How I Learned About The Terminator Lice Comb

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With three kids, I have run into most of the typical kid related health issues. One issue that I had somehow avoided for the past 7 years visited my family this past week. Since it is so fresh, I thought it would make a good first post. This is our story about lice and how I learned about the Terminator Lice Comb.

The Lousy Discovery

A week ago I took my youngest son, G, out to get a haircut. Normally I give my boys buzz cuts at home, but G’s hair had gotten long over the winter. While I did want to cut it for spring, I wanted it a little longer on the top than the sides and didn’t know how to make that look right myself.

The stylist wet down his hair with a spray bottle and started combing. He sat really well (he is just 23 months old), but halfway through, she stopped, got a little bit pale, and said, “I can’t cut his hair today. He has nits.”

“I’m sorry, what?” I said, confused.

“Here, look,” she said. Sure enough, he had those tiny little white things attached to some strands of hair in back. She told me how her nieces had been battling lice for a few weeks, so she was pretty familiar with the subject. She also told me that Oklahoma law prohibits stylists from cutting the hair of someone with lice and/or nits.

So I lifted G down from the booster seat, bought the small bottle of overpriced mint serum the stylist said would kill the lice and left.

Once loaded up in the van, I called my mom. I knew my siblings and I had had lice a few different times growing up, so I wanted to know what she suggested. She recommended going next door to the pharmacy and buying the lice removal kit and some lice combs. I did as she suggested and headed home.

When we got there, I got out the hair clippers, put on the number 1 (1/8″) guard and buzzed both of my sons’ hair.

The Frantic Research

At this point, I sat down at the computer to request advice from my friends on facebook and to do some google searching. I got a lot of responses, much of it conflicting and all of it time-consuming. One thing I did find, was that the stuff I had bought at the pharmacy was a pesticide. Yuck, I was not going to put that on the head of anyone in my family.

We spent a day bagging up all of the bedding and clothing in our bedrooms and planned to head to the laundromat later that afternoon. My husband got to work cleaning the front room so we would have a holding area once we cleaned my hair and the kids’ hair so he could clean the rest of the house.

I opened up my store brand nit comb and headed to the bathroom with the mint serum with G. I didn’t find anything in his hair, but figured that was to be expected since I had buzzed almost all of his hair off. Then I put the stuff in my hair and asked my husband to comb my hair. He started combing.

Only a few minutes later, he said that he wasn’t finding anything, that he wasn’t sure what to look for. I sighed. How was I going to know if i had it or not? G slept in our bed, so surely I had it too?

One of my facebook friends had commented that there was a ‘lice salon’ somewhere in town. I went back to google and found they were no longer in business. There was, however, a company called Lice Doctors who had made house calls and appeared to have techs in our area.

The kids had school the next day and if they weren’t nit free, they couldn’t go. My husband and I were both exhausted and overwhelmed. This company offered a 100% Guarantee and were available 7 days a week. So I called and scheduled us for an appointment that Sunday night at 7pm.

The LiceDoctor Visit

The tech that arrived at our house was a very friendly and chatty lady named Beth. We told her our story and she asked us to show her the combs we were using. We brought them out and showed her. She said that the ones we had wouldn’t have found a lot of lice or nits. The teeth were too short and too far apart.

She then showed us the comb that she used called the Terminator Lice Comb. It has little wires wrapped around each tooth and the teeth were spaced exactly right. It is stainless steel and very durable.

“This is the last lice comb you will every need,” she said.

I definitely liked to hear that. Durable items are definitely a top priority for someone who likes to be prepared for the future.

She told us the process for the night would be to put olive oil in each person’s hair and comb it out with the Terminator Lice Comb. Then we would wash our hair with dawn and shampoo until all of the oil was out, and dry our hair completely. She would then check the dry hair again with a special light and magnifier.

While she was able to scrape a lot of buildup from the boy’s scalps due to their serborrheic dermatitis, she didn’t find any nits. She did find nits from my hair, my daughter’s and my husband’s hair.

She said she didn’t find any adult lice and there really weren’t that many nits. Luckily it seemed that we had a pretty mild case and had caught it quite early, thanks to that knowledgeable stylist.

So, as the Lice Doctor website had promised, she told us that we were guaranteed to be nit free and offered to provide a note for the kids’ schools. Since there were no bugs capable of laying eggs, we were not contagious. If there were any nits that had been laid very recently, they were currently too small for the lice comb to find. So in order to remain nit free, we had homework.

The Homework and The Solution

She instructed us to put olive oil in each person’s hair for 8 hours minimum (so overnight), 2-3x per week for the next 3 weeks. Then we were to use the Terminator Lice Comb after washing our hair out the next morning to pull out any dead lice or nits. She directed us to put any brushes, combs, hats, scarves, headbands, etc in a plastic bag and put them in the freezer overnight.

Apparently both olive oil and freezing temperature will kill both lice and nits. If we faithfully followed this routine, we would not need to treat the environment.

What? We didn’t have to trudge to the laundromat with three small kids or deep clean the rest of our house?

Hopefully this advice helps you if you encounter this pest. I definitely now consider the Terminator Lice Comb a must have tool for our family.

Has your family battled lice before? Leave a comment below and let me know of any tips or tricks you would like to share regarding lice.