Hi Sorry for the long title but anyway. We haven't had the the "critters" yet but I would like to some input. My daughter's teacher has put her in the back of the room with no one behind her. I keep her hair in a ponytail but her hair is down to the waist so she still has a lot of fluffy hair. I am very picky about whose house she goes to. SOOOO have any of you dealt with this with sucess and what do you use that doesn't KILL the hair. My daughter's hair is waist length very thick and naturally wavy.TIA

I have seen reports of certain fixed and essential oils being able to repel or kill lice.
This website has an herbal recipe using such oils. If you scroll down further, there are other suggestions.

here is the web address:
http://www.homemakingcottage.com/health/lice.html

Hope this gives you some ideas.

I'm also afraid of my dd bringing home the little buggers. I keep her hair up as much as possible and I use a spray gel every morning. I hope that will keep them from being able to grasp the hair.

I've always taught my kids to not share clothes, combs, hairbrushes, scrunchies, or anything that could possibly touch hair with any of their friends. They know better than to heap coats in a pile with other people's coats. They know to keep heads away from each other (hard sometimes when sharing secrets). When they had long hair, they also knew to not let it hang down behind them on public seats. They're 12 and 10 and so far haven't brought lice home yet (touch wood).

I havent had a child with lice yet but my son is only in the 1st grade his sister dosent start for another 2 years anyhow. Sure enough about the 2nd week of school they found lice in one of the classmates and sent a letter home to watch your kids we'll I always heard that lice are attracted to clean heads so I didnt wash my sons hair for a week lol hoping it would be oily enough the lice couldnt stay on. Lucky he never got them . But that is my little prevention technique lol

I'm a little concerned that you'd have the teacher sit her in the back of the classroom, out of fear of lice.

Lice can be dealt with - we have had several threads on the topic here, and heavy olive oil treatments seem to be effective in getting rid of them.

But, if she is seated in a place in the classroom where it is harder to participate, or where she may have trouble seeing or hearing the teacher, or where she is more easily distracted, that could have a much bigger impact on her welfare. If she is learning to be timid, hiding and avoiding problems instead of addressing them, that could be a bigger problem. If she is getting the message that being a "pretty girl" (with long hair) means avoiding risk (of lice) by staying out of the way, that could be a problem. If she gets the message she needs to fear and avoid her peers, that is a problem.

Let her be active in school, and don't restrict what she can do out of fear. If she catches lice, or any other hair problem, the folks around here will be happy to help you deal with the problem, without cutting into her learning and growth.

Cutting away her independence, learning, confidence and intellectual and emotional growth is far more damaging than just cutting hair.

Hi Ursula no chance of Gracie not being involved. She is a straight A student she is very vocal and participates in class she also plays basketball at school and right now is playing flag football in P.E.She has a lot of friends and she is 5 feet 1 in4th grade sooo she has no trouble seeing and she also sits right behind her best friend. Thanks for the input I will check into the oil. She attends a small elementary school andalot of the students are very poor and do have less than great hygene.

There were only two Really Long Haired girls in my elementary. We were both named Rebecca, and both did ballet. We wore a lot of ballet buns with solid crotched bun covers when lice was around in our school. It kept our hair from escaping into places lice might be hanging out. Neither of us ever caught lice.

Maybe try having your daughter wear her hair up. If she isn't used to it, expirament with bunning on weekends. If the tension/weight distrubtion isn't done right, it could cause a headache, which wouldn't be good for school. Braids might be better than ponytails too, especially if your daughter has "curious" hair that likes to sneak around. :)

When I was in elementary school my best friend came down with lice every 3-4 months. Every night my mom laid me on the kitchen counter, washed my hair *thoughily* with hot water and lots of shampoo. (That felt great!:cloud9: ) Every morning, she braided it into the tightest frenchbraids she could manage and pinned it up. (This is the reason my eyebrows were 2 inches higher than the other kids. :jestor: )

Thus started my road to abusing my hair with daily shampoo and rip,rip,rip brushing... but :grin: I never had lice--and I played with my friend all the time. Mom was cool 8) and I never even knew the reason for the daily shampoos and braids until I got much older.

Maybe a gentler form of the same would prevent...AND not set the stage for damaged hair later....?

G'luck!
jes

Hi!
I have always heard putting mayo on the head/scalp/hair and cover with a plastic bag -like a shower cap... and wait for several hours.-for treatment of.

Prevention- tea tree oil- a "little" on comb or pick and run it through the hair...

LJ/sillyca

Get Tea Tree Oil shampoo and have her use it weekly.She can use other things on the weekend.Also a good way to rid her of them and its cheap is this.
1.buy a can of crisco.
2.A box of saran wrap.
3.Completely coat the scalp and hair with crisco and wrap it with saran wrap leaving no areas uncovered.Then let her wear a shower cap to bed over it.
The next day wash it out with Dawn dish detergant.
4.I thought this would be horrible but it wasn't the dawn doesn't strip it because of the crisco being so thick.
We rid our household of them this way and it did not cost as much.