well with having a summer of camps and going to firends i have battled all summer with the little buggers, I found a few interesting things that work though. Soak hair in Listerine, regular yellow original stuff for 2 hours longer if the person can stand it. Rinse out with as hot a water as possible, into which the person can stand. Then doust hair in vinegar, if possible overnight, if not then at least 2 hours. While having hair soak use, a bag or cling wrap to wrap around hair to keep moistened. Listerine kills the live ones, and the vinegar removes the glue that is used to attached the eggs to the hair shaft. So yes combing is crucial. Well the kids are in bed with vinegar in their hair and i am off to dye my hair and attack the bedsheets, couches, floors....well you get the point. Good Luck, oh yes, tea tree oil in shampoo will help with reoccurence of the buggers. Best of luck.   Listerine and Vinegar 2 Comments By: Jenn sorry i meant tea tree oil will help with the maintenance of not getting them, and yes clean hair they love, so if you dont have to dont wash hair often, limit it to 2 to 3 times a week, if you use lots of hair products just rinse, and use tea tree oil full strength . add a few dabs in hair rub together and run threw wet/damp hair. hope all is well   The De-Lousing Blues Comments By: KC Never in my adult life had I been so afraid of a teensy, itty bitty little bug. Until I had my daughter. She's now three years old and has, of course, a mind and motor of her own. Our first bout with the critters came from her very own cousins! I noticed my niece digging at her head like there was no tomorrow, and you know how in the movies they have someone standing there with a face like @_@ and it does the "DUN DUN DUNNNN!!"? Yeah, that was me. I asked my sister-in-law if they'd been checked for lice at all. She looked at me like "how dare you?" and it turns out the kid I was pointing my finger at had the worst case out of them all. Luckily I caught it early and the transfer to my own kiddo was very slight. I found only one bug on her head and combed her head every day for a week after shampooing with Rid. We ended up having to go to Walgreens for a comb that was worth a sh@t. They came in a double set, two metal tooth combs for the bugs and the nits. The nit comb had a magnifying glass on it. Came in handy. Having treated the heads of the children and shampooing again after 5 days, we were completely bug/nit free. We sprayed the entire house with the bedding spray. Thank the Lord for whoever invented that. And then tonight, the baby girl woke up crying. (A usual when she has to make a midnight potty.) I was sitting with her in the bathroom and was pushing her hair out of her face and I saw it. DUN DUN DUNNN!! oh my word. It's happening again? Only a week since school started and this is what I get? Seriously? I guess it happens. Time to buy more Rid. I looked this up because I actually dyed my hair last night and was wondering if I had had the bugs, would they be dead now? But from experience, the lice shampoo works just fine if you do it as directed, take all precautions and spray all bedding, carpeted floors, pourus cloth surfaces of any kind really, and comb comb comb the hair, it all works just the same. There's no real easy way out of it. (Though it'd be nice if someone would invent it.)   Ignorant stepmothers Comments By: BS I just want to reply to Jessi R and any other ignorant people here. Head lice only live on children with CLEAN HAIR. Children get lice more than parents because they play close together all the time and are probably cleaner than their evil stepmothers.   Hopefully this works?? Comments By: Mersadi Well i found out i had it (lice) and now idk wha to to im going to dye it then im going to comb it soo hopefully they will be gone =]   Angry Comments By: Ash I just found out tonight that I have lice. I am 23. My friend has 2 children ages 1 and 3. I apparently got them from her children. Awhile back she found one in her 1 year olds hair and apparently never treated her to be cautious or her other daughter. I am so pis*ed right now. I don't even wanna go to her house anymore. What would be best to treat it with? I have short THICK hair.   i have had it like for ever it seems Comments By: mckenzie im 14 and in the summer of going into 8th grade i had lice but i didnt know where i got it from and my mom dad and i r the only ppl that live in our house and we all used lice treating stuff we washed everything and it cam back and i still have it and i hat it i itch all the time untill one day i looked up "can hairdye kill lice and here i am now and the answer seems to be yes so im going to die my air and brosh it