Does Hair Dye Kill Lice or Nits? Will Dyeing Your Hair Prevent Lice?
Discover the truth about using hair dye to get rid of lice. And if hair dye can treat or prevent a head lice infestation.
Question:
I have head lice, but I am planning on dyeing my hair anyway. Will hair dye get rid of head lice?
Answer from a Lice Expert:
If you have tried other treatments that have failed, you are not alone, and it’s not your fault. The latest stats say that most parents that use over-the-counter kits still have lice even after multiple treatments!
After no success with lice kits, some turn to home remedies. Hair dye is one that I see a lot of people turn to in desperation, but before going down the hair dye route there are a few things you should know.
So, let's talk about exactly what hair dye can do and cannot do when it comes to helping with head lice in this article and video.
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.
Hair Dye for Head Lice
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.
Is Hair Dye A Good Lice Treatment?
NO MYTHS HERE- ONLY THE FACTS.
There are loads of random people claiming different home remedies "cure" lice circulating the internet.
The purpose of My Lice Advice is to give you the undiluted facts about home remedies and other lice treatments- so that you can make good decisions and get rid of lice as fast as possible.
This article focuses on the facts about hair dye and head lice.
Does Hair Dye Kill Lice?
QUICK FACT
Hair dye will NOT get rid of lice.
There are multiple kinds of hair dye out there, but the only type that has the “potential” to be a lice killer is permanent hair dye (as opposed to temporary or semi-permanent)...
Depending on the brand of hair dye you get, the dye usually has one of two ingredients: ammonium persulfate or hydrogen peroxide. Both of these ingredients have the potential to kill lice, but in reality, they don’t.
Lice are now totally immune to hydrogen peroxide. I have personally tested it on lice in this article here, it doesn’t kill lice.
Ammonia, on the other hand, can kill some lice. If you’re set on using hair dye as a lice treatment, make sure you are using one with ammonia in it, not just hydrogen peroxide.
However, you should know that even though hair dye can kill some lice, hair dye won’t get rid of lice. It's not powerful enough, and it doesn't address the multiple problems of head lice, including lice eggs.
If you attempt to get rid of head lice by dyeing your hair multiple times, you’ll end up stuck in the "Never-Ending Cycle" described below.
QUICK FACT
Using hair dye for lice gets you stuck in the "Never-Ending Cycle" (explained below)
Hair Dye & 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 what they don't realize is they've missed the lice eggs and the baby bug. 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 before you know it you are infested with more baby bugs then you may have started with!
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.
Hair Dye & Nits
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.
Nits have a strong impenetrable shell on them. This shell protects them from all chemicals and toxins. So hair dye has absolutely zero effect on lice eggs. Hair dye does not kill them or prevent them from hatching.
Even if the hair dye you used did kill any adult lice on the head, the nits would soon hatch and you would go around and around in the cycle of never-ending head lice.
Hair Dye Makes Getting Rid of Lice Harder!
Hair dye will not get rid of head lice. In fact, hair dye will make it significantly harder to get rid of lice because it will dye all of the nits and lice the same color as your hair, making them significantly harder to spot and remove.
I have seen a wide variety of “colored” lice eggs from people’s hair. I’ve seen blue, black, pink, and red nits. Whatever color you dye your hair, that’s what color your lice eggs will be, which of course makes it pretty tough to see them.
Hair Dye Can Harm Your Child
Children’s hair is different than adult hair. It is usually very fine and fragile. Dyeing a child’s hair (especially frequently) is likely to damage it. The hair can break off or even fall out. Honestly, though, that’s the “milder” potential side effect of using hair dye (containing ammonia and peroxides) on your child multiple times to try to get rid of lice.
Dangers of Hair Dye and Bleach on Young Children
Because children’s scalps are extremely absorbent, using permanent hair dye or bleach repeatedly on young children is more likely to result in some of the more severe reactions associated with ammonia and peroxides. These include:
- Severe eye irritation and injury
- Asthma and breathing difficulties
- Allergic skin reactions
- Respiratory irritation
- Poisoning
- Seizures
- Death
Since hair dye doesn’t even get rid of head lice, I definitely do not recommend you “give it a try.”
What Gets Rid of Lice?
Dyeing your hair does NOT get rid of lice. Whereas, doing a professional lice treatment using the Step-by-Step Video System gets rid of lice in one session without toxic chemicals, pesticides, or lice kits.
Does Dyeing Your Hair Prevent Head Lice?
The truth is that lice like all types of hair: dirty or clean, dyed or undyed. What they really care about is having a place to lay their eggs and frequently feed on blood (that’s right, just like mosquitos or leeches, they feed on your blood!). Lice are not prejudiced. They are just as happy in damaged, dyed hair as they are in clean, never-been-dyed hair.
Lice are attracted to the smell of your blood. If they smell desirable blood, it doesn’t matter what state you’re hair is in; they’ll hustle over to your head to start feasting.
If you choose to go with hair dye...
Lice is horrible, and no one should have to endure it for months on end. And I hope you don't.
Many people go from lice kit to lice kit and then from home remedy to home remedy. They think it's gone for a week or two, and then it comes back again.
I created the My Lice Advice Video System so you can avoid struggling with lice for months, instead, just follow along with the videos and be done with lice by the end of the day!
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
The ingredients in hair dye some folks claim to kill lice, ammonium persulfate, and hydrogen peroxide, won’t get rid of head lice. If you use hair dye as a lice treatment, you’re likely to go around and around in the cycle of neverending lice.
Hair dye doesn’t kill lice eggs either, so even if you kill most of the adult bugs, you will be right back where you started within a few days.
Using repeated rounds of hair dye to get rid of head lice will not only be unsuccessful, but it also poses several risks to your child, including damaged hair and more serious dangers like seizures or poisoning.
If you want to get rid of lice quickly then follow along with my step-by-step videos and get rid of it permanently by the end of the day.
I'll see you there!
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.
