How to eliminate nits and lice

By Mandy Moalem

My eldest is 8. He started going to a kindergarten about 6 years ago and the first present he brought home for me was a head full of lice. Of course, as soon as he had them, I had them!
My first stop was the pharmacy who sold me a bottle of the most disgusting smelling shampoo I have every experienced. Of course, my son screamed and cried but the problem was temporarily solved, the more permanent solution was to cut off all his hair and this worked.
However, I now have two other children and they are both girls - cutting off all their hair was just not an option. I needed something better. Over the following years I must have bought every possible treatment for lice or nits every produced. Each one would work for a short period of time, but as soon as my child mixed again with other children the problem returned.
Eventually I heard about a spray that contained rosemary oil. It was claimed that nits or lice hated the smell of rosemary and this oil, if sprayed behind the ears of children would prevent nits or lice staying around. It sounded good, but when I found it in the shops the price was so high it was just an impossibility for three children.
So, I searched the internet to see if there was any way I could manufacture rosemary oil at home. I found numerous pages on the subject, but it seems you need to be a trained chemist.
This got me thinking. If rosemary oil was so effective, surely fresh rosemary would have the same effect. I mean, if nits or lice hate the smell of rosemary, surely fresh rosemary would be equally effective?
Luckily, where I live, rosemary grows fresh on almost every street corner. I picked a few sticks and took them home. My first problem was what to do with them. How do I get them on my children's head?
Here's the solution - take a couple of sticks, place them inside the pillowcase of every bed - including your own. If you put the rosemary underneath the pillow you do not know it is there and you cannot feel it. If your children do not sleep with a pillow, place it underneath the sheet somewhere close to where they lay their head - but don't worry, it only has to be close, it is not essential they sleep on it. Within one week there was not a single nit or lice or egg in anybody's head and there hasn't been ever since - for about the last year. If your wondering how often you need to change the rosemary - the answer is simple - as rarely as you wish. I have used the same sticks of rosemary for months or until there is no longer any leaves to count.