Olive Oil Treatment for Head Lice.
‘Does the Olive Oil Treatment Work for Head Lice?’ you may ask, and with good reason.
Head lice are certainly difficult to eradicate: even with the use of harmful commercial insecticide preparations, head lice can be pesky, determined little creatures.
Olive Oil Treatment for Head Lice is a perfectly natural way in which you can get rid of head lice. It takes a little more effort than using a commercial poison, but the effort in protecting your child from harmful potentially carcenogenic poisons is certainly well worth it.
There are, of course, some commercially made herbal or homeopathic preparations which are safe to use, but many of the standard hair lice treatments contain very harmful toxic substances which get absorbed into the scalp, then into the blood stream, then into the liver, where they get stored and wreak their damage to the immune system.
Olive oil is actually very beneficial to the skin, and to the hair and scalp, so by using the olive oil treatment for head lice, you get to condition your hair too, and encourage hair regrowth.
The best procedure for using the olive oil treatment for head lice is:
- Wash the hair in the evening with a good plain soap. Try to avoid shampoo, unless it is one which does not have any petrochemicals in it, or other harmful substances.
- After rubbing the hair dry with a towel, massage about a half a cup of olive oil straight into the hair, a tablespoon or so at a time. Rub it well in. You may need more, or less, oil, depending on the length and the thickness of the hair. The scalp, and all the hair should have a covering of olive oil now.
- The next step is to wrap it up in a towel, or a cap which will protect your pillow slip and your sheets while you sleep with the left on overnight.
- In the morning, wash out the oil with plenty of soap and warm water. Make sure all the soap is washed out thoroughly.
- Comb out with a fine toothed comb.
- Put two or three dabs only of liquid iodine onto the scalp and massage it in. The children won’t mind this, as it does not smell: Tea tree oil is great too, but children really hate to go to school with this on their scalp, as it is a tell-tale sign of head lice.
- Send the children off to school, and get ready for the next thing:
- You must now wash all the bedding and towels in hot water. Sheets and pillow cases for all the beds in the house must be ironed before use. If you can’t get to wash the linen that day, then do iron the sheets and pillow cases on the beds. This is important. Ironing the sheets must be done each day until you have eradicated the lice, as the eggs are continually hatching out. The idea is to destroy the eggs before they hatch into lice.
- As well, all clothing, especially shirts and collars where the eggs might lie, must be ironed before wear.
- Avoiding recontamination is the important thing. Ironing is the way to avoid recontamination.
This olive oil treatment must be continued each night for a week. After that, you can reduce the applications to twice a week for several weeks. After that, you can use the olive oil treatment once a week, just to make sure, and to keep the hair in good condition.
Ironing is an integral part of this procedure for eradicating head lice. The lice get the message, actually. Very soon they get the idea that all their efforts are being thwarted, and that their eggs are perishing. They just hate that heat.
You do not need to apply the iodine every single day. Put a dab or two of iodine onto the scalp about twice a week until the lice have gone, then apply iodine to the scalp once a week as a deterrent to the lice.
So – Does the olive oil treatment work for lice? The answer is yes, but there is a method to it, which requires persistence.
I used olive oil to get rid of lice in my daughter’s hair and it works wonders. I think that it works even better than the commercial preparations!
Hello Cori – Thankyou for your feedback. That’s just great. Your comment might convince other people to try it too.
Best Regards, Merrilyn.
As i read your steps to remove lice with olive oil i did all the steps you suggested, they all worked great!! When i removed the shower caps from my daughters head the next morning the bugs were dead!!!! I was so relieved, its not until i got down to one of the middle steps that i got both confused and worried!!! I was confused because you said to send them to school after this! Now as a mother of 2 school age kids who also works full time i know there is no way to keep your kids in a bubble, but i also know that sending them to school is also not the answer. Coming into contact with an effected person is one of the ways this is spread!!!!!!!!! I was worried that no matter how long i keep my daughters home another mother will not!!!! And they will keep on getting infected!!!! Please update this information. Andrea Alvarez(mother)
Hello Andrea – Great you have had success with the olive oil treatment on the children’s head lice problem. But you do not need to stop sending them to school. The idea is to use natural things on the hair which the lice don’t like, so that they don’e come back. Reinfestation can occur anywhere – at home, on buses, at school, at the movies from the seats on which you sit – etc etc. The thing you must do is follow the procedures for using apple cider vinegar on the hair. A dab or two – only a little – of IODINE on the scalp just once or twice a week, also helps deter those creatures. I will put up another update for you on the things you can do to stop them coming back. Thanks for your good comments, though – I am sure a lot of people have the same thoughts. Regards, Merrilyn.
Olive oil can be quiet messy when applied. The olive oil is meant to suffocate lice but then it does not guarantee that it will totally kill the lice.
No – Using olive oil to eradicate head lice doesn’t kill the eggs, for sure. This is why applications of the oil must be continued over about a two week period, every few days or so, to ensure that all the nits – the eggs – are killed as they hatch. The oil also helps to stop any live lice from laying eggs.. As well as the oil treatment, you can apply iodine twice a week, just three or four drops, after the oil has been washed out. Alternatively, you can use apple cider vinegar on the hair after the oil has been washed out. These measures will kill the lice. But you must make sure all your sheets and pillow cases, and shirts, etc, are ironed, to kill any eggs that may be lying there.
What do I do about the carpets? I tried vacuuming and a toxic spray, but I feel things biting me (don’t know if I’m imagining it…) (and I’m sensitive to DE, tea tree oil, strangely as much as the pesticide spray!)… While I don’t have a dryer, I was curious whether or not a dryer would work as well as the iron? As I have a lot of fatigue… (I’d have to sell my car to get a dryer, but I can’t drive anyways, so, inspiration…)…
Personally, I would never use a toxic spray anywhere, either outside or inside the house. Using sprays such as these inside your house is especially bad for your health. Read my story intitled “Poisoned for my kidneys in Brisbane 2007” to get an idea about the possible consequences of spraying toxic chemicals around your house.
They are not necessary. Continuing to vacuum your house daily, and using either a home-made homeopathic lavender solution to spray around the house, or a commercial homeopathically prepared organic combination such as that made by Weleda Products in Havelock North, New Zealand, will do the trick in eradicating unwanted pests from your home.