Last year, both my kids got lice. It was THE worse. I remember thinking that I would rather they get swine flu than lice. I shaved my boy’s head. It took HOURS to comb through and treat my girl’s head. With that and washing and bagging everything, I was pooped out. For the rest of the year, it kept going around school. Sheer misery.
And as a single mom, I keep thinking… who’s checking MY head for lice?! Huh? My head itches just writing this post.
Scootie-Cootie Organic Leave-In Conditioner & Detangler
I was going to title this, “How to Say Goodbye to Lice” but even better than saying goodbye to lice is NEVER say hello to them in the first place! I am armed and ready with preventative measures!
As you can see here, my girl is all about the Happyheads spray detangler. She does it every day, by herself, without any prompting!
Hey, she had to sit through the treatment too! My kids like the way the shampoo and spray products smell. They even asked me to get a second set for dad’s house.
These 10 tips to avoid head lice were sent to me by Melissa, the creator of Happyheads!
1. ALWAYS wear long hair off the shoulders. A bun or tight braids are the best.
2. Blow dry hair whenever possible. Dry heat kills lice and their eggs.
3. Go for the straight look. Use a flat iron — it can kill nits.
4. NEVER share brushes, combs, hair ties, hats, helmets or bath towels. Or especially for drama students, wigs and costumes.
5. Make great friends at school but keep your distance. Remember that head lice don’t jump or fly, but transfer mostly through head-to-head contact. HUG WITH CAUTION!
6. Don’t lounge around on couhces or rugs. Keep your head off these surfaces.
7. DON’T wash your hair everyday. Head lice prefer CLEAN hair. Take a vacation from super clean hair.
8. NEVER ignore an itchy head. Get help… tell your parents, a teacher or the school nurse so they can check your head for nits (eggs).
9. Use Happyheads (TM) GelREpel Nontoxic Spray EVERYDAY. It’s organic, non-toxic, and all natural
10. Spread the Happiness, not the head lice. Share these tips with your friends. If they don’t get it, chances are neither will you!
11. Parents, check you kids regularly. Use the Happyheads Nontoxic Shampoo routinely (once a week). If they have an early onset of head lice, you’ll be ahead of the bugs’ life cycle, thus avoiding an infestation. Shampooing will also protect your children from other infested children who bring head lice back from camp, vacations, and school.
My friend Julie says hairspray along the neckline helps. And Jen says… leave town! LOL! Seriously though, they die within 48 hours with no human host. If you have any other tips on preventing and treating lice, please share.
p.s. To all my sweet girlfriends (ZM, Carolyn, Charlotte, Julie, Jen) who have offered to check my head, I truly love you and actually, even if I was married, I’d trust your lice check more. 
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the new advice is just to treat them, wash everything and send them back to school – according to Good morning america or one of those shows. If someone at school has it, they’re going to keep getting it so why miss all that school? throw some mousse in their hair and you’re good. after treating the kids 3 times and cancelling Maria’s 4th bday party, that’s where I’m at. Hope I just didn’t blacklist my kids with this – they’re clean last time I checked, I swear!
Mousse?
The lice road is one I would like to NEVER go down again…my daughter had it last year in Kindergarten and it threw me over the edge. Between the vacuuming, enormous amounts of laundry, shoving pillows and stuffed animals into trash bags. I am determined to not get it again. Since the “incident” last year, I have been shampooing her hair with a preventative shampoo, spray in conditioner and then the spray in the morning before school. Knocking on wood as I’m typing, we have not had any recurrence. If I could offer a suggestion, buy a metal comb to comb the lice out. I treated her hair last year and use the plastic comb that came with the kit until another mom told me that I needed the metal comb…she was absolutely right. The metal combs do a much better job of removing the lice and the nits.
I have this theory that the reason it keeps coming back is for just that reason, Heather, that is hasn’t really been FULLY treated. I get the no missing school but seriously?! It’s gross, uncomfortable for everyone and there will be no end to it if kids come back to school with lice still.
IF that is what’s going on at our school, I want to just make sure my kids have something on their own heads that make them the least appealing to the creatures as possible. But that is not toxic or disgusting to humans! How’s that?
Any other thoughts or remedies? I’ve heard lots of things… tea tree, mayonnaise.