When you realize that your child has head lice you have to choose between traditional OTC lice treatments and a more natural head lice treatment. Among them, the head lice olive oil treatment, though very simple, is one of the most effective ways to get rid of these parasites, and here you’ll learn exactly why.
The olive tree has exceptional therapeutic properties. In fact, all parts of the tree possess interesting properties for medical use. Our ancestors in ancient Greece used olive oil as an ointment to treat aches, ulcers and even cholera.
They used the leaves of the olive tree as a base, astringent and purifying, as well as preparations made from leaves and olive oil to cure all kinds of inflammations. Moreover, the flowers, bark and ash of the olive tree were included in many medicinal preparations.
The effectiveness of olive oil is explained by the fact that by coating the skin of adult lice, it deprives them of oxygen. As they can no longer breathe, they die.
How to apply the olive oil treatment for head lice
You can definitely use olive oil to treat head lice and here is how you should proceed. In fact it is sufficient to put olive oil on your child’s hair and put a plastic wrap around without leaving any air come in. The oil will thus asphyxiate head lice.
After about two hours, preferably three, wash the hair with mild shampoo, rinse well and comb the hair with a head lice comb to remove dead lice. Sometimes it is necessary to repeat the shampoo two or three times to completely remove the oil. You should know that this remedy, just like any other head lice treatment, does not work 100%, so you might still have some live lice after treatment, and you’ll need to remove them manually or repeat the treatment.
Will this olive oil treatment work on nits?
The head lice olive oil treatment has not been tested on nits, and the test conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health did only prove the efficiency of olive oil on lice, not their eggs.
It is likely that the treatment will not work as well on nits as it does on adult lice. But there is a very good natural head lice treatment that you can use to unglue the nits from the hair shaft, it is vinegar. It is then much easier to comb them out. You’ll find more details here: vinegar for head lice.
What about essential oils?
Essential oils are volatile oils, very fragrant, obtained by steam distillation of flavoring plants. Some oils contain up to 300 different molecules, depending on the plant used, on the time of harvest, on the climate and quality of the distillation. To give you an idea, about 100 kg of fresh lavender are needed to extract 1 kg of essential oil.
The essential oils contained in many plants have insecticidal properties, antibacterial and antifungal. When used for therapeutic purposes, be sure to use quality products, and ideally from organic farming. So for the perfect herbal head lice treatment, consider adding a few drops of essential oil such as lavender oil or tea tree to the olive oil, as this will also help prevent another infestation, promote healing and add a pleasant smell that children will like.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
How many nights do you have to treat lice with the olive oil method?
So, for the eggs I should follow the oil treatment by the vinegar treatment? Is this also a process that should be repeated over several days?
Thank you!
HI Cynthia, you use olive oil to try suffocate nymphs and adult lice. Then you need to comb out and rinse off. You should do it until you see no more live lice or nymphs. The vinegar can then be applied to help you unglue the nits from the hairshaft. It will help, but it’s no miracle solution. Then you need to spend time combing nits out with a good metal comb. You need to repeat this process until there are no more nits close to the scalp. It can take several days depending on many factors (degree of the infestation, thickness of the hair, time you spend on it, etc).
Hi, I have been trying to get rid of lice in my hair for over a month. My daughters lice went away after the first treatment. I am wondering if after I use the olive oil and vinager if it would be possible to put a little conditioner in my hair so it could be combed thru easier or if that would make the eggs not come out.
Hi Vicki, nice to hear that it worked for your daughters! Yes you can put conditioner, it can help combing out, but you must try and see because it’s true that it can also be more difficult to get the eggs out if you have conditioner on your hair. Just try it out.
I have just heard lice is going around my children’s school. (Tell me something new) And I had no idea that vinegar and olive oil would do this. The crazy thing? I just started using homemade shampoo which as olive oil in it and also conditioner which is just 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water. The vinegar actually works as good or better than anything I’ve ever tried. You don’t need to use any kind of commercial conditioner. Anyway back to the lice, I was really excited to see this site and to try out this stuff on my kids without burning away their scalp with the commercial lice shampoo. I remember my mom using that stuff on me. Ouch!
