Treating Head Lice Inexpensively

Getting sick or getting any type of disease that requires medication can put a dent in your budget. Treating and preventing head lice is no exception to monetary spending. I had the misfortune of finding out how much it costs to treat and prevent this communicable disease. Shampoo alone can cost over $6 just for two uses. That is only if you have short hair. Fortunately, there are a lot cheaper remedies out there. Here are a few ways to treat head lice without breaking the bank.

Tea tree oil - Tea tree oil can be found at CVS on US 1 in Port St. John, Florida for $2.99 to $18.39 for a 2 oz jar. The range in price is a little confusing, but the most expensive is supposed to be the purest. Several school nurses and a cosmetologist suggested using this instead of head lice shampoos.

Mayonnaise - Mayonnaise works wonders. It does not matter what brand of mayonnaise. Great Value Mayonnaise killed all the nits and lice in my son's hair. I had a 64 oz bottle that cost under $5.

Vaseline - Vaseline has the properties to smother anything. A 13 ounce jar costs under $5 at Wal-mart. This is a product that would work as good as the mayonnaise if not better, to smother the lice and the nits. It would be a little harder to get out of the person's hair than the mayonnaise is.

Nit Comb - Using a comb to treat head lice is the most natural course of action. You will have to use a comb to comb the lice and nits out of the hair with any of the aforementioned products. You could just forget the other products and comb away the problem. This will take a lot of time and patience and may have to be done several times. I could only find a nit comb online at CVS for about $10. If this seems a little much, it is. The shampoos have a comb and they start at $6 depending on the brand and the amount.

However you treat head lice and the nits, you may have to retreat the host. Luckily, this is not a serious health problem and can be treated over time. The person will itch and probably want the situation resolved as quickly as possible. Any type of treatment will be better than just using a comb. These treatments are inexpensive and can be used multiple times on multiple people. You may want to try them first before spending hard earned money on a $50 treatment that will work the same as the $5 treatment.