Very few people like to talk about it, but head lice treatment is something nearly everyone will eventually need to know about. There are three different kinds of parasitic lice that affect human beings: pubic lice that live around the genitalia, body lice, and hair lice or head lice seen on the scalp. Head lice are the most common problem.

Lack of hygiene or cleanliness does not factor into having a lice infestation in your hair. Lice is an embarrassing condition but lice can travel fast from one person to another. Lice are very quick and mobile and can infest a person from sharing hair grooming tools or head ware or just by being close to another infected person.

Lice need contact with human beings to feed and will die within a few weeks if removed from a host. As head lice treatment includes cleaning other items that may harbor lice such as pillows or clothes, it is good to know that there is an alternative to washing items in very hot water. Sealing items in plastic bags for several weeks will kill lice and their eggs.

Lice can be so minute that it might be troublesome to even know whether or not a head lice treatment should be given at all. Schools are the front line in the war against lice and usually warn parents against an outbreak. Nits are the signs that lice have invaded as the insects themselves are hard to see. Nits are lice eggs on the base of hair shafts and look like rice adhered to the hair. All must be completely destroyed for a head lice treatment to work effectively.

After the treatment, the scalp has to be checked daily. To remove the nits and any dead or alive lice a special fine toothed comb is used. Though products like lice spray or lotion or shampoo generally kill the adults, but in some cases a stronger product has to prescribed, you should always check with your doctor for the same. For success, other household items like clothing, furniture, bedding, carpet and even stuffed toys must also be treated.

The nontoxic herbal products are also available on Internet and health food stores , replacing the more common insecticide head lice treatment products. A few home treatments are also known to work, but are messy and may require many rounds of treatment. However, they are cheap and nontoxic as they use mayonnaise or petroleum jelly or oil by which the scalp is covered completely, thus suffocating the lice. For several hours or overnight the head is covered in a plastic shower cap and after that nits are removed using lice comb. To completely get rid of the material, several shampoos are generally needed, however this is fairly cheap as well as effective.