I would love some advice. It’s now Wednesday. This past Sunday I used olive oil with tea tree oil in it on my 5 yr old daughter’s hair for 3+ hrs under a shower cap. I shampooed that out and then combed with a metal comb and picked for at least 2 hours. I only found 3 grown, brown lice and the rest were nymphs and nits. Then I put straight vinegar on her damp hair and let sit for about 50 min. I combed and picked for at least another hour. It seemed to work well. She was checked by the school nurse the next morning who said she looked clear. I checked her Monday night and found about 3 nits. I thought/hoped they were just leftovers, dead and picked them out. Last night (Tuesday), I checked again. I found several nits, some of them within half inch of the scalp and picked them out. Could these really be newly laid nits, or are they likely left over? I don’t think I would have missed that many. I’m planning on doing the vinegar treatment again on Thursday night and combing/picking. If I keep checking and picking will they eventually go away? How many times can lice lay eggs? Thanks for any direction you can give me.
Hi Julie, yes they could be leftovers, this is why nit picking should be repeated. We don’t always see all nits the first time, that’s normal.
I did the olive oil mixed with vinger treatment left it on my daughters hair all night with a plastic shower cap over it washed it out this morning and could see the tiny dead lice fall out ! then washed her hair with dawn dishsoap to get the rest of the oil out worked great ! checked her hair found only a few nits cause we picked most of them out yesterday before oil treatment but found no live lice this time this was the best treatment we have used and we have tried everything ! I would recommend it to everyone dealing with this problem I am gonna do it again tomorrow night and then check for nits if i find anyI will do it again two night after until I find no more !!!
this has been a gruesome process in my home. My niece came and spent the night before new years. the next morning i washed her hair and was combing it when i found she had lice. I had her mom pick her up asap.stripped my entire home.. blankets pillows.. sheets,, everything i could wash was washed.. . i checked my 4 year olds head for that next week.. and then i found some nits and a few live lice. i rushed out and bought the RID which was a joke. after treatment she still had live lice in her head. not mant. i only found 3. 0ne adult. so ive been looking since this happened and sure enough two weeks later i find two more live adult lice and eggs in her head.. this is a very frustrating process. ive washed everything and cant figure out where they came from. unless i missed a few eggs.. these are so hard to see. i have my son hold a flashlight and we go inch by inch in her head.. so this morning we went thru her head again and i think got all nite/eggs out. she now has the oil on her head.. i didn’t see any live lice. i did see a few white eggs/nits which i know is newly hatched.. but after several hours i still didn’t see any live lice.. doing the oil treatment to be safe.. i am praying i got all the nits out.. i really do not like this whole lice issue. and if it wasn’t brought in to my home i wouldn’t be at war with them.. but here we r almost a month later and still looking for lice..
:(
We have been dealing with lice for 2 months. In November a child a daycare was found to have lice. So, I checked my daughter and about 2 weeks later I found a handful of nits. Treated with Nix. Next day 2 live lice. Treated with QuitNIts. 4 weeks later 8 live lice and more nits. 2 weeks late one nymph. At this point I think she is lice free ( please GOD!) But what I have done differently this time is that I am going through her hair extensively on a regular basis. I mean a 90 minute process several times per week. I am getting really good at it. I also started cutting out the strand of hair with the nit on it to seal in a bag and throw out. The first time I cut out about 8 nits. Next time 3, next time 1, next time 1, finally 0 several times in a row. I am only doing it twice a week now until for 30 days I find no lice or nits. Unfortunately, I have no one to check me. I have long curly hair and it is impossible for me to use the comb. I keep treating myself which I know sounds crazy so, I am going to start with this olive oil method. As most people, I hate lice and they freaked me out even before my 4 year old got them. However, I am much better now because I know what to do. I wish at the very beginning I would have treated, gone through her hair over and over then re-treated on day 9 and still gone through her hair over and over until no lice for a length of time. Washing everything in the house and buying new brushes etc. was the easy part….the “nit-picking” was the hard part but really the only way to absolutely get rid of lice, in my opinion. I do not think that I have had them during this time but it is nice to know that I can at least treat my daughter. Another thing that really helped me was learning the true life cycle of a louse. The newly hatched baby lice (nymph) cannot lay eggs for 7 days. The RID/NIX do not kill most nits especially freshly laid nits. So, using the products to kill the lice helps but only until the nits hatch , mature and start laying more eggs.
Bottom Line-
treat
search head and get rid of nits (this process takes a long time and I prefer to do it by hand)
search search search over and over
retreat (with whatever method you choose) on day 9
search until no nits or lice are found for an extended period of time
I know it is super gross to search etc. but if you want to deal with lice for the shortest period of time you must remove the nits. I hope this helps at least one person!