out and on top of that im going to rinse my hair in very hot water then strighten it with my strightener so these bugs wont come back   iI HATE THIS!!!!! Comments By: FRUSTRATED CHICK I am 24 years old and just yesturday i found out i have lice!!!! ahhhh i was soo p***ed off. i work with kids so as soon as i got to work i started checking my kids and BINGO....I HAD THREE KIDS INFECTED. SOO I CLEAN MY WHOLE ENTIRE ROOM. I TREATED MY HAIR WITH RID AND IM COMBING IT OUT EVERYDAY I ALSO PUT MAYO AND IM LOOKIN TO TRY OUT ANY MORE HOME REMEDIES...I WANT THESE BUGS OUTTTT   We are clean and treat thoroughly, but the buggers keep comming back. Comments By: Martha My daughter is 8 and has them most of her life "Well it feels that way to me!". She has very thick, fine hair, that also happens to be the same color as the lice, which makes it hard to find them, just from a finger inspection. The only thing I can do is comb and check it and then do the full house and heads treatments over and over. I have tried all the home remedies and chemical ones, but I feel like the critters are getting ammuned to everything. For example: Before our holidays away I gave the whole family a treatment, house and all. Combed till my arms felt like they were falling off. We went away on our camping trip and after three days surprise! surprise! the headlice still found away to get a free holiday with us. I always treat brushes, bedding etc. What a pain to do the whole nit irratication on what is suppose to be a fun holiday. From one that has tried it all, hair dye does work!!! With combing. The dye doesn't totally destroy all the eggs, but kills the crawlers. I tried to use dye on my daughter, but she can't stand the fumes and the chemicals really hurt her head. I would becareful when using dye, maybe do a patch test first to check for any reactions. After years of hard work and "thousands" I mean it "thousands" of dollars down the drain literately, all I can say is I HATE HEADLICE more than anything in this world. Why can't man kind come up with a cure for these horrible creatures. I say lets end this now!!! Scientists out there - I dare you to find a cure that lasts. You think in this day and age they would have? (My daughter has pretty short hair - I wouldn't dare let her grow it even though its so pretty long) NITS MAKE ME SCREAM IN TERROR!   A HAIRDRESSERS CHILD Comments By: jj hair The best product,clean hair,they're there. The best way,that has worked for me, that keeps them away is a product that has oils like the results,or The K brand treatment. Then after u treat soak hair in conditioner leave for half hour.Proceed to comb start at neck work up...then repeat. Rinse. Of cousre u must devote a day to vaccuuming and cleaning and laundry. As a everyday thing...put moose or gel in the hair..and tee tree oil behind the ears and at the nape hairline. Also try to put your hair up. It works well but the only down fall is if u dont do it one day and thats the day u meet someone with it.   i think they're gone but my head still itches Comments By: Clar i realised i had headlice about a month ago and then we established that i had had them for a month prior also(gave them to all my housemates too). i used this lymax spray stuff twice which got most of them out but left eggs, i then used full marks and that seemed to empty out all the lice but i've still got lots of dead eggs. i went home from uni and didnt have any itchiness but now im back at uni and my head is starting to itch again. i keep checking it but all i can find is dead eggs. the others who caught my lice got rid of it and arent back yet so tonight i am dying my hair and il see what happens....im excited!!   Hair dye worked for me Comments By: aNON I got lice when I was 12 and had till I was 15 and dyes my hair and suddenly I didn't have lice nemore. Now I have 5 kids and was checking their hair and sure enoguh they caught lice. I had my sister check mine and I also had it. I went to the store got some more hair daye for me and my little girl (closest color to our hair and cut my boys' hair and IT'S GONE! GOOD LUCK TO U ALL!   no more nits Comments By: No More Nits I also heard that Palmolive or Dawn dish soap will kill the lice and remove the nits from the hair.- but you should still comb it out. Atleast these dish soaps are not poision. It may dry your hair out, but you could wash your hair with that every other day for 3 weeks.   