When one person in your household has lice, it’s tempting to treat everyone. After all, lice are contagious and can spread to others in the home. Isn’t the safest bet to treat everyone and prevent a larger outbreak?
Not so fast.
If you discover that your child has lice, you’ll want to treat them right away and have everyone else in the household checked. But only those who are positive for lice need treatment. Head lice treatments are for eliminating head lice only – they are not to be used for preventive measures.
How Likely are Lice to be Spread in the Home?
First off, it’s important to know that lice are not as contagious as you might think. While they do spread, you need the perfect ingredients to create a household infestation. For starters, lice cannot survive off a human head for more than 24 hours. This is why lice are typically not spread from surfaces.
Second, lice cannot fly or jump. They can only crawl from one host to another. There are some instances of lice being spread through hair brushes and combs, but this is rare. Lice are mostly transmitted from head-to-head contact.
Lastly, for an infestation to start on a new host, there needs to be an adult female louse carrying eggs. Or, a male and female adult louse that are able to mate. If just one male louse ends up on a sibling’s head, it can live there for up to 30 days, but it won’t be able to reproduce.
In the end, lice can easily spread in the home, but it’s not a definite thing. By keeping children away from each other and taking a few other preventive measures, you can stop lice from spreading.
Check Everyone in the Home for Lice – You Must be Certain!
What you do want to do is have everyone in the household – adults included – checked for lice. You can do this on your own using a nitpicker comb, or you can bring everyone into a professional head lice expert like My Hair Helpers. Our trained lice experts will look through everyone’s heads and determine who has lice.
Once you know who has lice, you only need to treat these individuals. One of the reasons why head lice products are not as effective as they once were is because they are being overused. Save these products for when you really need them.
Prevention Remains Crucial
Keeping the rest of the family lice free is crucial, so follow the proper preventive measures. My Hair Helpers can help with this, or you can check out our online resources. Here is what we recommend to our families:
- Use a mint lice repellent spray every day
- Tie up hair into braids or ponytails
- Avoid head-to-head contact among family members
- Do not share hats, scarves, brushes, hair accessories, etc.
- Machine wash and dry bed linens, blankets, etc.
- Vacuum furniture
You don’t have to go crazy with cleaning, as lice are usually not spread this way. But, a little bit of vacuuming and washing can go a long way!
My Hair Helpers has three head lice salons, an on-site mobile service and an Amazon store where you can pick up our products and have them delivered to your doorstep. For questions or concerns regarding our head lice products, contact us today!
