Three treatment methods

We will be covering the three major methods for treating head lice and why, despite of some of these methods, it can be so challenging to get rid of it:

• Professional dehydration
• Combing
• Lice shampoo
• Cause of chronic/long-lasting infestations

The reason treatment often fails is that an infestation typically consists of about 100 times as many nits as lice, and it's the nits that are challenging to kill.
Lice treatments rarely kill all the nits, and regular nit combs seldom remove all of them.
But there is a way to guarantee the elimination of head lice!

Professional Dehydration Method

Since 2009, the medical AirAllé® device has been in existence, guaranteeing the death of 100% of all the nits through a professional clinic's dehydration method.
This medical device treats the hair and scalp where lice and nits are located, ensuring the embryos in the eggs, as well as the lice, are completely dehydrated.
Leading ‘Lice Clinics of America’, as well as the ‘Lice Clinic Europe’ in the Netherlands and Belgium, exclusively use this device where certified head lice specialists help you get rid of any infestation in just 60 minutes time, regardless of its severity or duration.

The additional benefit of it, is that it is a physical treatment, without relying on chemical substances such as pesticides, which is safe and without the risk of lice becoming resistant to the treatment.
In addition to the highly effective and safe treatment, these professionals also provide sound preventive advice to help you stay lice-free easily.
Information about this treatment method can be found here: Clinic Treatment.

PLEASE NOTE:
It's not possible to effectively or safely kill nits or lice with a hairdryer or any other (warm) air device!
A hairdryer is designed to dry (wet) hair. Nits, on the other hand, are located near the scalp.
To dry a nit to death, it needs to be treated with a specific and precise air temperature for 30 seconds, and the air must not be obstructed by hair.
This is only possible with the patented AirAllé® device.

 

Combing

Treating head lice by removing them with a nit comb, as endorsed by the RIVM (Dutch National Institute for Public Health) with their "Lice in your hair? Just comb!" campaign, is proven to be more effective than using lice shampoos.

However, combing with a regular nit comb is still only effective in 38% to 57% of cases after 14 days of continuous combing.
This is because nits and nymphs often slip through the comb's teeth, and lice manage to escape from the nit comb walking away from the vibrations of the combing treatment.
Nits are so tiny that they can easily slide through the gaps between the comb's teeth.
It's crucial to use a nit comb with metal teeth. However, even metal teeth can be spread apart by the pressure of the hair, allowing the nits to still slip through.

Just like the lice and nit-killing AirAllé™ device, the nit comb used and advised by ‘Lice Clinic Europe’ specialists, is of a high professional quality.
It's the comb of which its teeth are uniquely sealed in the handle, preventing the teeth from separating, and so highly effective in combing out nits.

 

Information and instructions for an effective combing method that guarantees the elimination of the entire lice cycle in just 4 to 7 combing sessions can be found here: Combing Treatment.

 

Lice shampoo

There are commercial products and home remedies.
Unless resistance has developed, lice shampoos are usually effective against lice, but regardless of the brand or type, they are not very effective against nits (lice eggs).
The RIVM also states that lice shampoos are only effective in combination with combing using a nit comb.
Because a significant portion of the nits usually survives the lice treatment, new lice will hatch within 7-10 days.

However, some lice shampoos claim to kill nits.
If research shows that a treatment has killed (a small) portion of the nits, the manufacturer is allowed to state on the packaging that "it kills nits," and it is not necessary to specify the percentage that died.

Lice shampoos can be roughly divided into 3 groups:

• Pesticides as the active ingredient
• Dimethicone as the active ingredient
• Home remedies

Pesticides, such as Permethrin, are the least effective.
Not only are lice increasingly becoming resistant to these types of products, meaning that lice do not die from them, but Permethrin is a neurotoxin.
There is much debate about its safety for health.

Dimethicone is a chemical silicone oil that clogs the louse's breathing holes, causing it to suffocate in its own bodily fluids. Resistance is not possible.
By far the most effective of the three types, because it kills all lice (when correctly applied) and kills more nits than the other two types, however, not all.
No known health risks, although it can have a suffocating effect on the scalp and hair, possibly resulting in dry skin, dandruff, and itching.

Home remedies are often used because someone has had success with them by chance, and because these are usually natural, inexpensive, non-commercial products, people are eager to believe in them.
Vinegar, green soap, mayonnaise, eucalyptus oil, tea tree oil, rosemary oil, baby hair lotion, hair dye, alcohol, or the outright dangerous variations such as petroleum, turpentine, or even flea repellents for animals!
Unfortunately, we have to debunk all these myths.
All these methods only have an effect (to some extent) on lice, but hardly any on the eggs.
The lice are the tip of the iceberg, with the eggs making up the vast majority of the metaphorical iceberg beneath the water's surface.



The belief that a natural remedy can have no side effects is also untrue.
Even an essential oil like Tea Tree can have hormonal side effects in some cases:
“Studies in human cell lines indicated that lavender and tea tree oils have pro-female (estrogenic) and anti-male (antiandrogenic) hormone activities, and researchers found that “repeated topical exposure to lavender and tea tree oils probably caused prepubertal gynecomastia in these boys.” source

 

Cause of chronic/long-lasting infestations

(Commercial) lice treatments are by far the most commonly used method. However, because lice treatments claim to kill the nits, giving the impression of killing "all" nits, when in reality only a portion is killed, many people don't realize that the infestation is not resolved.

We constantly hear from people who didn't comb, or didn't do so for long enough time, because they mistakenly believed that the lice treatment would suffice.
Often, they then turn to numerous other brands with the same result, without implementing an effective two-week combing treatment.
This leads to (very) prolonged infestations, with eventually so many nits that, at some point, they become too extensive for individuals to eliminate without professional help.
The large number of people in the proximity of individuals with prolonged infestations who become infected by them significantly increases the chances of reinfection.