A reply to ANon Comments By: Martha As I said above you hair dye works on the crawlers. It doesn't git rid of the eggs on brushes or linen. Also it is a very harsh treatment on children. It worked on me as an adult, but does it make it safe for all kids, besides that you have the linen encluding hats, brushes to treat if not, they will be back!!! All I am saying is check for an allergic reaction with the hair dye before applying. It can be worse for the child to have an allergic reaction than it could be for them to have headlice. In conclusion I am 40 and worked in the school system for years - found headlice everywhere - never caught it untill my daughter at 3 got it at preschool. Becareful - don't make the situation worse by treating their heads with something they might have a reaction too. Check and if you can great - if you can't because of a small test reaction lobby with me to get scientists to find a cure. As I said before I treat everything - I have tried everything out there and still they come. Its not a lack of effort or cost. I just want them gone. Tried Mayo - the different soap thing - natural and chemical treatments - every product doesnt work. I washed and combed - even now every second day. And they are still there!!! One day I might get one and then the other day I get the metal nit comb full of them. Treat again comb again NADA they will come back. I have a son 2 years older - who I give him a number 1 clipper job every month - he never gets them. What am suppose to do shave my daughters head?   good tip Comments By: lisa i caught lice of my brother in laws kids i have since treated theyre kids hair 4 times and with no luck they will not go might have something to do with them not doing it when theyre home they use the excuse im working i ahvent got time well i say make time i dyed my hair first time i had them and didnt have them for 4 years until now ;( i stopped going to work as the mother was working with me and could see them crawling around her hair i am fed up with telling them they need to sort it out will be dying my hair again today just to make sure it is much cheaper then conv meds as a bottle of dye is wat 2.99 - 3.99 dont need to be the most expensive just buy a boots home brand or store brand will do the same job believe it or not am currently redoing my mother in laws house for my father in law to come home from hospital as he is seriously il and they had the chhek to ask if the kids could sleep in my daughtgers cot bed and them in mine i do not think so why would i let an infested bunch infeste my clean and sanitary safe place some people just dont care do they EVERYONE USE DYE TO RID THEM FAST and USE TEE TREE COND FOR CHILDREN dont leave it to late trust me   what are u on about??? Comments By: carla goto any regognised source and you will find that head lice or there eggs can not live without human contact for more than around 2 hours therefore they aint gona live in yr bed or yr hats lmao. im dying my hair tonight because my lil sister who i look after on the weekend keeps piking them up from the school that i work at. i found 1 in my hair last week and treated i havent found another 1 in my hair but i have in my sisters just forget about washing bed clothes and stuff spend the time with a nit comb   Getting rid of lice Comments By: Slightly irritated but hopeful I am 22 years old and got lice while I was volunteering at an orphanage. I've had it as a child so I remember all the hassle my mother had to go through to get rid of them. I think the trick is maintenance. I put olive oil, mineral oil and a little bit of castor oil in my hair tonight and wrapped it in a plastic bag. Then in the morning I will wash my hair with vinegar and let that sit for an hour to dissolve the egg casings. Over the counter lice/nit killers are very bad for you, so I would rather go through the hassle of having oil in my hair than put those carcinogenic chemicals on my head. I will put gel in my hair tomorrow and then repeat this whole process tomorrow night and this weekend. In the meantime I am bagging all my sheets and blankets and not opening them for a month. Vacuum. Clean. Repeat. No need for chemicals and costly things. Wish you all the best.   lol this sucks Comments By: Star Lice is terrible. i'm 20 years old and i just got it.. My boyfriend has it too. his mom is about to dye my air black (im a blonde) and she said it will work to kill it. if not i swear i will cry myself to sleep.   this worked for me Comments By: Jenny I got nits one time and spent loads of money on treating it but then i heard about dyeing ur hair and it certainly did the trick for me and my kids(one 12 one 13) who have had it twice but since i dyed their hair it hasn't appeared once believe me this really works   Lice and hair salons Comments By: abby I'm 12.I just went to get my haircut today. The lady said she can no longer continue because she found 1 headlice. I freaked. I came home and right away did a treatment, my mom only found 2 headlice. I am still freaking out. I dye my hair every 3 months, and am wondering if i dye my hair will anything happen because I already did a treatment??   