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Q. Both of my boys were sent home from school with head lice. The checklist given to me by the school nurse said that in order for them to return to school, I must treat their scalps with an insecticide.
I used a head lice treatment containing permethrin and it was completely ineffective. Both children were refused readmission to school and I was instructed to reapply the insecticide that day (despite the package instructions that treatments should be spaced at least 7 days apart).
I took them home and washed their hair, towel-dried it, then saturated it with Listerine and covered their heads with shower caps. I left the shower caps on for two hours, then we removed them and I combed with a lice comb.
The next day they washed their hair, toweled it dry and I sprayed their hair with Listerine and combed.
The lice are gone even though the infestation was severe. Prior to the Listerine treatment I combed hundreds of lice from their hair. Listerine was MUCH more effective than the insecticide.
A. There are reports that lice have developed resistance to some insecticides used in lice shampoos. We first heard about using Listerine against lice in 1999. A reader reported spraying it on her child’s head before his possible exposure to lice.
A lice expert once told us that she thought the alcohol (26.9 percent) in Listerine was toxic to lice. The herbal oils found in Listerine (thymol, eucalyptol, menthol and methyl salicylate) may also contribute to the effect.
The eucalyptol and menthol found in Listerine are a great deterant for head lice. As The only nonprofit head lice treatment facility in the country we see hundreds of cases of head lice each week. No Product kills the nits and nothing makes the nits fall out of the hair. There is no substitute for knowing what you are looking for, Taking the time to do the treatment right, and checking closest contacts. We like to say "If you don't have time to do it right the first time, you must have time to do it again." I commend the parent for not wanting to overexpose her child to pesticidal products. Over treating only adds to resistance issues. Here at Lice Solutions we only treat when waranted and we only use safe non toxic products. For more info about Lice Solutions please visit www.licesolutions.org Web and phone support available for people outside the range of our treatment facilities in West Palm Beach, FL and Nashville, TN.
I have used this remedy on myself and my daughter. It works. The insecticides are some nasty stuff to be putting on our loved ones scalp. Listerine is much gentler and doesn't expose them to harsh chemicals.
Strong vinegar softens the glue that holds the nits to the hair shaft. Blow drying the hair also is a huge deterrent to head lice.
Learned from experience.
I have a child who is extremely prone to head lice. If she gets within fifty feet of it, I swear they run over to her! We have tried lice shampoos that she says hurt. We tried the mayonnaise treatment, which works if you do it a few times, but is very hard to get back out of her hair.
I put listerine all over her hair and when I combed it out everything was dead. It's four days later and still no sign of active lice. From now on I plan to rinse her hair twice a week and see if we can't prevent the little buggers.
I am a hair stylist and this comes in handy for another option to my clients to get rid of those pest. I will be telling all my young moms about this site and what I learned by coming to it. I even printed off several copies to give to my co-workers.
Respectfully, MJB
My daughter has gotten lice 2x. Both times I used
RID first. It did absolutely nothing. Then I used listerine followed by vinegar. It works so well.
After I rinsed it out and combed through her hair and found a bunch of dead lice. The vinegar is supposed to loosen the nits, and I was combing through the nits were falling out.
I LOVE the LISTERINE method. My two children had lice. I tried and repeated Nix twice. With Nix I was still combing out crawling lice. The 'residual' of the Nix is supposed to eventually kill them all, but I never saw that actually happen. I followed all the instructions. I washed every piece of clothing in hot water, vacuumed up a storm, quarantined soft toys, and replaced linen daily. I combed, and combed, and combed for hours, for weeks, and still they came back. I was exhausted. Eventually, out of desperation, I tried Listerine. I soaked all our hair in Original Listerine, applied shower caps, and waited two hours. With Listerine, all I ever combed out were little corpses. Any lice I saw were dead!
I repeated the process once a week for about 6 weeks. That’s probably more than needed, but I wasn't taking any chances. I wanted to make sure I got anything that survived, hatched, or re-infested. Eventually I stopped combing because frankly I figured dead lice wash right out. When I was using the Listerine I was careful about the linen, but I did not obsess over the house. I focused on heads. FYI - I did not spray the Listerine. I poured it on or used a color applicator bottle (like if you color your roots), so we wouldn’t breath the mist. I switched to tea tree oil and coconut shampoos, and now keep all our combs in Barbicide like at the hair salon.
We are finally lice free. I highly recommend the Listerine method. I will never go back to Nix. If you have read this far, you are probably battling lice yourself, and I know how you feel . . . . Focus on heads. Use Listerine. Repeat the treatment. Recheck hair often. Be diligent. Hang in there. Hope this helps. Good Luck!
