Green Daily

With a new school year, comes the new lice year for schoolchildren all over the country. According to Dr. Greene, throughout history, the main method for getting rid of lice has been picking them out one by one, or "nit-picking," just like apes do for each other daily. Then, thirty years ago, pesticides arrived, making the task much easier. However the lice became resistant, and people had to go back to mechanical removal.

There are alternative treatments, but most are untested. One method is the mayonnaise or Vaseline treatment, where you cover the hair liberally with either substance, place a shower cap over the head, wait overnight, and then shampoo out. The idea is that the mayonnaise or Vaseline smothers the lice. Downsides? Vaseline and mayonnaise are very hard to shampoo out as you can imagine. Also, there is some research showing that this method just puts the lice into a dormant stage, not a dead stage.

See Dr. Greene's article here for all you ever wanted to know about treating lice, including another popular pesticide-free treatment that utilizes cheap shampoo, olive oil, tea tree oil and rosemary or eucalyptus oil. Another alternative treatment is nit-combing combined with a hot-blow dryer for 15 minutes.

Also, check out Rebecca Lindell's battle with lice and mayonaise on mamazine.