A mother who couldn’t get rid of her daughter’s constant head lice infestation has revealed how she even considered shaving off her little girls long locks to beat the problem.
Joanne, 30, from Hampshire tried seven different remedies on six-year-old Poppy’s hair, including three different lotions that claim to eradicate head lice over the course of three weeks.
And Poppy was left feeling frustrated and unhappy after dealing with constant itching, as well as sitting for hours every single night having her thick hair brushed through with the nit comb.
‘After three weeks, I was at my wits end and I was thinking, ‘I’m going to have to shave off all her lovely hair if this carries on’,’ mother-of-three Joanne recalled. ‘I felt helpless.’
It was only when she discovered a £5.49 overnight solution, Hedrin Treat & Go that she managed to combat the problem.
‘I put the Hedrin lotion on before bed time, left it overnight and then washed it out in the morning,’ she explained. ‘Then we repeated the treatment after seven days and my god, it actually worked. The lice were gone.’
Joanne, 30, from Hampshire tried seven different remedies on her daughter Poppy’s hair to beat head lice
At her wits end, Joanne was worried that she would have to shave off Poppy’s hair in order to get rid of the lice that were plaguing her
‘I couldn’t believe it. The whole family was relieved. Poppy was so sick of the nit comb and I was bored of sitting on the sofa trawling through her hair inch by inch every night – it took hours – and hurt Poppy.
‘Hedrin even made her hair feel really soft after we’d used it. It brushed through well and didn’t hurt her head either.’
Joanne first discovered lice in Poppy’s hair just before she finished school for the summer last year.
‘I thought to myself this is an absolute nightmare, it’s the last thing I want to deal with over the summer holidays,’ she explained.
Joanne spent several hours every night trying to comb through Poppy’s hair to get rid of the nits
‘I was determined to get rid of the lice as soon as possible so we could be head lice free for the start of the holidays. I went straight down the shops to find a solution.’
The mother-of-three tried seven different remedies before getting a recommendation from her pharmacist
Despite being aware that head lice is a common issue, Joanne couldn’t help feeling ‘mortified’.
‘When I saw the lice crawling around in Poppy’s hair I felt panicked,’ she explained.
‘I bought a product which claimed to work in five minutes. It sounded great but when I checked Poppy’s hair afterwards the lice were still crawling around so it hadn’t worked.
‘The next product I tried was an organic treatment which also didn’t kill the lice.
‘Poppy was getting sick and tired of me trawling through her hair, using different treatments and combing every little section.
‘Poppy has Afro-European hair which means there’s lots of it and it’s not easy to comb through on the best of days, let alone various times a week using a fine toothed nit comb.’
Joanne then tried a different approach, and bought a shampoo that she thought would be gentler on Poppy’s hair and less hassle, but the lice were still there afterwards.
Poppy found the constant combing and treatment painful and frustrating
‘Then we tried three, yes three, different types of head lice lotion before I finally found a solution,’ she said.
Joanne paid a visit to Boots to speak to the pharmacist about the issue and was recommended Hedrin Treat & Go.
The formula contains a diol called 1,2 octanediol which strips away the waxy cuticle on the louse, causing them to dehydrate.
This prevents head lice from developing a resistance to treatment, which is a common problem with traditional pesticides.
‘It really appealed to me that it was an overnight treatment.’
After two treatments seven days apart, the lice were finally gone and haven’t returned.
‘‘We now check the whole family for lice on a weekly basis and so far we’ve been lucky – they haven’t returned,’ she added.