them things r just nasty Comments By: tanya my daughter who is 8 had a really bad issue with head lice she got them at school i treated her with rid and i thought it was all over nope my friend seen itching away i never checked her hair i had no clue what that stuff looks like but she had the big bugs in there crawling ohh it was terrible so we treated her again then 3 wks ago i looked in her hair n again she was infested omg im so go crazy so all of a sudden my head starts itching like crazy they said i didnt have any but if she had it that bad im sure i did so i got a hair dye 4 me n got her another rid 4 her she looks good but im still itching i dont no if im traumatized by the whole thing or what but im going 2 get another hair dye 2 morrow wish me luck oh and by they way i also cleaned n washed evrything 4 the 3rd time i cant understand my house is well maintained idk what else 2 do but these lil suckers need 2 leave us alone lol tip .. combing with the metal brush works good also i filled my lil sink in the bath rm with hot hot water n did small parts at a time omg i must had gotten atleast 600 nits the sink was full n i had 2 empty it 4 times what a project ..   Bleaching Hair Comments By: Valandra Im a 16 year old girl and i got infected by my boyfriend he picked it up at work when he shaired a hat with one of the not so trusting people he works with. He had it so bad that i made him shave his head. He had semi long skater hair. So it was bad it was all over his hair. So reciently i stummbled on this website and read a few of these and decided i would try it. I did i went to wallmart and checked how much the lice kit was it was 29.99 for the box of lice shampoo and it was 9.99 for the color i liked in hair dye. So i decied to try the dye sence i wanted it to work i bought 2 bottles of *Born Blond* hair bleach dye. And I did it i dyed my hair from black to blond. And it worked ive only found 3 eggs and 1 baby lice and it was allready dying it wasnt moving and it would j sit there and even if u poke it it would just crawl a bit and it died. So it worked. I may hate the color it did work no more lice and its ben 4 days. So if u decied to do it go with a color that ur compleatly fine with and be prepaird to scarifice. If u want to get rid of it, a bad color is a risk worth talking for a simple quick way to demolish them.   Nits nits nits .. Comments By: Chloe I am 11 years old and I have had nits for 2 1/2 nearly 3 years. Me and my boyfriend have always wanted my hair long, curly and a side fringe (it's short, straight and a boring block fringe) but I can't get rid of the little buggers. I want them gone but I can't find a solution. I'm going to try hair dye but I don't know what colour I want. I'm a dark brunette. Shall I go lighter or what? Thanks (:   I want to shave my head!Am disgusted! Comments By: Ellen My daughter is fifteen, loves her hair and is all into her image as teenagers are prone to do. She has a friend who is a lovely girl but I got a shock when I noticed the creepy buggers walking on her head!her mum was not available to do her hair, so I got the lovely job. I honestly wanted to be sick.I am not exaggerating, but I got at least 100 proper adult lice out on the comb.The must have been thousands of eggs.The poor girl was mortified and I tried to calm her saying it was very normal etc.But deep down I wanted to scream.I used a 10 minute solution to treat it as it was all that was available.I dont believe treating an infestation like this with a 10min treatment is enough.i would prefer the over night one. Anyhow then i check my daughters hair to find some eggs.So I found the over night remedy, dosed her in it and set to many hours of picking each hair strand with my nails to get rid of the eggs.if you place an egg on your nail and squish it you will know by the sound if its dead.If it makes a tiny crack sensation/sound, the bug is alive.If it just squishes its dead.This is a fact. Now I am treating my own hair.Havent found anything but the paranoia has me itching! In a few hours I will dye my hair too.I know I will be fine combing the family constantly for weeks to come.until I am 100% sure the dirty little buggers are not in my house. But the problem is! The 'friend' will still be in my daughters company amd I know she wont be treated for them by her mum.Some mums dont give a s--- about things like this.i am furious.Paranoid and disgusted.I feel like just shaving us all.   