The first, I will only resort to the insecticide solutions as a last resort. We've decided to try natural, or non-toxic means. There certainly has been a big difference in the population with the special comb we are using. But I wasn't willing to leave it at that, as that alone is very time consuming. Anyone that has dealt with lice before knows that you *have* to take care of the nits (the eggs) or you will continue in the cycle. So combing is a must, but I wasn't willing to comb for two weeks and to find out it didn't take care of it! So here is the list of things we are or will be doing:
We bought LiceMD. It is a silicone product, something that is not supposed to be absorbed by the body. It suffocates the lice, the adults and eggs. However, the concentration, compared to brands available in Europe, is small. It looks like we will have to re-do the application in another week. I will be applying the solution tonight or tomorrow.
Between the two treatments we will be rinsing our hair with salt water. Apparently the salt dehydrate the lice. I put some on last night and found a dead buggie this morning. So I guess it works. Totally non toxic :-)
Moira and myself have been getting bitten on other parts of our bodies. As a matter of fact, even though I have the lice, they have not been biting my head!! They have been munching on my upper chest and upper back. Go figure! Wasn't sure how I was going to deal with that. After thinking it over and doing some reading I decided on coating my skin with diatomaceous earth(DE). DE is a fine powder that is made of fossilized diatoms. It feels like a soft powder, but under a microscope it appears as mini razor blades. For humans it poses no risks (although breathing it in will cause lung irritation). BUT for little bugs, like lice, or parasites or bugs in general, it is torture. The mini razor blades cut into their exoskeleton, which then dehydrates the nasty critters. I just mix some into water and apply. It dries into a chalky coating. Lovely to be sure. You can see it clear as day in the below picture. I tried putting some in Flannery's hair. Um, that doesn't work too well. I had to abandon my attempt to kill the bugs off in our hair with the DE. I thought of putting the DE into some coconut oil, but not sure if it would work the same.
On top of the measures above, we will still have to clean all cloth items, or store them away for the next month. Oy! This has been taking forever. I am hoping to really, really get that done tomorrow as it is imperative we try to make sure we don't pick them back up from our environment. Things have been slow going due to my dryer being on the fritz. The two automatic settings no longer work, well not unless you want to reset the dryer 3 times before your clothing gets dried. The timed setting works, but if there are bulky items, like towels, it takes another cycle to finish. With all the washing of hair and what not, there are a lot of towels. And let us not forget that we have to wash *ALL* of our bedding, *EVERY* day. We've been able to live without AC at this point, which has helped us in the laundry department. How? Well, we only need a sheet to cover up, instead of a blanket, which would take up extra loads in the washer.
To top all of this off, I decided to take a really drastic step....Cut our hair. All the girl's, including me, got a hair cut. There was just no way I could keep up with everything that needs to get done if I am spending 5 hours just combing hair! So it was snip, snip, snip. I went to the local walk in hair cutters to get mine done. After observing some of the techniques that the stylist used, I set to work on cutting the girls hair. I got all four girl's hair cut today. I wish I had the energy to put in the gel treatment, but it is going to require...combing. That means time, which will be shorter than if we still had our long hair, but I am simply worn out! So tomorrow we will be walking around here with shower caps covering our gel doused hair. We will be bagging, and cleaning, and spraying (DE). And let's not forget that pile of laundry while we're at it :-) Below is the result of our hair cutting frenzy:
After! I have to say, I think it turned out really cute!
A half way decent back. I usually always have a lop side with every hair cut. But this time it turned out really great.
The side view.
All of us, including your's truly covered in DE. Hey, I didn't say it was pretty! The pictures were taken with Flannery's camera. These pictures above came out half way ok, but I have to honestly say the girls hair looks a lot better in person.
Not the best picture of Moira, but the only one I have so far. For some reason the angles Flannery took these at, along with the lighting, really skew how Moira really looks. The same goes with the picture below of Isabella. Weird! Moira had a bit of layering around the back. I was using a technique we saw online. She asked me something and I said, "Oh, I don't really know what I am doing, I'm just copying the video we saw, and what I saw my stylist do today." She then said, "Um, mom, I think you should stop cutting my hair and take me to see someone who does know what they are doing!" ha, ha!
I'll have to get a better picture of the side and back view of Isa's hair. She wanted to try a technique we saw online to add layers in. It didn't work as we thought and so we had to take matters into our own hands :-) With her natural waves her hair looked really neat. In the above picture she had brushed out most of her smaller waves.
Poor Flannery didn't want her hair cut short. So we made a compromise. After I cut it she decided it was too long! Silly girl! She decided against any layers. I think with her natural light wave the layers would have worked in her favor. But it's still really cute a straight cut.
I may decide to buzz the boys' hair. They don't have the bugs, but I certainly don't want them to get them, and start this whole thing all over again. We'll see. I've been checking their hair daily and so far so good. Tomorrow is a big day. Lot's-O-Cleaning.
1 comment:
Ugh, we had lice in September and then again a month or so later because I forgot to check every day! The second time I got it too! That was the hardest part b/c there was nobody to do mine thoroughly, except my husband - he sweetly did a very patient job. We used LiceMD the first time, and the combs they came with were the best, but the second time I used olive oil instead and we slept with olive oil and shower caps on. I also put DE mixed with water and doc bronners and used it as shampoo. Every night I combed again and every few nights would sleep with the olive oil/shower cap again just to smother any new bugs. We didn't get it back, thankfully!! But WHAT a pain! I totally feel you on the laundry, etc. And only 3 of my girls and I had long hair so not as bad.
Cute job on the cuts. :)
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