I am far enough removed from it again that I can talk about it without itching. About two weeks ago now, my sweet little daughter asked me to put her hair up and to my total disgust, there were inhabitants in her hair. It was the first time in a very, very long time that they’ve had lice but years ago it was a pretty common occurrence. They have two households and it seemed that every time I picked them up from the other one, they had it again but the silver lining is that I have tried many, many different cures and treatments for lice and I can tell you which ones work.

At first I did the generic one that has been around forever and takes a so many treatments, weeks apart. That one doesn’t work.

After putting chemicals on their heads, I felt guilty and began researching natural treatments. The best one is: Taking a bath. Ok, that is the first step in many. Lice can’t swim and taking a bath with all the hair submerged for as long as someone can will kill all the living bugs crawling around leaving only the nits.

I have used mayonnaise as a treatment as well as coconut oil and they may or may not kill some of the nits too but if using these ones, you have to be sure to get every single nit out or you may have the same problem the next week.

After all the trials, I have found three products that really work and which I used very successfully a few weeks ago. My youngest had a play date that we did end up cancelling but for a quick and effective solution, we used Vamousse while my other daughter took a bath.  The fun thing was it made popping sounds as we applied it. This only happened on her, so we decided it was the living lice that were popping. Gross, I know, but it was also satisfying. Vamousse claims to kill all lice and nits within a fifteen minute application. I do believe this claim is true. I still had to pick out nits but they were kind of dry and less sticky than normal.

Once I was done with my youngest, after hours of nit-picking, I wasn’t too excited about doing it again so I used Lice Ice on my oldest. This treatment encases everything and stays on for twelve to fifteen hours. It was a Friday. She had nowhere to be and she thought it was kind of silly having lego person hair for the night. Once this was applied, I was free to wash and clean everything in the house. I used the lice and mite sprays and vacuumed, bagged up all the stuffed animals for a run through the dryer after all the tons of laundry off all five beds and couches were washed along with anything they’ve looked at in the last month.  They are still in bags. They may stay there for a while longer, which also kills them but I like to run them through a dryer anyway before they get a place back on a bed.

So in the morning, my oldest washed out the treatment and I threw a little Vamousse on her for good measure but when I went to pick out the nits, there weren’t any. The Lice Ice may be the best thing ever if it really took out all the nits with it. I cannot confirm that is what happened for sure because I didn’t look for nits in her hair after I found a big nasty lice bug hanging out there but one can assume there had been a few at least but I can confirm that after the treatments, there were none. Hallelujah!

Both my guy and used Vamousse on ourselves as well even though we didn’t have any signs of infestation but it was worth the peace of mind. It did seem to dry out my scalp and cause more itching, which results in paranoia and lots of hair checking.

That is the story of how we defeated the lice invasion in one twenty four hour period. I wish these invasions on no one but if they do attack, I hope this was helpful information.

I almost forgot. My third favorite product is Fairy Tales Rosemary Repel shampoo and conditioner. It smells rather pleasant and if it does what it says it does, perfect. It can’t hurt and again does provide a little peace of mind for preventing an invasion.