Blow Drying To Kill Lice and Nits
Can blow-drying help get rid of lice or prevent lice in the future?
Question:
Help! I have tried everything to get rid of lice, but it keeps coming back! I've heard that blow-drying can help with lice, is it true?
Answer from a Lice Expert
Yes. If done the right way blow-drying can help in the fight against head lice. But, if you do it the wrong way, blow-drying can make your lice problems WORSE!
Learn how you can use a blow dryer to help with lice in the article below.
Let me introduce myself...
Hi there! I'm Theresa, I'm a lice expert, lice coach, and Registered Nurse. I help people with lice every day! You can get rid of lice in ONE DAY at home by using the same proven professional technique that I use in my lice center.
Just follow the step-by-step videos and be done with lice by the end of the day.
Blow Drying for Lice
Blow-Drying For Lice Video Tutorial
Why Is It So Hard to Get Rid of Lice?
Now that you know what you're looking for I want to talk briefly about your biggest worry (that your child actually has lice) and the question I get asked by parents around the world that have been battling lice….
Parents around the world are all asking me the same question…. "Why is it so much harder to get rid of lice now?"
Lice have become immune to everything that used to work in the past. Perhaps you remember your mom using a typical lice treatment or mayonnaise and that doing the trick. The new strain of head lice is no longer killed by those treatments, that’s why lice today are termed by people, “super lice,” because they are immune to those treatments.
I’ve cured thousands of people of lice in my lice center and let me tell you, I don't do it with over-the-counter lice treatments.
Most people struggle with lice because they focus all of their attention on killing lice bugs and not enough attention on GETTING RID OF LICE!
If you want to get rid of lice you have to address all 3 of the problems of lice:
- Lice Bugs
- Lice Eggs
- Getting Lice Back
The best way to get rid of lice is to tackle all 3 of these problems at the same time, which is what I teach in my step-by-step video system.
So, if you discover your child HAS lice, don't panic. Just head over to the video system. Follow along with the videos and you'll be done with lice by the end of the day.
Super Lice
Super lice are the newest strain of head lice, and they are becoming increasingly common. This new type of lice is immune to the traditional pesticide treatments that worked on lice in years passed. The problem with super lice is that they have a gene mutation that is unphased by pesticides, so over the counter treatments don’t kill these lice or their lice eggs.
If you’ve tried treatments and still have lice, assume you’re dealing with super lice.
How Does Blow Drying Help With Super Lice?
Anyone struggling with head lice knows that one of the most challenging parts is trying to get rid of all of the lice eggs/nits in the hair. Most lice eggs today are completely immune to lice treatments, so if you don’t remove the nits from the head, they will inevitably hatch and reinfest your child with lice. But, high volumes of heat and air can help. While blow-drying alone doesn’t get rid of head lice, it can be helpful.
Does Blow Drying Kill Lice?
Blow drying is significantly more effective on lice eggs (nits) then it is on lice bugs themselves. A study of 169 children tested the effectiveness of a wide variety of blow dryers on head lice. The effectiveness of each blow dryer varied dramatically. The worst blow dryers only killed 10% of lice, whereas professional high volume dryers like the ones they use in professional lice centers killed about 80% of lice.
These professional-level dryers are not available to the general public.
What About Lice Eggs?
Lice eggs and nits are the same thing.
To start off let's get something straight... Nits and lice eggs are the same thing! Don't make this more complicated then it needs to be. The two words (nits and lice eggs) will be used interchangeably in this article.
Lice eggs are tiny (about the size of a poppyseed), and they blend in pretty well with hair. If you aren’t looking closely, you are likely to miss them. Lice eggs and dandruff are often mistaken for one another, but some of the key differences are that lice eggs are tear-drop shaped and glued to the side of the hair strand.
The tell-tale sign that what you are finding is a nit is that a nit cannot be flicked, blown, or brushed away. Aside from a high-quality lice comb, the only way to remove a lice egg from the hair strand is to squeeze it between two fingers and manually drag it down the entire hair strand.
Does Blow Drying Kill Lice Eggs?
Yes! Blow drying, however, has a much more significant impact on lice eggs. The heat combined with high volumes of air dehydrates lice eggs, making them less likely to hatch. In the same study, a few of the high-speed volume blow dryers prevented many eggs from hatching. Obviously, blow drying alone can't be your only way of tackling lice and lice eggs, but it can be helpful.
What's the FASTEST Way To Get Rid of Lice?
The purpose of My Lice Advice is to help parents get rid of lice as fast as possible. And the fastest way to get rid of lice is to get rid of lice in one day, no re-treatments. This is how lice professionals like myself get rid of lice in lice centers.
When I treat lice in my lice center I don't use any toxic chemicals or special treatments. In fact, you can do a professional lice treatment at home without buying a bunch of products. I have created a step-by-step video system that you just follow along with the videos and get rid of lice - Guaranteed!
If you want to get rid of lice TODAY then check out my Step-by-Step Videos by clicking here.
