By Melissa Corkhill
19th January 2009
The best way to avoid headlice is to have a preventative routine that you use when your children come into contact with nits at school. Regular brushing and combing, for example, is a good way to maintain scalp and hair health and to keep headlice away.
How to prevent lice:
- Tie long hair up while at school or with other kids.
- Put a drop of lavender onto your child’s hairbrush. The oil rests on the hair and deters lice from settling.
- Regular brushing stops nits from hanging around.
- Once a week or so do a quick nit check. Look behind the ears, under the fringe and at the nape of the neck. If there are just a few eggs follow this with a shampoo and then comb through with a fine tooth nit comb. Use conditioner to make the job easier. Rinse the conditioner out and then follow with a quassia bark rinse.
- Use neem shampoo once a week as a preventative.
Make your own: Quassia Bark Rinse
To make the rinse, soak a large handful of quassia bark chips (available from a herbalist or local health food store) in a one and a half litres of cold water overnight. Strain through a colander into a bowl and then it is ready for use. Bottled and stored in the fridge it will last for about a week. This herbal treatment is good as a preventative and effective in getting rid of nits too, if used every two days. Spray onto head using a spray bottle – make sure all hair is covered. Leave in, if possible. It doesn’t smell unpleasant but you can add a drop or two of lavender to the bottle to give it a scent.
There are other herbal preparations that can be used in the treatment of headlice. We would recommend choosing these over standard pharmaceutical products, but nothing can beat a regular combing session, through wet hair to eradicate nits.
DELACET HERBAL HEADLICE SOLUTION £9.99
A herbal based treatment containing tincture of Larkspur. The active ingredient of the plant is called delphinine and is a strong insecticide and parasiticide. Can be used on dreadlocks, no combing required.
NITTY GRITTY COMPLETE PACK £27.99
Free from organophosphates and pesticides the Aromatherapy Headlice Kit contains just natural ingredients and comes with a mean looking NitFree comb. Repellent Spray helps protect against reinfestation.
NEEM TEAM HEADLICE TREATMENT PACK £20
Organic neem oil shampoo and conditioner combine with pure neem oil to provide the sweetest smelling natural treatment and prevention against headlice.
BOTANICALS HEADLICE TREATMENT KIT £24
A neem and tea tree botanical shampoo and conditioner contains herbal extracts to erradicate lice. Plus lavender and rosemary leave-in fi nishing spritz and two combs.
Do you have any tips on removing or preventing nits? Please do share them.