I'm 13 weeks pregnant and just discovered yesterday that I had caught lice from my niece. Very embarrassing to get lice at 30 when you don't even have your own kids! Rid and similar products were out of the question and I was seriously thinking that I was going to have to spend the next 6 months infested with lice because I couldn't use any chemicals.
I tried the olive oil and shower cap thing last night but it didn't really work so I set out to find another home remedy. When I stumbled upon the Listerine remedy, I didn't think it would work, but I had some already and figured it wouldn't hurt to try. I can't believe how well it worked! Why isn't this common knowledge? It was cheap, easy, and safe! My whole family has spent tons of money on chemicals and other crazy remedies when the whole time the solution was in the bathroom!
What a lifesaver this was! I will definitely spread the word so that others can save money and a big hassle.
I'm trying this Listerine remedy tonight... but what happens afterwards? How long do I wait before I can start treating my hair normally again (using regular shampoos, conditioners, gels, etc.)?
I have been battling lice for 3 months with my daughter. My husband, son and myself have been infected, but not like my baby. She is a lice magnet, if lice are going around, 9 chances out of 10, she will get it. I have spent so much money on lice shampoo and sprays, but she keeps getting it back.
I have spent countless hours getting nits out of her hair, washing laundry, bagging toys and vacuuming. I decided to look online this morning to see if there were any other ways to defeating this dilemma. I came across this site and others like it, suggesting to use Listerine to eliminate lice and vinegar to easily remove nits.
It is now 4:35 p.m. I will post another comment in 2 hours to let everyone know the results. keeping my fingers crossed!!!
Just tried this today. I found head lice on my daughter last Sunday after dinner and ran to the store to buy conventional treatments (RID). After spraying and vacuuming the house, washing everything, treating my daughter, and spending 2 hours combing LIVE lice and nits out of her hair, I treated myself and belatedly realized I'd had an allergic reaction to pyrethrins as a teen (30 years ago!). I knew I couldn't use the RID again; my mom told me she'd heard of using Listerine and advised me to check out your site.
I combed through her hair repeatedly during the week and picked out a few more live ones, then treated her today with the Listerine and a shower cap (2 hours). I then combed through her hair, re-spraying with Listerine as I went (she covered her face with a towel). The only critters I found were DEAD.
I have washed linens and vacuumed all the furniture again, but my plan is to continue to check her head a couple times a week, use Listerine after her cream rinse, and re-treat with Listerine if I see any new ones. It is safe, inexpensive, and it actually WORKS.
2 weeks later, and no sign of recurrence in my long-haired daughter after the initial Listerine treatment and combing... 8 other kids in her class have been diagnosed, but she has not been reinfected. I continue to spray her hair with Listerine and comb through after every shampoo.
Do you rinse the Listerine out afterwards?
Can you use the generic form of listerine?
Yes, the generic is fine, but you should use the plain kind since I heard the flavored ones have sugar in your hair that makes it sticky, but if you don't care about that, it doesn't matter, and most importantly, it REALLY works! I did it to my daughter's hair this morning, and the bugs were DEAD, then followed by vinegar and they came right off, then I followed up with coconut conditioner and left it in her hair all day to dry, and will only rinse it tomorrow morning, and now I'm sitting here with Listerine in MY head. Only downside is I'm feeling a little lightheaded because of the fumes from the Listerine and my scalp is burning a little from scratching all the sores in my head, but it will be worth it I know in the long run.
Good luck!
Listerine is a great solution. It used to be listed on the label 10 to 15 years back. I don't know if they took it off for marketing or FDA reasons.
I have battled lice more than once and I am TIRED. I called my ped and they recommended Vaseline, which I did and then my girls looked like they had shellacked heads even after 10 washings with Dawn dish detergent.
Finally my Mother-in-law read that coating the hair with baby oil and then washing with dawn would get the Vaseline out, and you know what, it worked. They went to school on Monday with normal hair. I have been spraying their hair with Listerine but tonight I feel itchy so I am going to do the Listerine treatment to myself and see what happens.
My girls seem fine 9 days later but we'll see. I've been checking and found nothing at all since the Vaseline, but I am not sure we're clear. I'm scared, I want to be done!
Listerine works! I poured it on my daughter's thick hair and let it sit with a plastic cap for two hrs. THEN put on the vinegar. THEN combed out. Gone! I also purchased some coconut suave shampoo and use that daily. I am also going to use Denorex as a precaution as I read somewhere they do not like tar as well.