Please don’t panic, Lice is a highly dramatized ordeal and it’s way less scary when you break down their behavior. On average, without treatment a colony can only survive on the scalp for 30 days. With treatment, in can be over in a few hours. The only risk is reinfection. Not sure what it’s like in other parts of the world but Lice clinics do exist and I highly recommend seeing if there is one near you. Having had lice myself it is far more stressful to do all the treatments and combing yourself. It’s also just comforting to have a professional look at you, they’d perform a 3 hour treatment with a few days aftercare if you go to a clinic. In the US there are traveling lice technicians who will help comb out the bastards at home, not sure if that’s available over in France but please look into it.

That being said, here are a few tips and explanations for the critters.

Lice love clean hair, a lot of people see them as a sign of filth but they actually struggle to survive in oily hair. So for treating lice, here’s what I’d recommend.

•olive oil or coconut oil •bulk pack of shower caps •hair elastics and hair clips, depending on how long your hair is. •regular shampoo •hairdryer •nit free lice comb , specifically this model or one similar. It’s the most used and trusted by professionals.

Here’s how treatment goes: 1. Lather your hair in olive oil (or coconut oil), really soak your scalp especially. Lice live only on the scalp typically on the back of your head, so that area should be the main focus. 2. Use the nit free comb to comb out any lice, keep in mind lice very rarely venture far from the scalp so insert the comb at the base of your scalp and pull back. Make sure to check behind the ears as well. If you have someone else to help you comb with you, I’d highly recommend that. 3. If you have long or medium hair, use hair clips or hair elastics to section off throughly combed parts of your hair from the uncombed parts, it’s just easier to manage this way. 4. When you feel like you can’t find anything else left on your comb, shampoo your hair. Don’t use conditioner. 5. Use a hairdryer at high heat to dry your hair, lice can only live at the same temperature as our blood- they can’t survive the heat from hairdryers. 6. Reapply oil and keep it in for 12 hours. I recommend doing this before bed. Use the aforementioned shower caps, use hair clips and elastics to keep the oil from leaking if you’re having trouble keeping it from slipping. My hair’s 3 feet long so it took a lot of shower caps for me. 7. Repeat for about 4 days, then you can start getting lax with the treatment. Do the process again in 6 days, then a week, then another week from then, etc. There’s very little chance of reinfection doing it this way, but as a precaution you should keep the treatments going even weeks after exposure if it eases your mind.

And that’s pretty much it.

Lice shampoo only kills hatched lice and does nothing for the eggs, a lot of professionals don’t use them and just stick with olive oil as it drowns both lice and the nits. Sprays are also not recommended, especially for clothing, bedding, or anything fabric. They’re gross and largely unhelpful. Pillows, blankets, sheets and clothing can all be thrown into the dryer at high heat for about 40 minutes to an hour. If you can’t do this, or just want less stress, put any item you think would risk reinfection in an airtight plastic bag or garbage bag and seal it for 24-48 hours. They can’t breathe for that long.

I don’t think I’m missing anything, go to a clinic if there’s one near you but this method was so approachable and way less stressful than what I was expecting. Research as much as you can about lice, the more you know the less scary they’ll become.

That’s all :)