Anonymous wrote:Combing out every other day is the most important thing, and avoid head to head contact/hugs/etc. unless you are combing everyone.

The obsessive washing, drying, and vacuuming won't make a difference. Healthy lice live on heads, not stuff. When people think lice are gone and later find another it is not because they caught it from a pillow. It's because they combed once or twice and missed some nits on the head.

Anonymous wrote:Make sure you pick out literally every egg. You have to use your fingernails, the comb doesn’t catch all the eggs. Doing this consistently at least every other night for two weeks is the key. I hated those things so, so much. Spread to my entire family which meant this process occupied two hours of our evenings for two weeks. I enjoyed drowning each of them in alcohol after removing them and really hope they suffered.

And yes to hot washing and drying every towel, all the linens that were exposed.

Anonymous wrote:Don't panic. It's actually not that hard to get rid of lice if you are diligent. I freaked out the first time my kid got it - like, really really freaked out. But by the 4th time, it was really no big deal. Especially not after bed bugs.

Just follow this routine for two weeks:

1. Treat the hair of EVERYONE in the house. If you can't use chemicals (like if you're pregnant, for example), then you can use detangler and do your own combout every night with a lice comb. Do one major close combout a week, and then for the next couple of days just do it in the shower. Do a combout every night, at least briefly, even if you do use chemicals.

2. Take all the bedding, blankets, anything fabric that people sit or lie on or play with, and wash it. If you can't wash it, just put it in a plastic bag and seal it up tight and put it in an unused corner somewhere for a couple of weeks. Be sure to dry everything thoroughly on high. DRYERS KILL LICE.

3. After the big wash, take all the bedding each night and run it in the dryer for 20 minutes every day. That will kill any lice that got onto it. Do the same with coats, hats, etc.

4. Contain laundry in plastic bags while waiting to wash or dry it. Vacuum regularly.

Keep this up for 2 weeks and the lice will be gone. Keep the brief combouts (like in the shower) going for a bit longer. You can even do them preventatively once a week once the lice are gone.

Anonymous wrote:I am not familiar with heat treatments, but if you want extra peace of mind I would do a complete comb through every other day for a week. The last time we got professional help with this (years ago before heat treatments were an option) they said to divide the hair into 6 different segments and put a rubber band around each section. Use the tip of a comb to section the hair very neatly (no overlapping pieces between sections). Undo one section at a time, spray with water and rub a bunch of Pantene conditioner in. Then run the lice come through several times and wipe the comb on a paper towel after each pass-through. Run your fingers through the conditioner residue each time and you will see if there are any nits or bugs. Do this for each section. Make sure you are scraping along the scalp with the comb When you are done run the lice comb through all of the hair again (this time not in sections. You’re just passing back through to make sure you didn’t miss anything between sections). Hope I am explaining this ok.