Does the Olive Oil Treatment Work for Lice

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.