A friend in Manhattan was telling me about the three times that she has been afflicted with lice in her (moderately long) hair, an inevitable consequence of being a mother of three. “Combing lice and nits out of [the oldest daughter’s] hair must have been a pain,” I said. The teenager has long and tightly curled hair. “We hire someone to do it,” she responded, “a professional nitpicker.” How long does it take? “About an hour.” How much does it cost? “Two hundred seventy-five dollars.”
[As it happens, this family is upper middle class (i.e., at best middle class for Manhattan), so I think this is the going rate for the service. This NY Times article from 1995 says that the rate at the time was about $30 per hour.]
Mayonnaise. Since it’s east coast, I’ll suggest Hellman’s. Disregard the professionals who say it’s just a home remedy. It is. And it works.
(OTOH, these days if I did it over I might try and convince my girls that a short buzz cut that they grow out would be pretty awesome if done right.)
My daughter brought home lice once when she was in elementary school and was absolutely mortified/ freaked out by the idea of being infested by a living creature. The psychological effects were far worse than the physical, which were minimal. The over-the-counter insecticide treatment was worthless – the bugs had long since developed resistance and were completely unphased by it – they seemed to enjoy it. I eventually got the doctor to prescribe a treatment with Malathion (Ovide), a good old fashioned organophosphate insecticide (we used it back on the farm to kill the lice on the chickens) and that worked great. Somehow, this stuff has escaped getting banned like DDT – it’s a miracle that they haven’t found some excuse for banning it. The OTC stuff was a total waste of time and money and only prolonged my daughters mental suffering. The Malathion kills the lice AND the nits (eggs) so you don’t have to pay for the nit lady. It comes in a solution of isopropyl alcohol so you have to be careful not to set you child on fire, but other than that I didn’t notice any side effects. Don’t even bother with the OTC stuff.
+1 for the Mayo. Or, out here, we use hand lotion. Here’s a detailed explanation of how to do it effectively – you need to apply it once a week for three weeks to kill subsequent generations that hatch.
1. Chemical treatments seem to be the first resort for many people. I never found any of them to be effective.
2. Cutting your child’s hair when they get lice gives your child an idea of your values, i.e. their appearance vs. the public health. Not cutting your child’s hair will also give your child an idea of your values.
3. Manually delousing a child takes a minimum of 1 hour, good light, and good eyes. It may take several hours. Lice combs are available on Amazon or at pet stores as flea combs. Look for metal ones with fine teeth.
4. Your child’s school has to inspect all the kid’s in your child’s class for lice. Also, the classes of your children’s friends. Make sure this happens so other parents don’t have to waste their time too.
>1. Chemical treatments seem to be the first resort for many people. I never found any of them to be effective.
If you are referring to pyrethrum based over the counter treatments, you are absolutely right. Lice became resistant to those treatments a long time ago. Why they are allowed to continue selling a product that is totally ineffective is a mystery to me.
However, as I mentioned above, the malathion based treatment (prescription in the US but not in other countries) is very effective (in most cases a single treatment does the job), if you are the sort of person who doesn’t go crazy at the thought of covering your precious child’s head with organophosphate insecticide. It’s quite safe according to the FDA.