Here’s an important fact about lice: they prefer clean hair. That’s right, lice are actually attracted to frequently washed scalps. They have an easier time laying eggs on and grasping relatively clean, oil-free hair.

So the answer is, you didn’t go wrong. In fact, you have probably been doing things right.

But isn’t it filthy to have lice on your hair?

There is no question that you want to remove lice once discovered. However, just to put lice in perspective, they are a major nuisance but not major health risk. Lice don’t carry diseases the way mosquitos do (now there’s a truly deadly and filthy bug). Mostly they just make you itch.

If left untreated for a long period of time, people will sometimes scratch their own scalps raw, which may result in infection. That is the single most likely negative health consequence of lice. However, if your child was just found today with lice, you are almost definitely in no such danger.

It just seems creepy.

It’s true, nobody wants to carry a small colony of bugs in their hair. But remember, your children are going to take their cues from you. If you panic needlessly and make a big deal, then they are going to feel more stigmatized when they go back to school.

Call Rona for a consultation– 310-880-5103.
We are happy to help

Our treatment process is based on five key principles:

• Use organic, non-toxic, food grade oils that have been clinically proven to immobilize lice and to help remove nits
• Use the best combs and tools available with proper techniques, because it makes a very big difference (and trust us when we say we have tried them all)
• Conduct a treatment regimen timed to maximally disrupt the life cycle of lice
• Leave behind a complete tool kit and show parents how to examine and comb for lice on their own if they choose to
• Walk families a thorough check-list of basic anti-louse house cleaning that is practical and do-able

Head Lice Treatment Products
Unlike some other people offering advice on lice treatment, our process never involves:

• Using exotic oils (like tea tree oil, rosemary oil, etc.) that are far more likely to irritate the scalp, and that have never stood up to serious clinical scrutiny
• Pushing unnecessary laundry additives, while countless studies have shown that the temperature of the wash is what matters
• Selling nervous parents on repellent products that really do nothing

Head Lice Removal Technique
If you had nothing but olive oil, the right nit comb, and a good education in louse removal techniques, you would wipe out more head lice than a warehouse full of Rid shampoo and tea tree oil. Our goal at NitWitty is to give you all that and more.

The reason is that lice have an easier time grasping and laying eggs on relatively oil-free and dirt-free hair.

Preventing Lice

So what is it that can be done? What if there is an outbreak at school, and you want to keep your kid from getting lice?

For individual families, we recommend a simple regimen based on common sense ideas, like:

• During an outbreak, conduct regular oil combings using a good nit comb (as NitWitty clients are taught to do)
• Use coconut oil or olive oil as a leave-in conditioner, using as much as you can stand without feeling greasy or smelling too much like the kitchen
• Teach your kids to hang their coats separately
• Keep a lint roller for car seats, theater chairs, and other areas where multiple kids put their heads against the same fabric over the course of a day

NitWitty also has a program to help schools minimize outbreaks and absent days, and manage proper parent training. It’s a bit too much to explain here, so please feel free to call us.

There are products in the market that say they have a repellent effect on head lice. None of these repellents have been demonstrated effective in clinical study. Panicked parents are willing to spend money for these products, and that’s why they exist. If you know of a repellent product that has actually been shown to work better than coconut oil and olive oil, and does not contain toxins or irritants, let us know.

First of all, I want to say that I love South Park for its irreverent and often obnoxious humor.  I don’t take it too seriously.  However, if you find South Park distasteful then please do not visit the link below.  This episode is par for the course with bawdy and politically incorrect material.

This cartoon deals brilliantly with the embarrassment issues kids and families feel around lice.  Mr. Garrison tells the class that one of them had lice.  Cartman leads the hunt to find out who it was, with a particular emphasis on railroading Kenny.  I won’t tell you how it ends.  Let’s just say that if you read what I have written on how over-the-top upset people sometimes get over lice, then you’ll understand why a little humor on the subject is appreciated.

Here is the episode in its entirety.

Rona

Here’s why we don’t use Rid:

Let’s understand what Rid does- it kills adult lice and adolescent newts. It is not effective for killing nits (eggs). In order to kills nits with medical shampoo (ie chemicals), you have to use some pretty nasty concoctions.

So using Rid accomplishes much the same thing as using a mixture of safe, food-grade oils and the proper combing techniques. In both cases the nits are left behind, alive and well, and have to be picked by a skillful and patient hand.

The effective ingredients in Rid and some other popular medicinal shampoos are called Pyretherins. They are derived from a chemical originally extracted from chrysanthemum flowers, and are generally safe. However some children, particuarly the younger ones, are sensitive to Pyretherins.

Yesterday, a young mom asked me, “Does this mean we’re dirty?”

Clearly, there’s some anxiety among our clients. So I want to answer this question once and for all…

Lice prefer clean hair over dirty hair. Clean hair is easier for them to colonize.

It’s true. Whether it’s the grasping and crawling lice do, or the gluing of nits (eggs) to the hair shaft… for some reason, lice have been shown to prefer clean hosts. The oils of unwashed hair tend to make colonization harder. So, no, you have not neglected your kids in any way!!!!

Human head lice have been around for hundreds of thousands of years. It seems that they are a fact of life. Maybe science could eradicate them, but since they are merely a very uncomfortable pest (the don’t carry any diseases in the way that mosquitoes carry malaria, for example), they haven’t merited the huge governmental effort it would take to eradicate them.

It seems they’re here to stay for the time being, and they’re on the lookout for clean kids.