Lice are more common in straight hair, but they can still attach to curly hair. According to Henry, lice are more likely to attach to straight hair because of the shape of the follicle.
There is no specific hair type that lice prefer. All lice need is a clean strand of hair to attach to. It doesn't matter the thickness, the length, if it's been colored, if it's straight, or if it's curly. It has been found that people with longer hair tend to report getting lice.
In fact, curly hair is often more vulnerable to catching them because it has more volume than straight or thin hair. Head lice transfer from one person to another through head to head or hair to hair contact.
The common braid, a French braid, a fish tail braid, or a crown braid are all excellent hair styles to keep your hair up and out of the way of others. Any braid type that keeps your hair pulled back and contained is perfect for helping to prevent your contact with head lice.
The best way to protect your thick, curly hair from lice is to keep it tied back, especially if your children have lice or you suspect they do. When checking children for lice, keep your own hair tied back so lice can't get into it. Don't let your children get into your bed until they are clear of lice.
Lice are attracted to the blood they get through your scalp – short, long, clean or dirty.
While lice do prefer fine, straight hair strands over coarse, curly hair, so it is indeed less likely, lice can nevertheless still affect every person regardless of race or hair type. One reason is the variety of ways lice can spread from sharing hair brushes and accessories to touching other people's hair.
Experts do suggest however that keeping long hair pulled up and back is a good way to ward off lice and nits. If hair is out of the way it is not as easy for someone to brush up against it and pass on a louse, or a nit to find its way on a scalp.
Hairspray makes it harder for the louse to grab hold. The smell of hairspray and the use of solvents (sad but true) in them can also deter creepy crawlies from finding their way in. Not to mention that if you're tying longer hair back, you've got a double whammy.
Head lice need a human host to survive. If the hair is gone, so are head lice. While cutting a child's hair may seem like an extreme solution, it may be a viable course of action for some parents. If your child already gets short haircuts, it may make sense for you to deal with head lice by destroying their habitat.
Because curly hair is more porous than straight hair, chemicals that kill lice may dry out or harm it, so use with caution.
It turns out that white people tend to have round cross sections for their hair, a shape that our European lice are well adapted to. Black people, on the other hand, tend to have an oval cross section shape to their hair. This oval shape is just different enough to make lice uncommon with African-Americans.
Adults are not immune to head lice. In fact, if you have any close contact with children or even parents of children you can be at risk of catching them if they have them. Lice transfer primarily through head to head contact, so you would have to get close to the other person.
Lice and nits can't survive the high heat. It's true that lice and nits can't survive temperatures above 113°F (45°C). This makes them susceptible to any heat source, such as a hairdryer or the plates of a hair straightener.
No one is immune, but frequent head checks help
Anyone can get lice, and personal hygiene has nothing to do with the likelihood of being infested, Rukke said.
Coconut, tea tree oil, lavender, eucalyptus, rosemary, lemon grass, and peppermint are scents popularly believed to repel lice. Using any coconut scented shampoo and conditioner is an easy way to increase your defense. At 1% concentration, tea tree oil killed 100% of head lice after 30 minutes.
Rosemary Repel Daily Shampoo combines rosemary, citronella, tea tree, anise, lavender and geranium oils to help repel lice.
Benzyl alcohol lotion, 5% has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of head lice and is considered safe and effective when used as directed. It kills lice but it is not ovicidal. A second treatment is needed 7 days after the first treatment to kill any newly hatched lice before they can produce new eggs.
A comb with flat-faced teeth and a tooth spacing of 0.2 to 0.3mm is best. Detection combing can be carried out on dry or wet hair. Dry combing takes less time, but wet combing is more accurate because washing with conditioner stops head lice from moving.
Be aware that lice will quickly move away from any disturbance in dry hair. Wet lice remain still, which is why wet combing may be more effective at detecting lice.
The head lice may have become resistant to the treatment. If the treatment used does not kill the head lice, your health care provider and pharmacist can help you be sure the treatment was used correctly and may recommend a completely different product if they think the head lice are resistant to the first treatment.
Pubic lice usually are found in the genital area on pubic hair; but they may occasionally be found on other coarse body hair, such as hair on the legs, armpits, mustache, beard, eyebrows, or eyelashes. Pubic lice on the eyebrows or eyelashes of children may be a sign of sexual exposure or abuse.
Do African American people get head lice? African American people can still get head lice. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that African American people get head lice much less frequently than other people.
Vinegar contains properties that kill and get rid of nits and lice. This mixture should be applied directly to the whole scalp. Mix 1 cup of vinegar with 1 cup of warm water. Next, distribute this mixture onto the scalp and cover your hair with a hair cap.