The $4 head lice hack every parent needs to know

"I was deflated, defeated and at the acceptance stage of nit-grief'

"I was deflated, defeated and at the acceptance stage of nit-grief when someone sent me a message on Instagram with the most life-changing piece of advice."

We had nits come into our heads and home nine times last year. Nine. They say that some people have the just the right PH levels on their scalps and head warmth that attract nits and keep them coming back. My eight-year-old has the most appealing PH level and warm nit nest head that any nit could wish for. 

I am more scared of the kids getting nits than getting gastro. At least gastro passes in a few days. Nits are silent assassins. Crawling around and setting up camp and multiplying by the hundred while you don’t notice. Until it’s too late. My youngest has long, messy, fair, and curly hair. You cannot spot the buggers in that mess. Once he was scratching his head for two weeks and I kept checking every single day and didn’t find anything.

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Picture: iStock

They just wouldn't leave

It wasn’t until I took him to a professional nit salon and they performed a professional search party that they found some eggs. After they did the removal (I don’t want to reveal how many hours and dollars later) she said it looked like he had had them for four weeks. Revolting. It was nearing infestation level but for the life of me I couldn’t see them. They are nearly invisible in his spindly, wiry hair, like camouflaged sneaky tactical militia.

My eight-year-old with the incentivising PH levels that had them nine times? He has short dark hair and the eggs shine through immediately like bright little beacons of doom. Once going through the rigmarole of removing them I leave no stone unturned. I wash the bedsheets, soft toys, the hats, put helmets in black garbage bags in the sun for forty-eight hours and vacuum every couch and soft surface in the house. Then repeat everything in seven days. 

Still, they kept coming back. I tried every preventer Dr Google and any old wives’ tale ever created: lavender spray, tea tree oil shampoo and spray, coconut oil, dirty hair, clean hair, daily conditioner combing, running a GHD over their hair (yes I even did that to the curly-haired one) plus obnoxiously expensive professional preventer spray. Still, those persistent sneaky little pests kept coming back.

My rock bottom moment was when I was considering using an animal treatment on them and googled “is it safe to use flea treatment drops on children?” (the findings were “it’s really not”).

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Hairspray is your golden ticket. Image: Supplied

Then came the saviour

I was deflated, defeated and at the acceptance stage of nit-grief when someone sent me a message on Instagram with the most life-changing piece of advice. “Hairspray” she said. 

“The cheaper the better.” They don’t like the sticky and straw-like texture. It makes the hair an undesirable breeding ground. It makes it harder for them to navigate around and for the eggs to attach to the follicle. 

So, every day before school since term four last year we have been doing a spray of four-dollar hair spray before school and they have not invaded our heads and homes since. Two full terms and a bit in and around lockdown. In a previously unprecedented event, we have survived five nit notices from school. 

So, let me pass on that life-changing advice to you now. Panic purchase some cheap hair lacquer immediately and bid farewell to my old friends’ and foe: lice, no more. 

Originally published as The $4 head lice hack every parent needs to know