“First day of school! First day of school!”

The beginning of the school year is rapidly approaching.  The end of camp season is rapidly approaching.  What do these seasons have in common?  Lice.

Lice can easily migrate between heads whenever kids are playing in close contact with one another.  They spread most easily and most commonly by head-to-head contact, but can also creep from one pillow to a new head in a camp cabin or from one jacket to another’s backpack in a school coat closet or shared locker.  Kids playing together will bump heads, share hats, hair ties, bandanas, cute headbands, and all other sorts of paraphernalia that might mean they’re sharing more than they intend to.

So how do you combat the critters and keep your kids clean?

Educate them.  Warn them against sharing a friend’s hairbrush between classes or after changing from gym clothes.  Tell them that not everyone who has lice will know it.  (Some lucky kids won’t even itch.)

Be proactive.  Even if your kids aren’t itching, regularly check their heads yourself for lice or nits (lice eggs).  This is especially easy to do if you brush your child’s hair regularly yourself.  Lice are especially prone to be found along the hairline, behind the ears, and at the nape of the neck, but they can certainly be found all over the head.  They are very small, but they can be seen by the unaided human eye.

If that doesn’t seem like enough, try Jolis Cheveux™ lice prevention products.  A Daily Shampoo, Daily Conditioner, Leave-in Tonic, and—perfect for those coats, backpacks, and bandanas—a Fabric and Upholstery Spray are all included in the Jolis Cheveux™ Lice Prevention Pack available through the Lice Treatment Center, LLC.  The Daily Shampoo and Daily Conditioner are both straightforward to use.  They can be used as you would use any shampoo or conditioner.  A few spritzes of Leave-in Tonic on damp or dry hair will add an extra layer of protection to your kids’ shampooed heads.  The Fabric and Upholstery Spray will deter lice from finding hospitable any fabric objects around your child or home and can be applied to any item made of or covered by fabric.

All Jolis Cheveux™ products are all-natural, non-toxic, and perfectly safe to use on your children and around animals.  The only animals they harm, using their potent blend of essential oils, are lice.  My own experience with Jolis Cheveux™ products even leads me to believe that the shampoos will improve the look and feel of your hair while combating lice.  They even smell refreshingly like cinnamon and wildflowers.

So as you are readying your children for their first day and are stuffing their ears with good advice, don’t forget to remind them about the precautions that should be taken to avoid lice.  And as you are stocking up on school supplies, don’t forget the Jolis Cheveux™.

Summer Camp is Here!

Summer camp is coming.  For some it’s already here.  Are you prepared?

At summer camps, kids live and play together in close contact, frequently sharing bunks, helmets, hair ties, bandanas, hairbrushes, hats, hair clips, and any other number of objects that lie close to the hair.

Lice can easily be shared with all of these objects.

When sending your kids to camp this summer, you can advise them against sharing headpieces, hairpieces, and other objects, but that’s no guarantee that such sharing won’t be necessary regardless of your good advice—as in the cases of bunks and helmets and hair ties around the camp fire.

In addition to your good advice, send your kids to camp with protection against the head lice that they may very likely encounter.

You have to send your kids to sleep-away camp with shampoo and potentially conditioner anyway, don’t you?  Why not send them with a set of hair products that will defend them against the nasty, itchy invaders too?

Send them with a Jolis Cheveux™ lice prevention pack or camp pack.

Jolis Cheveux™ lice prevention products are all-natural, non-toxic, safe for your children, and smell wonderfully of cinnamon.  Jolis Cheveux™ products are formulated specifically for use by the Lice Treatment Center, LCC by pediatrician Dr. Elin Cohen to be highly effective against head lice and perfectly safe.

Recently I was at the Lice Treatment Center, LLC during a training session for their technicians.  I was allowed to undergo the treatment process, which was relaxing to the point that I almost fell asleep under the trained technician’s hands.  I unable to rinse the shampoo from my hair for till some 9 hours later, leaving the product in my hair much longer than is suggested, and I had no adverse effects from misusing the product in this way—only fantastically scented, lice-repelling hair for the next several days.

So think about head lice as you think about shampoo, toothpaste, a sweatshirt for cold nights, and a teddy bear for comfort.  Be sure your lice prevention products are all-natural, safe, non-toxic, and effective.  Be sure your lice prevention products are Jolis Cheveux™.

Lice Infest the Air Waves, Part 3: Horrible Histories: The Lice Comb

BBC’s Horrible Histories teaches history in short, humorous sketches reminiscent of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.  Lice, being a human parasite for eons, make the occasional guest appearance.

“Historical Hairdressers” parodies a trip to the hairdressers, where all of the beauty treatments are based on historical treatments.

