While lice supposedly suffocate and die when olive oil plugs their breathing holes, you need to apply it for six to eight hours under a shower cap because lice can survive without breathing for hours. You'll also have to comb to remove
Within a few minutes, the Olive Oil cuts off the oxygen and the lice start to move. If you wash the Olive Oil off too soon they will come back to life. It takes 6-8 hours for the head lice to die.
Some people also use things such as petroleum jelly, margarine, peanut butter, hair gel, mayonnaise, or cooking oils (e.g. olive, corn, canola). These do not kill lice.
Of the tested remedies, the team found that pure coconut oil was the only effective treatment. Within 4 hours of applying the oil, an average of 80% of the head lice were dead. The two most effective medicated shampoos killed 97.9% and 90.2% of lice in the same period.
Avoid using mayonnaise, olive oil, tea oils, petroleum jelly, margarine, or butter. These alternative treatments aim to suffocate the lice. They have not been proven to be effective and may be hard to wash out of the hair.
Washing, soaking, or drying items at a temperature greater than 130°F can kill both head lice and nits. Dry cleaning also kills head lice and nits.
Permethrin lotion 1% is approved by the FDA for the treatment of head lice. Permethrin is safe and effective when used as directed. Permethrin kills live lice but not unhatched eggs.
The olive oil will suffocate the lice, but not the eggs and you will need to repeat the treatment several days later until all of nits are removed. Other types of suffocating agents have been suggested, but olive oil appears to be the most effective.
What repels head lice? Coconut, tea tree oil, lavender, eucalyptus, rosemary, lemon grass, and peppermint are scents popularly believed to repel lice. Using any coconut scented shampoo and conditioner is an easy way to increase your defense. At 1% concentration, tea tree oil killed 100% of head lice after 30 minutes.
Wash in hot water (130° F or 54° C). This kills lice and nits. Items that can't be washed (hats, coats, or scarves) should be set aside. Put them in sealed plastic bags for 2 weeks.
Tea tree oil appears to be able to kill some live lice (at least when used in conjunction with lavender oil), however we know that over-the-counter lice treatments are far more effective at killing live lice and getting rid of the eggs once an infestation has occurred.
An effective non-chemical method of controlling lice is baby oil or mineral oil. Simply saturate the hair with the oil at night, wrap the head with a towel to avoid staining sheets and pillowcases, then in the morning, and shampoo the hair to remove the oil.
How It Works: Baby oil not only makes suffocates the lice but also makes the hair slippery making it difficult for the eggs to remain attached to the hair.
The only way to prevent them from hatching would be to remove them with a good metal nit comb, or your fingernails. Nits are laid by the mother and attached with a glue she formulates, to sit on the hair shaft in the perfect spot to incubate and hatch.
Lice and nits can live on pillows and sheets. Lice glue their eggs to the hair strands of their host. However, if a piece of hair with an egg falls out while the lice host is sleeping, an egg could end up on pillows or sheets.
Eucalyptus oil is believed to be an ideal treatment because it kills lice as well as their eggs. One study determined that eucalyptus oil kills 100% of lice and their eggs in just one hour. In addition, it was found that only 3% of children treated with eucalyptus oil needed retreatment.
Can vinegar kill lice eggs? Vinegar is one of the classic home remedies for lice. However, if you are trying to find out how to get rid of nits using vinegar, you should know that using vinegar to kill nits or lice eggs is totally ineffective. Vinegar has no negative effect on the lice eggs.
Head lice have no wings and do not fly or jump, but they can crawl or run through hair quickly. Most commonly, head lice are spread by direct head-to-head contact with an infested person.
While the ovicidal (egg-killing) property is not as good, with tea tree oil taking 5 days to cause a 50% kill rate, louse eggs hatch in 5-8 days, so prolonged use of tea tree oil over the course of 2 weeks could be an effective eradication measure.
Adult head lice can survive for 2 days and nits for around 1 week on a hairbrush. Soaking combs or hairbrushes in hot water of at least 130°F (54.4°C) for 5–10 minutes will kill any lice and nits.
Spinosad (Natroba).
Spinosad is approved for adults and children age 6 months and older. It can be applied to dry hair and rinsed with warm water after 10 minutes. It kills lice and nits and usually doesn't need repeated treatment.