I know as soon as you read this you may start feeling itchy and scratchy on your head and I apologize for that! September (and school) are coming up shortly and it's a good idea to look into preventative measures that one can take against dreaded lice. Lice love the start of school and seem to do their best 'work' at spreading, there.
Lice is totally natural but unfortunately also 'hardy.' If you think it's difficult to get rid of fruit flies at this time of year (tried apple cider vinegar yet?) lice will be even more tricky because the pesky things apparently looooove reproducing and they are quick and efficient at it.
Every time the dreaded 'A child in your child's school has lice' letter has been brought home, we all check our heads carefully and breathe a sigh of relief. It can happen to anyone at anytime; lice is not selective they just jump for an opportunity. Well, they can't jump technically, but they can very quickly slide from one head to another if the heads or hair are touching.
We had long ago heard about trying a few drops of Tea Tree Oil in shampoo and conditioner, and we took it one step further and put a couple of drops in a spray on detangler. Tea tree oil does have a distinctive (medicinal) scent but it can be important to use on your child in the younger grades where lice seems to really thrive. The scent of the tea tree oil in the hair detangler spray isn't terribly strong by the time it dries.
Once your child gets into junior high and high school, they really won't have as much head to head contact so for that reason they seem to get lice less often. It's just as well because I'm pretty sure many teens would be averse to wearing the 'eau de tea tree oil' scent to school.
Tea Tree Oil is available at Walmart.ca for $12.67 for the brand Holista that we have used over the years, which worked great for us as a preventative measure. This will last for a very long time! You are not using much in an entire shampoo bottle, just a few drops.
Lice is incredibly resistant nowadays to traditional lice remedies once it finds a new home on your child's head (and/or their siblings and you.) This is why it makes so much sense to buy some tea tree oil which lice apparently really hates. It's far easier to try to prevent them from hopping aboard your child's head than it would be to treat it.
Shipping is free at Walmart.ca only when spending over $50. If you spend under $25, you will have to pay a $5 order handling fee to receive in-store pickup OR to ship (with a shipping fee of around $5.97.) In this case it's worth it to top up your order to make it over $25 (You could check out some school supplies?) This way shipping will start from $5.97 and up but you won't have that order handling fee of $5!
It's ideal to top your order up to over $50, really, to get the free shipping. Using school supplies and some school lunch pantry snacks, a person could easily do this with money they would have had to spend on those items anyway.
What are your best lice tips - preventative, or curative? Please share with us whatever tips have worked for you!
I'll be buying some