According to the hairdresser of “Historical Hairdressers” in the episode “Smashing Saxons,” the “only way to get rid of lice […] is to use a specially designed Saxon comb like this one.  We’re gonna brush, brush, brush, get all the lice out.”

Combing is still the best method of lice treatment today.  Lice removal or nitpicking should be done thoroughly as one louse or viable nit—louse egg—can be detrimental to mental well-being.  Of course, this sketch, is a mere two and a half minutes in length, but a proper lice treatment, which should use a professional lice comb and all-natural treatment products, will likely take at least an hour and frequently longer.  If you don’t want to spend such time yourself, you can call lice removal services, such as the Lice Treatment Center, who will send a professional to your home to preform the nitpicking for you.  Lice treatment at a salon risks infecting other clients of the salon and is not recommended.

The lice comb is actually a very ancient piece of technology, predating even Anglo-Saxon Britain.  The earliest examples of lice combs found thus far, according to a 2008 paper by Mumcuoglu, date from 1500 BCE.  Some Israeli examples (Figs 13.3 and 13.4) date from 135 CE and the eighth century CE.  Roman examples include this one found in Scotland and dated 140-180 CE.  An Egyptian example dates from the fifth or sixth century CE.  Later Anglo-Saxon (410-1066 CE) examples, such as are referenced in this sketch of Horrible Histories, can be found at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.

While the materials have changed, the design of lice combs really has not.  The modern lice comb has the same close teeth as the earlier wooden and bone combs, though now made of more durable metal and plastic.

Examples of lice combs taken from the above linked to sites. From top left to bottom right: fifth or sixth century CE found at Anitonë, Egypt; Roman (140-180 CE) found at Bar Hill fort in Scotland; 135 CE found in the Judean desert in Israel; eighth century CE found in the Jordan Valley of Israel; modern professional comb offered by the Lice Treatment Center, LLC.

In this sketch, the lice comb removes the woman’s hair, but this is not a side effect of modern lice treatment.  Those fortunate enough to have seen this sketch will remember that Historical Hairdressers had earlier applied powdered swallow to thin her hair and rubbed ants’ eggs into the roots to inhibit hair growth.  These more than the lice treatment I would blame for the Saxon woman’s hair loss.

So learn your history lessons and be sure to use a proper comb when delousing yourself or being deloused.

Heat Against Nits and Hatched Lice and the Ability of Lice to Live Away from the Host

When Bush, Rock, Jones, Malenke, & Clayton studied the effectiveness of the LouseBuster™ in 2011, 45.8% (± 4.6%) of lice were removed by the device itself, “blown onto the smock or drop cloth,” at least as far as the shoulders of the subject during treatment.  Of those, 85.1% (± 4.4%) were definitively dead.  Another 14.9% (± 4.4%) were “considered dead because lice cannot survive off the host (Takano-Lee et al. 2003, Burgess 2004), particularly after exposure to heated air (Buxton 1946, Kobayashi et al. 1995).”

Buxton (1946) does support the LouseBuster™’s claim to kill hatched lice.  Boiling clothes infested with lice has been a treatment since at least the American Civil War, from which many reports of battles against lice have survived.  Water, of course, boils at 100° C (212° F), but Buxton claims that five minutes of exposure to temperatures of 51.5° C (124.5° F) will kill hatched lice, as will 30 minutes of exposure to temperatures of 49.5° C (121.1° F).  The LouseBuster™ operates, remember, at 58° C (or possibly 138° F; the LouseBuster™’s FAQ page lists both temperatures, though 58° C is actually 136.4° F), either of which is higher than the minimum temperature needed to kill hatched head lice, according to Buxton’s 1946 research, within the 30 minutes that a LouseBuster™ treatment takes.

Perhaps Civil War soldiers continued to be plagued by lice because they were only killing the hatched lice and not the nits, which seem, according to Buxton’s book, to be more resistant to heat than hatched lice.

Buxton’s book also summarizes research published by Leeson in 1941 on the effects of temperature on nits.  Interestingly, though Bush, Rock, Jones, Malenke, & Clayton (2011) led me to Buxton’s book and Leeson’s research, Leeson’s research seems to me to call into question their findings that hot air via the LouseBuster™ can kill nits in 30 minutes, though it does not directly contradict it.  Leeson exposed nits to constant 39° C (102.2° F) and found that the nits survived for 24 hours, but not for 48 hours.  Potentially the LouseBuster™ is more effective at eradicating nits as it operates at 58° C (or possibly 138° F).  While the difference between 102.2° F and 138° F is great, so is the difference between 24 hours and 30 minutes.  Being paranoid about leaving viable nits on my scalp, I wonder whether the 35.8° F higher temperature really can result in, as the LouseBuster™ claims, nit eradication in 23.5 hours less time.