Can Blow Drying Spread Lice?
Yes! Head lice can be blown off the hair and spread if you use a blow dryer. This was tested in lab experiments. Imagine, you’re treating your child for lice, but in return, the lice are blown off your child’s head and onto yours!
To avoid this happening to you, it is essential to kill lice bugs with a lice treatment that kills both lice and super lice before doing any blow-drying. Read more in the tutorial below.
Other Cautions About Blow-Drying For Lice
Burns
It is possible to burn your child with a blow dryer, so pay close attention to how your child is feeling.
Flammable
You should not combine blow-drying with a pesticide or alcohol treatments as these are flammable. Be very careful about this, as most over the counter treatments are pesticides. Listerine (mouthwash) contains large amounts of alcohol, so never combine blow-drying with a Listerine treatment.
How to Get Rid of Lice with a Blow Dryer
Using a blow dryer to get rid of lice can be helpful, but it can not be a solution all by itself. Since blow-drying doesn’t kill lice bugs, any lice bugs left in the hair will continue to breed, and you will go around and around with lice.
You’ll never get rid of lice by using a blow dryer alone. Blow-drying is only an effective tool for helping lice eggs that you may have missed in the hair not to hatch.
If you want to use blow-drying as part of your "get rid of lice" regime then be sure to pick a good blow dryer
Pick the Right Blow Dryer
The best blow dryers for drying out lice eggs have a very high-speed volume. High-speed volume is more important than high heat. Avoid bonnet-style and diffuse hot air dryers. Go with a direct air dryer.
The most important thing about the blow dryer is the wattage. This is the motor, which determines how fast and hard the blow dryer works.
For success, use a blow dryer with at least 2000 watts. Here are a few with that strength:
RED by Kiss Hair Blow Dryer (typically around $30)
John Ionic Blow Dryer (typically around $50)
Blow-Drying to Prevent Re-Infestation
After you've gotten rid of lice, blow-drying the hair every day or every other day for a full two weeks can be helpful for preventing a re-infestation in case you've missed any lice eggs in the hair.
Blow-Drying as Lice Prevention
Blow drying hair can be helpful for lice prevention.
In theory, if you get lice in your hair and are consistently blow drying, it may not turn into a full infestation. If you want to add that to your prevention arsenal, you can.
But the truth is that since blow-drying doesn't actually kill lice bugs it likely won't make a dent as far as lice prevention goes.
If you're looking for more ways to prevent lice then check out my Lice PREVENTION Article and Video Here
The Never-Ending Cycle
Most people that use lice kits and home remedies get caught in the horrible "Never-Ending Cycle of Lice"
First- You Have Lice
When you first discover lice you have adult lice bugs, baby lice bugs, and lice eggs (also known as nits)
You Think You've Gotten Rid of It.
But...
After using an over-the-counter treatment or a home remedy, people think they've taken care of the problem because they aren't finding lice bugs for a while.
But the bigger problem is the lice eggs that are left in the hair. Lice kits and home remedies don't kill eggs, and each of those little lice eggs has a bug inside just waiting to hatch and re-infest your child again.
Then- Those Eggs HATCH!
Just like lice eggs are tiny, when lice first hatch they are teeny-tiny. In fact, they are almost invisible to the naked eye! So, it typically takes a few weeks for them to grow big enough for you to see them.
And by the time you notice your head is infested all over again!
And Lice Is Back Again!
How to Avoid the Never-Ending Cycle
If you want to avoid this never-ending cycle and get rid of lice fast then check out my Step-by-Step Video System. Follow along with the videos and you can be completely done with lice in ONE DAY, no retreatments necessary.
How to be lice-free by the end of the day...
GET THE VIDEO SYSTEM
Get rid of lice the same way the experts do. Your personal lice coach walks you through each step of doing a professional lice treatment at home in a series of videos.
FOLLOW ALONG
Follow along with the videos on your child in your home. No lice kits or toxic chemicals involved!
BE DONE WITH LICE!
When you're done with the videos, you're done with lice. And it's gone permanently!
Summing It Up…
Blow drying can be helpful for killing some lice eggs, but it is not a stand-alone treatment by any means. If you go with blow-drying be sure to use kill lice prior to blow-drying the hair because blow-drying is not very effective at killing lice bugs and it can spread lice to other people.
I DO NOT recommend you use blow-drying alone as a lice treatment, because it doesn't kill the lice bugs, and lice that aren't dead can spread to other people while blow-drying.
If you want to get rid of lice quickly, in less than a day, then check out my Step-by-Step Video System.
All the best!
Theresa is a Registered Nurse and lice expert with years of experience curing children of lice. She owns a lice treatment center in the US which is where she perfected the Step-by-Step Video System proven to get rid of lice. She also works with government agencies and schools helping those with the worst head lice cases in America.
Her greatest passion is empowering parents by teaching parents online how to do a professional lice treatment on their child at home. She is the Lice Coach for the My Lice Advice Step-by-Step Video System.
