Anonymous wrote:All you need is the right comb and the right technique, and patience. Chemicals never actually worked.

This sounds similar to people during the pandemic saying, "all you need is to wash your hands, nothing else works."

All you need is the right comb and the right technique, and patience. Chemicals never actually worked.

NOT SURPRISED!
I was shocked when I learned how many users here are trying to normalize people having lice.
It was mostly a non-issue even in my parent's country, which many American's refer to as "3rd world", and yet we never saw kids, really poor kids who were coming to school with dirty unwashed clothes, with lice there.

I figured there must be something going on for so many parents here to be talking about lice.

Anonymous wrote:The key to getting rid of lice is a proper comb-out, done multiple times over a week. It takes practice to master but is not difficult.

My child has had lice several times (not recently thankfully), so I’m a pro at this, even with DD having long curly hair. I use zero drugs/special shampoos/oils/etc. A lice comb is all I need.

This. The drugs alone have never solved the problem. Comb comb comb is the only way.

Anonymous wrote:My kid had lice earlier this school year. A chemical treatment did nothing. We went to Lice Clinics of America and they took care of it. So much better than trying to get my husband to check me (dubious) and me trying to get nits of my daughter's thick, waist-length hair.

It is 100% worth it. It works with just heat and no chemicals. They comb out the nits afterward too.

You don’t use chemicals on lice. You need a good comb out and a hairdryer.

Anonymous wrote:Dimethicone seems to be the way to go now. Too bad the drugstores still sell products that don't work!

Yep. It smothers them, unlike the “chemical” lice treatments that “poison” the lice. The chemical treatments are likely to result in chemical treatment-resistant lice. Similar to the issue with antibacterial hand soap vs an alcohol based hand sanitizer.

In addition to braids, no sharing hats etc, and frequent comb outs - using some product also helps resist lice - the scent, and maybe how it changes the hair texture, makes it less desirable for lice.

As a PP said, after we had it we realized it wasn’t a sign of being dirty, or anything like that - in fact, clean hair is a better “target” for lice.

My daughter and I (both with lots of curly hair, mine is really thick) went to the Lice Treatment of America place when she got it in kindergarten - mine was “just in case” because they couldn’t be sure I didn’t have any, even though they didn’t find anything! It was surprisingly easy and almost relaxing!

Anonymous wrote:The key to getting rid of lice is a proper comb-out, done multiple times over a week. It takes practice to master but is not difficult.

My child has had lice several times (not recently thankfully), so I’m a pro at this, even with DD having long curly hair. I use zero drugs/special shampoos/oils/etc. A lice comb is all I need.

If your kid has had lice several times, either you have terrible luck or you may not be as good at getting rid of it as you think you are

Dimethicone works great. My daughter was allergic to something in the dimethicone based treatment we got from the drugstore, but I found some curly hair serum I had in hand that was dimethicone based. It worked great. Just use a ton and it suffocates those little guys. Do a thorough comb out, then repeat a week later.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before we had lice in the house, I thought lice was the equivalent of bed bugs.

I ended up calling one of those comb out services to come over and I was shocked at how misinformed I was.

Thankfully, only my DS had it, and we just combed out his hair once a day for 2 weeks and that was that. We changed his pillow case the first day on her recommendation, but that was it.

We've had it come through one more time and it was similar... an annoyance, but nothing more.

How long was his hair?

His hair is like Shaggy from Scooby Doo.

And I get that hair length contributes, don't get me wrong. But one of my biggest fears is bed bugs and so I was really dreading lice, and it turned out to be such a nothingburger.

Anonymous wrote:Dimethicone seems to be the way to go now. Too bad the drugstores still sell products that don't work!

Yes we've found the same! It really does work