Bush, Rock, Jones, Malenke, & Clayton (2011) claim 88.2% (± 2.2%) mortality of hatched lice and 99.2% (± .3%) mortality of nits with the LouseBuster™, reversing the ability of hatched lice versus nits to survive exposure to heat.

Kobayashi et al. (1995) is actually not a study on head lice, but on body lice, a different breed requiring different treatments and warranting a different level of fear as head lice are an irritant and body lice carry diseases, so I fail to see how their research is relevant to Bush, Rock, Jones, Malenke, & Clayton’s study on the LouseBuster™’s effectiveness against head lice.

As per the lice’s ability to live away from the host, Takano-Lee et al. (2003) found that 60% of female lice can survive 36 hours of starvation away from the host, which does not help to soothe my fears that lice detached from my head and blown onto my shoulders will live beyond the LouseBuster™ treatment and plague me again.

Burgess (2004) (which can be accessed via EBSCO if you have access to that site) summarizes others’ research much as Buxton did in 1946.  Burgess’ cites studies that found that lice have lived as long as 55 hours away from the host (Chunge, Scott, Underwood, Zavarella 1991), as well as another that agrees with Takano-Lee et al.’s conclusion of 36 hours—35 hours ± 1.7 hours at 18° C (64.4° F) according to Lang (1975), or 24 hours ± 1.8 hours 24° C (75.2° F) according to same study.  Lang used these temperatures, I’m sure, as a range of high and low room temperatures, though 75° F is a warm room temperature even for me, and I do like to keep my living space toasty.

Given this research, I worry that some of the 14.9% (± 4.4%) of 45.8% (± 4.6%) lice “considered dead” by Bush, Rock, Jones, Malenke, & Clayton’s study might not actually be dead.  Maybe I’m being paranoid, but couldn’t lice blown only so far as my shoulders and able to survive long periods without a meal at room temperatures, go back to feasting on my scalp within that 36 hour period before death by starvation, if in fact, they are not killed by the heat of the LouseBuster™?  Is the LouseBuster™ applying constant heat to each hatched louse and nit residing on every centimeter of the head?  Inconstant heat has not been tested by any of these previous studies.  Will an inconstant heat of 138° F really be enough to kill a louse, even if a constant 102.2° F can do so?

Like all head lice treatments, the LouseBuster™ is not a 100% solution.  It’s clinical trial claims only 88.2% (± 2.2%) mortality of hatched lice and 99.2% (± .3%) mortality of nits, leaving 11.8% (±2.2%) of hatched lice and .8% (± .3%) of nits alive following treatment.  Never consider your lice treatment complete until someone has picked the nits from your scalp and scoured your hair for rouge lice.  A female louse, left alive, can lay 150 eggs per clutch according to the Texas Department of State Health Service.

Alternative Ways of Dealing with Lice: Lice Racing: Maybe Not Just for the Past?

Oh no!  You have lice!

What can you do?

Well, lice have been a plague on humanity for eons (literally).  Many treatment methods have been used by humans through history, some the predecessors of our current methods, some mere wives’ tales and superstition.

Humans, that creative and adaptable species, have always risen above their irritating lice-infested circumstances.

You can’t get rid of your lice?

Well, make money off of them.  Become the center of attention by advertising lice games.

Lice races have a rich and long history.  Lice races have been run from at least the 1700s onward.  Horrible Histories, a BBC TV show that bases its humorous skits on historical fact, reenacts lice races held in England during this time period by the upper echelons in its skit “HHTV Sport: bringing you live sporting events from the past” of the episode “Gorgeous Georgians.”  Later, the sport—yes, sport—took hold among U.S. Civil War soldiers.  Many colorful stories have been uncovered from this time period.

What if your lice lose the race?  Do you bet against them?

Or you could cheat, give them extra incentive, as one Civil War soldier did.  He heated the plate that served as the starting line for the race so that his louse would scuttle quickly down the backstretch and over the finish line.

Lice racing sound unappealing?

Well, how about lice fighting?

Unethical though it may be, there are also tales of Civil War soldiers and prisoners pitting lice against one another and against ants in battles to the death.

Personally, that sounds cruel.  I prefer lice racing.

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But, of course, you would prefer, wouldn’t you, to get rid of your lice rather than use them for entertainment or gambling purposes.

Well, I can give you advice on that too.

You shouldn’t use the popular chemical products.  This posting is all about alternative measures to deal with lice.  As we’ve micro-evolved since Ancient Egypt or even the 1800s, so have lice.  Lice are now becoming resistant to pyrethrin- and permethrin-based products.  The Lice Treatment Center, LLC offers all-natural, pediatrician-formulated, effective lice treatment and prevention products, without pyrethrin or permethrin.

Cancel the races and the wrestling matches, and try some of their products on your lice instead.