cruelty-free<\/a> products (despite the irony\u2026 poor lice!). Some of the chemicals contained within some of the specialist head lice-killing products are also potentially damaging to the environment, either in how they are made or where they\u2019ll end up when you flush them down your plughole.<\/p>\nAs such, the least bad option is simply to attempt to remove the lice and their eggs by thoroughly combing the infested hair with a special fine-toothed comb. This should be done with wet and recently conditioned hair and every part of the hair \u2013 from root to tip \u2013 should be combed. This will remove a good amount of the eggs and lice themselves and may also render those that do evade the comb unable to lay more eggs.<\/p>\n
The problem with this approach, of course, is that you might well miss a few eggs that will then hatch and the cycle starts again. And, what would you do with any live insects you managed to comb out? The vegan ideal would be to release them into the wild but the chances are this would be condemning them to starvation anyway.<\/p>\n
Cruelty Free Head Lice Shampoo<\/h3>\n
As George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm<\/em>, \u201cAll animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others\u201d. And, so it seems to be the case with so-called cruelty-free shampoo that is designed to eradicate (yep, kill) head lice. So, how can that be classed as cruelty-free, you might ask? Well, it is more to do with the fluffy non-insect animals like rabbits and dogs that might have been used by producers of other products as guinea pigs (and perhaps, literally so, as guinea pigs might well have been tested upon too in some cases!).<\/p>\nWhen a shampoo is marked as cruelty-free it means it hasn\u2019t been tested on animals in general, but if that is the case it will not technically have been tested on head lice and hence its efficacy could not realistically be verified. While it is possible that vegan-friendly shampoos that are marketed as treatments for head lice might well do the job, if they are marked as cruelty-free, one would assume they have not been officially tested to make sure they do indeed eradicate lice infections. Or, alternatively, that we are very much back to the notion of some animals being more equal than others.<\/p>\n
Having said that, it is certainly worth trying such options, which usually include various natural ingredients, such as tea tree oil, eucalyptus, birch oil, rosemary, lavender oil and chamomile. These are much less potent than the various chemical formulas that are available. The natural options are likely to be better for the environment and for people who don\u2019t want to wash their hair in chemicals, such as piperonyl butoxide, permethrin and petroleum distillate, which have varying levels of toxicity and can cause some side effects, including skin irritation and even burning.<\/p>\n
Head Lice Conclusions<\/h2>\n
Head lice can be a real annoyance. They reproduce relatively quickly, can cause irritation and potentially infection or disease and, let\u2019s be clear about this, they suck your blood! Some vegans would suggest that because head lice are animals they should not knowingly be harmed. We would suggest this is very much the level five vegan<\/a> approach and not, in reality, one many vegans would be happy to follow.<\/p>\nAs we argue above, the definition of veganism allows for circumstances when it is not \u201cpracticable\u201d to avoid such harm. And, in the case of blood-sucking head lice, we think it is certainly not practicable to let them remain in situ on your scalp or that of your children, especially if they go to nursery or school.<\/p>\n
Vegans seeking the least bad option can either painstakingly comb out all the lice and eggs using a special comb or opt for natural anti-lice shampoos that have not been tested on animals. In truth, though, both will have the same result, at least as far as the lice are concerned, to a greater or lesser extent, as the more potent chemical shampoo treatments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3411,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veganfriendly.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/health\/3410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veganfriendly.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/health"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veganfriendly.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/health"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veganfriendly.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veganfriendly.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}