Cleaning Lice and Nits in Brushes, Combs and Hair Accessories (conclusion)
headlice November 15th, 2007
continued from Cleaning Lice from Hair Accessories - Bedroom, Bathroom and Beyond
Once you have treated your child with a lice shampoo and comb, it is imperative to do all that is possible to prevent re-infestation. Although it is tempting to throw out many items, this is impractical, unnecessary, and can be very upsetting to your children who are already distressed!
Hair accessories can have live lice bugs on them, or hair with nits. Use a comb to remove ALL the hair that you possibly can from the brushes, combs and hair ornaments such as barrettes, ponytail holders, clips, and headbands. Pour boiling water liberally over these items. If the water is too hot for a human being, it will also be too hot for the survival of head lice and nits.
Some people immerse hair accessories in boiling water for a few minutes. However, most of these items have plastic or rubber parts, and they will get ruined. Therefore, Licenders is hesitant to recommend this. Although boiling water can kill live lice, it can also melt the glue on some hair ornaments, so be careful.
Items made entirely from fabric can be washed and/or dried on high heat for at least 30 minutes. The dryer must be hot enough that it could not be tolerated safely by a human being. A hair dryer is generally not hot enough to destroy hair nits.
Any hair accessories that still have hair on them, or could not be properly cleaned using boiling water, or the clothes dryer, should be put into a plastic bag, and sealed inside for 48 hours. In this amount of time, lice will die without access to the blood of a human scalp.
hair nits lice and nits live lice bugs nit nits