Dyeing may help but no substitute for nit-picking Comments By: Rainy I am a mother of 5 in the south US and believe me I have done my research on lice. The bugs cannot live away from the head more than 2 days and the eggs CAN hatch if they are not on a head (especially in warm weather)BUT the hatchlings (nymphs) MUST feed within an hour or so after birth or they will die. So yes, vacuuming is a good thing to do and also putting stuffed animals and large comforters in a sealed bag for a couple of weeks will work. I dye my hair and recently my kids caught lice but I did not. I used the comb on myself everyday anyway. Another thing that may help is the electronic comb called Robi Comb. It zaps the bugs and claims to zap even the newly-hatched ones. Tea-tree oil in shampoo or conditioner might help repel them in the future. I used that after an outbreak years ago and they did not get them while I was using it. I became lax and stopped using the tea tree oil about a year then they got them again. I think combing and picking is the best way to get rid of them.   Lice is a HUGE problem in Florida Comments By: Fed Up I hadn't had lice since I was a little girl then I moved to Florida and I get it! I'm in college and every where I go people are scratching their heads! I swear it seems like everyone here has lice. I'm from Tennessee and lice was never a problem there. Is it the warm weather or what? Anyways I'm not really sure about the whole hair dying thing but I think I'm going to try it. I've tried everything else and nothing works. The little bastards are immune to everything! I have really long, thick hair and it literally takes four hours to come it all. I bought X-pel and used it every day for ten days and combed my hair every day too. The itching stopped for a few weeks but then I got them again. I'm so tempted to just shave my head and be done with it. And tea tree oil DOES NOT work. I use it all the time and I STILL have them   Hopeless in Utah... Comments By: Angel My 2 nieces (6 and 3) Are repeatedly getting Lice, I managed to stay pretty lice free until recently, however I only had 3 baby lice and a few eggs, I immediately did the RID treatment, then had my hair cut and dyed the very same day. Came home, sprayed down the bed and couches with the bedding treatment and washed the sheets and pillow cases... while I still itch it has been more paranoia than having any actual bugs. So far(2 weeks)I myself have been lice free, however my nieces are still feeling the effects, We are at our wits end... we have tried RID 3x a week... inbetween those treatments we have been trying the MAYO trick and still no success... we had no other ideas, so I am very glad to have stumbled across this website, I will pass the information along to my sister and hopefully we may finally be able to get rid of this problem once and for all!   hair dye and uneven colour Comments By: lisa iv recently had head lice and used a lotion called nice n clear. A day after using the lotion i dyed my hair. But the colour has come out uneven. Does any1 know if this i because i used the lotion the day before   Combing is more important than what you put in... Comments By: Anon You have to get the Metal small combs from your drugstore. Then put a creme rinse in your child's hair (or your own) ,separate it into as many sections as you can and comb through each section, wiping with a paper towel after each swipe. Yes it's time consuming and a pain, but if you do it for 8 days (preferably 2 weeks) you will not have lice. If they don't have a chance to hatch b/c you keep combing out the eggs/adults, there won't be any left to lay eggs and the problem will end. If you have any questions, type in CDC lice or Harvard School of Public Health lice into Google to read the evidence for my post; they'll tell you the same things. Home remedies or Store-bought chemicals might kill them and (rarely) their eggs but if you don't keep combing out regularly they can come back.   hair dye Comments By: christine i'm not sure if i got them from my daughter she got them from my neice i used that rid it didn't work her docter called in something it worked before.i dyed my hair today if i have them will they die   kill kill kill those louse! Comments By: nikki I am a single mother who just rcently moved to another state. I have 4 children. they cought lice at school. I had to treat and clean EVERTHING BY MYSELF!! I didn't know anyone who could take a look at my hair so I bought some hair dye. It worked ! I of course had to comb sections of my hair . But, I did it. Have'nt gotten lice since!   