Itchy Head Anyone?
Once upon a time, a taboo subject, now more common than any of us would like to fully realise, headlice has been a problem for many, MANY a family. When I was a kid, it was a NIGHTMARE to have headlice. These days it has become so common it’s almost a status symbol.
It would have to be most parents worst nightmare to see their child itching and discover those tiny little brown eggs in the hair.
Most people start scratching just thinking about it! :) Hands up if you’re scratching right now? 
We’ve been pretty lucky with headlice so far. Princess Singstar has had 2 outbreaks in her 4 and a bit years at school so far. But we’ve managed to contain them to only her head and not spread them to the rest of the family.
I know people who’ve done some pretty desperate things after months and months of trying to get rid of the blighters.
What I really HATE about the whole “head-lice treatment” issue is the use of chemicals.
Farmboy tends to be a “hit em and hit em hard” type bloke (probably pretty normal). He’d rather use chemicals than risk the spread to others and have a hard time getting them eradicated from the house.
I don’t want to put those horrible harsh chemicals on my kids HEADS. So close to their developing BRAINS!
So, when NitWits approached me about trying their naturally based products, I was more than interested.
What really sparked my interest, upon investigating their site, was this comb:
My kids have thick hair so regular lice combs are almost impossible to get through their hair. This one, with the longer teeth, seems to get through it a lot better. You still need to segment the hair off but so far it’s working quite well.
Unfortunately, we haven’t actually had an outbreak of headlice to give it a try ON the lice but when we do (chances are it’ll happen again, schools seem to never get rid of it these days), I’ll let you know firsthand how it goes.
I also asked them to send me some of this:
I want to have it on hand ready in case there is another outbreak. Naturally, I haven’t had the chance to try it out yet but there are some interesting testimonials on the website that you can read. I know many people are skeptical about naturally based products and their effectiveness so it’s interesting to read these, particularly those who didn’t expect it to work.
Of course, prevention IS better than cure and the newest product NitWits have brought out is a Prevention Spray:
This one I have tried and I love the way it combines a detangler with the prevention ingredients to make combing out much easier.
I realise some people make their own prevention mixes but not everyone has the time or inclination to do so, so it’s good to know there is something on the market to make prevention easier.
NITWITS GIVEAWAY
To help promote their product range and get word of mouth spreading about their products, Nit Wits are offering a giveaway to readers of this site. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with your best tip for getting rid of headlice. If you’ve already tried a NitWits product and would like to tell us what you think, that would be great too (I’ll give an extra entry for those).
There are 2 packs of the above 3 items to giveaway and I’ll announce the winners on Monday.
In the meantime, NitWits products are available (and cheaper) through their online shop. Go check it out, they’re even offering FREE freight.
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Simple preventative: store bought 500ml spray bottle; one bottle tea tree oil. Tip oil into bottle top up with water. Daily use; shake bottle, spray hair, comb through. People here in the Adelaide Hills (a notorious lice hotspot) use this to keep their kids lice free. My grandchildren had lice in primary school, then my daughter started using this daily. Kids are now teenagers and still lice free. There is a “season” for lice and this is when you need to be most vigilant with the tea tree oil usage. DAILY. and it’s cheap.
We’ve had a few rounds of nits. I find it easiest and most thorough to go through by hand and pull all the eggs out. Time consuming but I find it works (my girls have very thick hair and none of the combs seemed to work). I then put one of the shampoos we’ve found effective to kill any live ones. Then I just check over the next few days for any new eggs. Usually there are none.
Libby
I have tried EVERYTHING, and what doesn’t work is the fact that every time I get rid of them, my kids come home with them the next day. At the begining of the year after 6 weeks free of them we had them on day one of school this year.
It is at the point now where I’m about to loose my spot in the daycare centre, and thus my job because whenever we get rid of them, we have them again the next day.
So my tip would be homeschool.
Nick had them for a whole term in kindy - I’d get rid of them & back they would come. So I bought a Robicomb. It is perfect! Since I purchased it there have been no nits in my house - and he is now in year 5. Maybe the nits have heard we have one & so haven’t jumped on the boys heads. Anyway, have never had to use it!
I have sympathy with Kin, it has seemed like Niamh constantly had lice at times. The others have shorter hair & don’t get them as much. But until recently, Niamh loved her long hair & didn’t want it cut. It was so frustrating to know that I had killed every living lice on her head & removed every egg, only to have her bring home a new batch the next week.
I’ve used that Nitwit comb - it is a good one, but don’t throw it into hot water to clean it - if the water is too hot, the metal spikey bits will come out of the plastic. But I liked the comb enough to buy another one after I destroyed the first.
I don’t like preventative sprays in general, the ones I’ve smelled have not been pleasantly scented.
I prefer not to use any of the chemicals to remove the lice. I use the cheap conditioner & comb method instead. We’ve worked out a routine that works for us - we have swimming lessons Sunday morning, get home & slather on the conditioner. I start combing through & checking while my husband starts lunch. As each child gets cleared they are sent to the shower to rinse the conditoner & have their after swim clean up.
I think one answer is to have bald homeschooled kids… !! Another could be to not let any kids play together at all!! Neither are probably reasonable answers i know.
The best thing that has worked for us is that my kids no longer shampoo their hair every day and so the little blighters cant stick to oily hair!!
I am already itching at the thought of lice thank you very much!! !
We use the NitWits comb now, tried others and they were not as good. The NitWits one really does the trick.
I check the girls and my hair every Sunday, we cover their hair in conditioner and use the NitWits comb to check for lice and / or eggs. Thankfully the last couple of weeks have been all clear :: phew ::
Having worked in child care for nearly ten years I’ve seen my fair share of head lice!
We had our first battle with lice over the Christmas holidays… I totally agree that the best way to deal with it is to comb out the eggs manually…. but I also have to confess that for us, that took HOURS and I really didn’t feel confident that I’d got them all. So we tried two varieties of natural treatments (both with very similar ingredients) to go along with the combing. I went natural primarily because I was pregnant, but also because I’m not a fan of using unnecessary chemicals (though even ‘natural’ chemicals can be harmful or not good during pregnancy so you really do need to check). I was surprised at how well they worked.
But you have to keep combing and keep treating 3-5 days apart… once is NEVER enough. So far keeping my girls tied back (and I mean really tied back in plates) to reduce head to head contact has worked well for us… fingers crossed it stays that way. Gees I hate head lice.
I’m not sure why but neither myself or either of my kids have ever had nits. We all have the same type of hair…perhaps it’s just not attractive to nits??? Whatever it is, I’m not complaining.
Should also add - tumble dry or iron the pillowcases to kill any eggs living there. We get more headlice problems in summer so I like to leave the pillows themselves out in the sun for a few hours to hopefully kill any lice eggs that made their way onto the pillow.
I always change the girls pillowcases after checking/treating the girls hair.
me again… forgot to mention that when getting the eggs out of the hair i dip the comb in vinegar and it helps catch the blighters and the eggs, dipping the comb into the vinegar after each lot of hair is combed… really works and also ikky to see how many black things are in the bottom of the plastic bowl afterwards that just get thrown away!
Head lice……my daughter had them for 18mths. We were treating them three times every 2 weeks. I ended up dying her hair just a shade lighter than her original color - the lice don’t like the texture, so that was my solution for her (my son at the same time I just shaved his head, he didn’t mind that).
My son had them not long ago, and I used Mooove, which seemed to work for us, with doing it once, and then again a week later. None since then (he is also in yr 9)
It’s also a good idea to wash any hats your kids might be wearing, as well as bedding and any soft toys they may sleep with.