Little riddle: comes out in the dark and wants to suck your blood? Hint: it’s way worse than vampires. We’re talking about head lice! Besides back to school, Halloween is a high-risk season to get head lice. And with kids trick-or-treating in close knit groups, or sharing masks, now is a great time to practice lice prevention. Better to be safe than sorry!

Why Lice Prevention Matters for Halloween
Lice spread from hair-to-hair contact. That means any time kids come in contact with each other, they’re at risk of spreading or receiving lice. On Halloween, kids are buddied up together, hugging, sharing masks or costumes, standing close together with friends – these are all perfect opportunities for lice to spread from one head to another. And if your child brings home the head lice, they could very well spread it to siblings and even yourself.

Natural Lice Prevention: Steps You Can Take to Repel Lice
While it’s estimated that 6 to 12 million head lice infestations occur each year, it’s not inevitable that your kids will get it, especially if you take steps for preventing lice. Follow these best practices to prevent lice from latching onto your kid’s hair:

1. Put hair in a braid or bun – Putting your child’s hair up in a bun or braid helps keep it away from other children’s head and hair, this is especially true for kids with long hair. This is a simple way to help prevent your child from bringing home head lice.
2. Put costumes in a sealed bag for 48 hours before wearing them – Fortunately, lice can survive no longer than 2 days without blood from the scalp, so sealing items and clothing up in a bag for 48 hours is an easy way to stop lice.
3. Encourage your kids not to share wigs – Remember, lice spreads from hair-to-hair. So if your child is sharing wigs with other kids, they could be unknowingly transferring lice. Remind your kids that sharing wigs is not OK; and focus on the fun aspects of their own costume.
4. Before wearing your costume, spray them with a natural lice repellant spray to keep them away during trick-or-treating – Since you never know who has lice, taking action by using a repellant spray is a simple way to feel good about your child coming back without any extra “friends.”
5. When in doubt, check your kid’s head once a week to make sure there are no lice – Make checking your child’s hair for creepy crawlers part of your weekly routine. Start by parting the hair at the scalp in different places. Pay attention to behind the ears and base of the neck. Look for movement when you shine a light on the hair. Lice are the size of sesame seeds and are sometimes brown or greyish in color. The eggs (aka nits) are usually around ¼ inch from the scalp and are white or yellowish in color. Baby lice (also called nits) are very tiny, sometimes white or beige in color and can be hard to spot. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if its nits or dandruff. The biggest way to determine the difference is that dandruff will brush off easily while nits will not. Using a fine tooth comb can be helpful.

Where to Find the Best Lice Treatment for Kids
Knowing what products are right for natural lice treatment for kids is not easy. While harsh chemicals may seem like the easy way out to kill lice, it’s not the only way and those products could leave your child with a harmful reaction. Instead opt for natural lice remedies that contain no harsh chemicals and contain essential oils that repel lice naturally. You can feel confident with products that contain natural ingredients to repel lice that have undergone testing – so you know they really work without harmful effects to your child’s hair or scalp.

Repel lice naturally for kids by using Fairy Tales Hair Care’s Rosemary Repel products, which contains a blend of essential oils like organic rosemary, citronella, tea tree, and geranium oils. Products are clinically proven to effectively help prevent lice!

Stay safe, be smart and be well.



Risa Barash, Founder & Owner & the entire Fairy Tales Hair Care Family