How to get rid of hair lice with natural remedies

Lice transmission in infants and children is common and often results from close and frequent contact with the head or hair. Toys, furniture, carpets and clothing can all offer temporary lice habitat that will jump on a child if the opportunity arises – offering lice the opportunity to be transferred and s'. flourish.

But while schools and parents often speak of "head lice outbreaks," the reality is that humans have lice that have been living on them for thousands of years. And they were so common in the past that almost all families had a special comb to remove them and keep them under control or in small numbers.

Our ancestors made these fine combs using different materials, including bone, wood and even cactus spines, to leave a minimum gap between the comb teeth to eliminate lice. And since most of the community members had lice – not just babies – these combs were the main or only tool used to tease or brush hair.

In fact in the 1600s in Poland, a hairstyle known asplica polonica"Or Polish braid, was quite fashionable. The style, which looks like a tangled mass of hair, is formed as a result of neglect – often combined with a severe head lice infestation – and would be sticky and wet.

The science of lice

The head lice cycle begins when a female louse lays eggs that are attached to the hair by sticking them to the root. To do this, lice produce a substance very similar to cement.

The position of the newly delivered egg (called nit) is about 5 mm from the scalp. This distance can not be changed or the embryo will not grow because the temperature will not be correct.

During development, nits follow a specific temperature regime, with a slight decreasing temperature gradient as hair grows and nits become more and more distant from the scalp. Thus, the nits closest to the scalp are those that have been most recently deposited on the hair – and there is a good chance that they are healthy live embryos. Nits separated by more than two centimeters from the scalp seem very obvious, with a whitish reflection. These are the empty eggshells.

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How to get rid of them

Head lice have burned humans for thousands of years. Getty Images

Two forms of lice must certainly be considered as targets of control: females and newly born nits. To eliminate both forms, a fine comb – known as a rag or lice comb – has proven effective in terms of treating and preventing infestations by heavy lice.

Of course, pharmacies tend to be well supplied with formulas and solutions for killing lice – but there are other natural or non-chemical treatments that may still be worth trying. Traditional medicinal plants are still used in continental Europe – for example, a herbal infusion from the chickpea plant. The infusion is made from dried beans and is then applied to the scalp.

In the United Kingdom, during the Tudor era, hyssop oil, an aromatic herb, was also used to treat head lice. And Hyssop oil is still used to fight lice to this day.

Given the specific temperature required for the development of lice eggs – and the fact that radical changes in temperature kills them – new methods are also being developed to incorporate heat as part of a regular treatment. Research on appliances producing hot air indicates high efficiency when properly applied regularly.

Thus, to control head lice without the use of messy shampoos or toxic chemicals, parents may want to try a combination of treatments: a traditional metal head comb, as well as locally applied herbal infusions. on the hair or scalp, with regular exposure using a hot hair dryer.

Alejandra Perotti, Associate Professor in Invertebrate Biology, University of Reading

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.