NOTHING IS WORKING! Comments By: Mindy We've been fighting lice for weeks now. My daughter had thick red hair as myself and now we both have it! We've tried cat/dog shampoo, lice shampoo, medicated prescribed treatment, and even PRELL shampoo because we heard the PH is so strong in it that it'd kill them. We've combed and picked for days straight and they keep coming back!! We've treated the apt. EVERYTHING!!!! I've been tempted to dye our hair. I think that's next on the list.   Vasoline and Mayo Comments By: shannon Take mayo and vasoline put it in your hair, put shower cap on, leave in for 24hrs. I used to get lice all the time from school when i was like 9 then we did this treatment once and no more... well not untill now Im 24 and do daycare. It works wonders but make sure you have dawn soap to cut the grease feeling. It will take like 10 washes to get out all the greasy feeling   my 12 year old has lice!!! Comments By: HATE BUG My 12 year old has lice, something we have been trying hard since she started school to prevent, she is not even in school and here it is , little bugs crawling all over her head,( and we are clean people) i picked out what i could ( EWWW i know she is my daughter is I'll do what i need too) i tried the lice shampoo and she woke this morning and low and behold there was a little tiny bug crawling...i soaked her head in vinegar as it is suppose to work, well now after reading all of these comments on lice, I'm going to dye her hair, I'm a little sad about that as she has much nice blond long hair, but i hate bug more then i like her hair HAHA ....I'm going to try god shampoo and hair dye, i hope this works i can't live with bugs,,, i am sooo scared of bugs it is killing me knowing they might be there or back......thanks for all the feed back here and was good to see there are ways to possibly fix it,.... dog shampoo and dye haha....i can use the shampoo on my dog later hahah thanks all   my 12 year old has lice Comments By: charmaine the dye worked all goner WOOO HOOO....thank you all for taken time to add comments here and helping me ... her natural hair is very blonde i went as cloe to the color as i could and i bet no one will notice the color differnce it si soo close. thank you :) PS...i never got the dog shampoo...   Bactrim anti-biotic is amazing!! Comments By: alicia I have extrememly thick long hair!! when i was 17 i caught headlice and after 3 months of crying I almost shaved my head..a dermatologist gave me Bactrim (sulfer based anti botic for three weeks) and poof gone :)   Bewildered Comments By: mom of twins Recently, my children arrived home armed with letters from their school informing parents of the epidemic in the school. These letters described the proper method of treating head lice. These methods included applying the "Lice" shampoo Rid, Nix, or even the generic versions, as well as combing thruough your child's hair with the included comb. No where did it recommend any home remedies for treatment. Fortunately, a friend of mine told me home remedies actually work better than the specific treatment products. There remains one thing that leaves me bewildered. Many people leaving comments seem to be unaware of preventative remedies. Applying hair products proves effective against reinfestation. Each morning that my children prepare to leave for school, they apply mousse, style their hair, apply gell to the exposed roots, and finally after they complete their style, they cover their hair with hair spray. They may go to school with hair as hard as helmets, however, they never again returned home with any symptoms.   neem oil Comments By: becky hi we had head lice all the time wen we was growin up my mom always got rid of them, now i have 2 children a boy n girl my daughter hair is so long n thick she had head lice and was so hard 2 get rid of them she had them 4 months but then my mom told me wat she used 2 do and it really works!!!! neem oil mixed with jasmine oil it clogs the gils so the bugs DIE it doesnt smell very nice but trust me it the best thing 4 kids hair and it has no chemicals and lots of coming them out... 4 me yes i jus used hair die 4 adults this works i wud never die my kids hair no way so try pure neem oil.... x   killing nits Comments By: ANON you have to take anything that you cannot wash in the washing machine or dry clean in plastic bags for 2 weeks. This includes pillows,blankets that will not fit in your washer, stuffed animals. At the end of the 2 weeks you need to take everything outside and shake it and then bring it back in to your house.   head lice nightmare Comments By: michelle i am a mother of 3, they hav all suffered with head lice and are now clear,the only problem now is that i hav them, i hav tried dying my hair in bid 2 kill them but no luck. i hav also tried many many lice products with no success.i hav very long hair and it is difficult to put combe through,i am at end of my tether, can any body HELP!!   