When my son started preschool my biggest fear wasn’t him walking into the classroom and being without me for the first time. It was lice. The thought of having one of my children getting lice freaks me out. So far, knock on wood (and I better not be jinxing myself here), in the 3 or 4 years we’ve been going to school, neither of my kids brought it home. Some of my friends have had to deal with it and I just cringe (and itch like crazy–which I am doing as I type this) for them thinking about what they are going through.
Ironically, September is Head Lice Prevention Month. One of the main things parents can teach their kids to help prevent them from getting lice is to not share things like hats, helmets, combs or pillows (lice can survive off the human head for 24-36hrs). Besides that, here are a few other tips parents can do to prevent lice:
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- Keep long hair up in a braid, pony tail or bun. That will help minimize contact with surfaces that are infected.
- Do not wash hair every single day…lice LOVE clean hair. Washing every other day allows oils to buildup on the hair shaft and make it difficult for lice to latch on.
- Use hair products that contain rosemary oil, citronella oil and tea tree oil.
- Do weekly head checks under a bright light. If a gray or white fleck is hard to remove, it’s a nit and not dandruff.
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So being the freak I am about my kids getting lice, I literally searched 4 stores for tea tree oil to add to my kids shampoo. But do you know that tea tree oil is VERY hard to find? I was about to give up until I heard about Rosemary Repel products by Fairy Tales. The Rosemary Repel hair care line naturally repel lice (and other insects) from the hair!! I was lucky enough to receive 4 great products from the Rosemary Repel line: Rosemary Repel Shampoo, Rosemary Repel Cream Conditioner, Rosemary Repel Leave-in Conditioner Spray (my personal fave!!), and Rosemary Repel Gel.
Rosemary Repel Shampoo: contains rosemary, citronella, tea tree, anise, lavender and geranium oils. It is safe to use everyday and contains absolutely no harsh chemicals.
First thing I have to say about the Rosemary Repel line, other than the fact that I think it is totally awesome that it repels lice, is how nice it makes my daughters hair feel. It started getting to the point that I couldn’t use kid shampoos on her hair because it made her hair feel funny. The Rosemary Repel left her hair feeling silky smooth. For her, I like to blow dry her hair in the evening…however, when she wakes up in the morning her hair is a rats nest. All I need to do is spray the Rosemary Repel Leave-In Conditioner Spray in her hair, comb it through and blow dry lightly and we’re good to go! I am a HUGE fan!
My son has a buzz cut so he can’t use the gel, however my husband has decided to let his hair grow longer (which then means it’s curly) uses it and so far he likes it…and of course, I like that he is going to be repelling lice wherever he’s at!
Fairy Tales has a new iPhone app called “The Facts of Lice”. This app will provide alerts of outbreaks of lice at the local level. When you learn of an outbreak, you can begin to take extra precautions. You can get the free app on itunes.
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