Treating Head Lice

When it comes to treating head lice, there is wide variety of products available for you to do so. However, be advised that some of the recommended medications for treating head lice can be ineffective in doing so; while at the other end of the spectrum, there are those products that are way beyond what you need and wouldn’t be recommended.

Let’s take a look at a couple of the more common treatments and which ones are safe for us humans.

First of all, if you are shopping for head lice treatments - read the label of the product. As the consumer, it is incumbent upon you to do this. The manufacturer’s message can tell you quite a lot about the product and how this treatment in particular is going to work. You can then make an educated decision on the particular product.

Be mindful of such verbiage as "this treatment was effective in an anecdotal environment." First of all ‘anecdotal environment’ means unreliable and as such may provide little effectiveness for you in ridding yourself or family of head lice. At best, such a product probably has not been thoroughly tested.

If you are dealing with the scalps of young children, special caution is advised. You don’t want to potentially harm a child’s soft skin with too harsh of chemical treatment that many lice treatments contain. Certainly, if you aren’t sure or have any reservations at all check with your physician or your local pharmacist.

Treatment for head lice such as ‘Rid’ and ‘Nix’ might be too strong for young children. If so, you may want to opt for an anti-lice shampoo. Even though there are some effective home remedies that you may run across in your research, be mindful that they are indeed home remedies - you should use with much caution.

As far as head lice and the adult scalp; the most common recommendation for treatment is permethrin. Permethrin is the active ingredient in both ‘Nix’ and ‘Elimite’. Nix contains a 1 percent of the formula while Elimite containins a more potent 5 percent. In most head lice cases, only one application of permethrin is necessary to remove all of the lice from an individual.

If for some reason the over the counter cures for head lice are ineffective, you may need to opt for a stronger approach. Available only by prescription, Lindane is a drug which has shown to be rather effective. However, suffice it to say that with any prescription strength medication your physician will determine the amount and frequency of the application.

Some oral agents such as Septra or Bactrim can also eliminate head lice over a period of 7 to 10 days. Stromectol is another oral drug which can help to destroy the parasitic insects. .

Not only will you have to effectively kill the head lice present in your hair, but you’ll have rid your hair of the nits (eggs) that are left behind. In order to make sure you get all of the nits as well, you need to break down their natural adhesive which binds them to the hair itself. Using an application distilled white vinegar, you effectively break down the binding stickiness and easily accomplish this.

When inspecting the hair follicles for the nits, pay attention to area of the hair shafts that are within one centimeter of the scalp. If you observe nits that are located more than one centimeter away from the scalp, they are not likely to survive anyway.

With a little persistence, you can effectively treat even the heavier cases of head lice in the home.