Nits forever!? Comments By: Karen My daughter has had headlice since she started playschool aged 4, she is now almost 13!!! and I'm at the point where I want to shave all our heads, despite endless combing and combing and combing... I have tried every from otc remedies, to fabric softener!!! I dye my hair every 6-8 weeks and must admit, the itching stops on me, after finding about 10 of the damn things in my own hair. I'm now going to try hair dye on my daughter (she fancied a new colour anyway) but is it safe as she's epileptic?! Worth a try as I wanna scream every time she starts scratching and we both have long and very thick hair! I've seriously considered trying pesticide that farmers spray their crops with, but obviously that would be potentially lethal, but the little sods are a nightmare. Surely, there must be someone able to create something to kill them 1st time! Afterall, we can cure cancer etc, so why not something to eradicate these pesky little things that make you wanna scream!   never get nits AGAIN!!!!! Comments By: lori i hv nits every body and if you hv them tell your mum to go and wash yuor hair and get permanant hair dye ok tell everybody on msn to go and do that if they have nits it will get rid of them FOR SUREEEEEEEEEEEE   MORE WORK,WORK,WORK Comments By: anon I HATE THEM NITS GET OUT OF MY HAIR i am 12 years old going on 13 i dont want they all my life they give you scabs in your hair and you iche like hell GET OUT OF MY HAIR!!!!!!!!!   WASH YOUR HAIR TWICE EVERY WK Comments By: ellie blick when i found out i had nits i told my mum right away and she said lots of thins and i wasn't allowed to go to school til they were gone and so if u hv them tell your mum to wash your hair twice every wk and put lots of shampoo and condition and then leave your hair in a towel to dry then they should go if not put some permanemt hair dye that will KILL THEM NITS 4 sure wish you luck   OH BOTHER!!!! Comments By: michziggy i'm 18 and recently i've been getting a really itchy scalp :S. a few days ago i felt an itch close to my hairline... lo and behold... the juciest lice bug ever.... or at least that i've seen... thank god i get out of class early... i'm soooooooo dyeing my hair !!!!!!!! GRR sooo GROSSSSSS!!!! no idea how or wear i got it. i've never seen lice before until i yanked one out and googled it... *vomit* i shall post again when i have my results!   Kerosene WORKS Comments By: SmellsofKerosene Here in Northern Florida, lice is pandemic. That means the environment makes a great home for them to live, and getting rid of them impossible. My daughter and I had a very long embarrassing battle with the buggers until I used the old timey remedy- Kerosene! It WILL kill them and the eggs. But it is so toxic I want to try the dye method. My daughter is no longer living at home, and I think I just have a psychosomatic case of itchy-ness, but I am dyeing my hair as a precaution. My head always itches anyway, and I have not seen any.   Hot iron Comments By: pam I used a ceramic straightening iron on my daughters head today. I'm just going to burn the bugs.   annoying Comments By: anna I am a senior in a pretty big highschool its Novemeber now and iv been getting lice since sept. on and off, a friend who would drive me to work didnt know how to clean his darn car after having his brother in it who had lice and fleas ew, so every friday when hed give me a ride low and behild id have lice again well i did the treatmjents friday nights for weeks did all my beding and floors went mad with lice spray basicly and it went away for a few weeks get in the car again and i get it again finaly i decided to use hair dye and it worked but somehow i got it again i belive from my boyfriends house his mother watches his cousins during the say and well there not the cleanest family he gets nothing bc of all his hair spray (long hair) and his sisters hair got 'checked' at school let me tell u they take chop stick things and they tosle ur hair if you have a small bug theyd never know and his cusion who basicly lives with them helped sort laundry which includeded his beding which i had beed on..now i have to go a night with out seeing him a day in school knowing i have it and a night dying it i have gone crazy tonight with laundy and soaking my brushes and just scraping my scalp with the little crap comb they suck on thick hair, as a senior in hs i hate this i just got over the flu and im not in the mood for this crap!! the hair dye did work though im just hoping i can keep it away now im thinking of using more hair spray then usally this way they cant get in!