The dreaded nightmare started what seems like forever ago: my daughter was benevolently, constantly scratching her head one morning as we strolled to the playground a couple of months back. Four-year-olds have bigger concerns than an itchy head it seemed, so it took me noticing the intense frequency of her scratching to delve in and examine the situation myself later that afternoon; she never mentioned or complained about it. My biggest fearful hunch was revealed: there were lice and nits for the taking, easy-to-be-seen, and thriving within her hair at all lengths. I was horrified, because I knew the road ahead would be hard, and may involve me contracting the passionate buggers too since I spend so much time with her and share scarves, pillowcases, etc. Which, I did. OMG. As if I didn’t have enough to do with taking care of two small kids singlehandedly, and most of my hair was already falling out after pregnancy, great! Now, we’d be battling lice with fine-toothed combs, shower caps, potions, lotions, and prayers. My daughter’s hair is thick, curly, abundant, and tangles easily. In short she is their Shangri-La. I tried not to go into a tailspin. Instead, I blindly began a two month juggling act of homeopathic, natural remedies and so much combing that we lost lots of hair. I really thought it would all be fixed quickly. I believed the packaging and promises that all natural products touted. No parent wants to put anything toxic onto their child, and I’m nursing a baby too, so I’d like to avoid contact with anything harmful. With the background to our story, here is a review of what these products (yes, the fact that we used them all within this two month period all should tell you something) worked like for us:
Lice Logic~ The peppermint within the shampoo smells really good, and feels tingy while you’re using it. The whole mint experience gives you hope that maybe it’s working- and for about an hour or two afterwards, you can’t feel any itching. Until you do again.
Quit Nits Lice Kit~ A creamy treatment potion that smells like maple syrup makes any kid happy while it sits on their head for the obligatory three hours under a plastic cap provided. The combing afterwards adds about another 45 minutes to the experience. We tried this three times.
Coconut Oil~ “Drench their hair in oil,” I heard people telling me. OK. This was fun. Drenched oily ringlets combed back, and even when washed out, made my daughter look like a slick character from a 70s mafia movie. We did this about four times.
Olive Oil~ Maybe there was something missing in coconut oil that olive oil could provide? Why not try? I did. Twice. Drenched hair, oiled back, combed through, still no dice with the killing of the lice. Not to mention, in all of this, the oil-stained clothes and towels. And slippery oil on the floors and on our hands and bodies.
Licefreee Spray!~This spray really gives you hope. It smells like licorice, which my daughter really likes, and has some sort of salt in it which made me think it’s “100% Guaranteed” statement could be true. I imagined swimming in the Dead Sea and how that could really get rid of lice altogether. I pictured myself in my favorite bikini, floating in the sun. Dreamy! Time to wake up. Ooof. Still itching. The constant vacation fantasies were maybe worth the money spent on this. If you’re trapped in Brooklyn and only want to try homeopathic, this could be good for the smell and idea of traveling to the dead sea or a warm ocean.
Lice MD~ “That’s it,” I told myself. It had been about two months by this point. “Duane Reade must have chemical stuff that works,” I figured. This product even said, “Pesticide Free,” and “Non-Toxic,” so I bought it. A potion lathered into our hair for an hour or so then followed by the obligatory combing lead to no improvement after about two times. No special smell, no romantic background. Didn’t work either. A complete wash.
RID~ Smelled like poison, and the smell somehow ended up in the back of my throat and tasted like poison also. If you get the entire kit, a poison spray comes included for your car interior, furniture, and mattress. I never went that far, but I did use the shampoo. By this point, we had to. Made me feel terrified to breast feed while using it. But I have to say that the mixture of this product with a hair dryer was the ONLY thing that worked.
Everyday Hair Drying~ You’re looking at the instrument of hope, of comfort, and of freedom. This, mixed with RID-seriously- is the answer.
There you have it. It’s been a while since the assumed killing off of the lice but, just to be sure, I had the nurse at Tribeca Pediatrics look at my daughter’s scalp and hair yesterday while we were there. She saw nothing, thank goodness. We talked about homeopathic remedies and she said that, for lice, they do not work. She said that chemicals are the only answer, maybe mixed with a hair dryer. I can’t say for sure- I am only giving you the lowdown of what’s gone on here in my world. I could have saved a lot of time, itchiness, and money if I’d gone straight to RID and the hair dryer. If you have the time and vigilance required to very intense nit-picking, oils, and potions, perhaps that would work instead of chemicals. Who knows. May the force be with you.
Rebecca Conroy is an artist, stylist, and editor of A Child Grows in Brooklyn. She is from New York City, and has an MFA from Columbia University in screenwriting. Rebecca often finds herself on film and photography sets making things run or look better, and is the mom of two outrageously wonderful kids.
