Lice and Dreads

So, this is not the best topic to be discussing but im sure it has happened to some dreadies out there. So my head has been really itchy lately. I thought it was the dry weather here paired with the fact that I ran out of rosemary oil and just thought my head was dry. My dreads are only 5 months old. some in the front are twist and rip made but the back has been free to dread. they are looking awesome if I may add. so anyway, i didn't really think much of it until my head started itching sooo bad i just knew it had to be something living on my head. I thought lice, but my husband couldn't see anything!! well when my daughter (6yrs) started itching her head more than normal I knew something was up. I looked through her head and couldn't believe it!! Lice!! We homeschool but she still goes to a charter school 1 day a week so im thinking that's where they came from??!! I don't know, but I remember having them as a kid. It's hard having lice, but having lice with DREADS!! We are already stereotyped, even my own mother who is pretty open minded about a lot of things said she always thought dreads looked kinda "dirty" and I should just comb them out. I am not one to care much about what others think but i just have some reservation about her school knowing that we have lice and them all thinking it came from us! Know what i mean?! Lice does not like dirty hair and they don't care how much money you have and all that, but i hate when others assume things like that!!

so anyway...I read on here that SE recommended straight alcohol and ACV to kill them. I had been washing with A LOT of TT oil before that and the itch has gotten better but last night I tried the strong concoction and it was horrible! (wrapped my head with plastic wrap and let sit for almost an hour with the alcohol and like 25min with the ACV). let me tell you!! but my head does feel WAY better. I did not want to do such a thing to my daughter so the first night i noticed them on her i washed her hair with BS and TT oil, let it sit, then rice with ACV and TT. oh, and I picked All the live ones out for an hour!! then when she fell asleep, I rubbed coconut oil/olive oil, TT mix on her head then wrapped her head in plastic wrap and a towel around that to protect the pillow, then put a head band around it to hold in place. the next morning i could see dead lice on her towel! then i washed her head again with shampoo and TT, ACV/TT rinse. Tonight I did the shampoo/TT let sit for like 30min, then ACV rinse, let sit for 10min. then wash and condition with TT added. her head looks pretty clean, just see the nits(eggs) which im hoping will die! So my questions and concerns are as follows, (sorry for the long post!)

1. is the alcohol going to damage my dreads?

2.the acv makes my 5 month old dreads very soft, are they going to start coming out?

3. should I just cut my hair or will this work?

4. how long and how will I know they are all gone?

5. has anyone else gone through this?

I REALLY want to keep my babies!! They were looking so awesome and now this happened. I am sooo sad, I hope I and they will recover!! Thanks for reading and helping;)

Peace and hippiness

updated by @blueberrymomma: 01/13/15 09:40:26PM

Looking forward to hearing the answers for you. My daughters classmate just had lice and they informed the students, luckily it did not pass over to us. Be patient with the answers, I you do not have to cut your dreads. Lice has nothing to do with you being clean or dirty, so don't feel bad if you do. Just a tip, I no longer share my hats with my daughter, just in case lice is spread to her from school.

THanks for the support!!

the Barrellady said:

Looking forward to hearing the answers for you. My daughters classmate just had lice and they informed the students, luckily it did not pass over to us. Be patient with the answers, I you do not have to cut your dreads. Lice has nothing to do with you being clean or dirty, so don't feel bad if you do. Just a tip, I no longer share my hats with my daughter, just in case lice is spread to her from school.

My oldest got lice from his girlfriend last year just a couple weeks after I started my dreads. Luckily I didn't get them, but my daughter did. I used hair conditioner to get them out. I coated her head with conditioner, let it sit for a while then combed out small sections with a lice comb. I only found one adult but a lot of babies and eggs. I only had to treat her once. Shaved the sons head, he needed a haircut anyway lol. If I were you, I'd keep up the rubbing alcohol treatment every 3 days for yourself, always use tea tree oil, it repels them. And I'm sure you know, run EVERYTHING thru the dryer a few times to kill off any critters. I would think if you don't fiddle with the baby dreads they'll be ok, maybe step up the baking soda rinses as well. I don't see any reason to cut them or comb them out, unless you get really super bad infested. It sounds like you're on top of things tho. Good luck!

Thank u. Yeah im washing everything every couple days in hot water and hot dryer. But i did read that they won't survive longer than 24 hrs w/ out a host. Im hoping thats true so they don't come back! So much work!!

do the treatments every 3 days for at least 9 days

they are nasty lil buggers and u ca be convinced they are gone for a month then find em again

in the case of reinfestation try dimotaceus earth if you want to put out the bucks for it theres services like licelifters that use a tripple threat treatment all natural non toxic treatment involving heat then herbal treatments after it costs almost 200 bucks butis virtrualy guranteed to work (dreads are no problem)

finaly in a last desperate act there are 3 or 4 pills that kil em but your taking a toxic pill to kill a bug that takes a nibble on your scalp so you got to mak your blood toxic..theres side effects and its not too good for ya but if your desperate that last resort exists

--
My new book Ban The Taboo Vol 1

Thanks SE. I will just keep trying the washing method. Can't afford the service and will never take a toxic pill, especially cause i am still nursing my one yr old! Thank u.

I never had them w dreads, but my oldest girl did while I was nursing and pregnant, I know what you are going through! Stressful! I spent days picking out her nits, and still missed one or two, it took tending to and being vigilant through two life cycles to get rid of them, so don't be discouraged if you see more, they'll stop eventually. There's a metal comb with serated teeth, I think it's called nit exterminator, and you can use it every week on your kids. We also misted all our upholstery and beds and heads with lavender/rosemary/tea tree oil/ vinegar for months. Anything small enough can be double bagged and put in the freezer for 24 hrs to kill nits or bugs. And there's a company called Fairy Tales (or tails?) that sells the comb and strong rosemary shampoo etc and other licey things like covers for backpacks etc.Good luck! I hope you get to keep your hair knotted!

UpDATE: Thanks everyone for the tips! It's been a week since we noticed our little friends in my daughters hair and I think we have it under control...well hopefully! LOL I have been doing treatments every other day on both of us, switching between oil methods and alcohol ones. At first my dreads where really soft and starting to come apart a bit, but now after today washing all the oils out with natural dish soap and doing my normal bs/tt then acv/tt wash my dreads have shrunk!! they are like 6-10inches shorter at least and all loopy and where i had beads, they are all twisted up!

Im thinking this a good thing right? they are supposed to do this? but they are harder to separate now and the back is getting tangled. my poor hair has been through a lot this week and it's not over yet! Im still going to do treatments every couple days for another couple weeks, just to be safe. Good thing, i have only seen a couple white eggs on my daughter which means they are already dead, i we havent had any live lice since the first day i picked them off her hair. I have never seen live ones on me, only a few eggs, so don't think we had it too bad! hopefully they will all be gone!!

Thanks again everyone, and if anyone has any tips on sectioning please let me know! oh and please answer my questions about about shrinking and loops;)

Peace and love