Essential Oils and Head Lice: Are Natural Remedies Really Effective?

While aromatherapy and essential oils seem to be all the buzz lately, you might be wondering if essential oils could be a buzz-kill when it comes to lice. Given the laundry list of chemicals in over-the-counter and prescription lice treatment products, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the facts about alternative natural lice treatments. That’s what we’re here to bring you— the facts. Ready to learn more about essential oils and the published scientific evidence about them? Let’s get to it. 

Hold Up—What Actually Are Essential Oils?

It’s best to start at square one. What are essential oils? Essential oils are highly concentrated oils that have been extracted from plants. John Hopkins Medicine confirms that essential oils are created “by steaming or pressing various parts of a plant (flowers, bark, leaves, or fruit) to capture the compounds.”

Therefore, the only ingredient in an essential oil is the plant that it has been derived from. To put it simply, essential oils are potent plant extracts. For reference, the most popular essential oils lauded as effective treatment are tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil, neem oil, and clove oil. However, there can be another five to ten essential oils included on the list. 

Are Essential Oils Safe?

We are definitely in favor of questioning the safety of anything you want to put on your skin. Just because essential oils are labeled as natural or organic doesn’t necessarily mean that they are safe. As the FDA points out in their article on essential oils, “many plants contain materials that are toxic, irritating, or likely to cause allergic reactions when applied to the skin. For example, cumin oil is safe in food, but can cause the skin to blister.” 

It is not uncommon for essential oils to cause allergic reactions, especially for those who have sensitive skin. As the Mayo Clinic asserts, “when essential oils are applied to the skin, side effects may include allergic reactions, skin irritation, and sun sensitivity.” Symptoms of an allergic reaction to essential oils can include hives, bumps, rashes, and itchiness. We recommend consulting a doctor or allergist to discuss possible risks of applying essential oils to the scalp and skin for lice treatment. Curious about the list of possible symptoms of prescription lice treatment products and over-the-counter lice treatment products? Learn more about ingredients in lice insecticides by clicking here. 

Using Essential Oils For Lice Treatment

There seems to be an enormous amount of blogs and posts on the internet that have written about using essential oils as a natural home remedy for getting rid of lice. In general, the recommendation is to apply a couple of drops of essential oil—mixed with a neutral carrier oil like olive oil— to the scalp. Another recommendation is to mix a few drops of essential oil to a bottle of rubbing alcohol, which you then would spray onto the head. Both recommendations suggest leaving the mixture on the hair for at least 12 hours before washing it out. 

While this may sound like an easy solution to a pesky lice problem, unfortunately, there is almost no clinical evidence to support these recommendations and claims. 

In fact, applying rubbing alcohol to the scalp, especially for such a prolonged amount of time, can be very harmful. Leaving rubbing alcohol on for such a long time can dehydrate the scalp, which causes inflammation and can even burn the scalp. 

Where’s The Proof? Can Essential Oils Kill Lice?

As we previously mentioned, there is very little clinical evidence that essential oils can get rid of lice. There have been just a few scientific studies conducted on the effectiveness of essential oils as lice treatment, and the results were mostly inconclusive. 

One 2015 study published by the National Center of Biotechnology Information concluded that: “In general, we don’t know whether herbal and essential oils (we evaluated evidence on eucalyptus oil, tea tree oil, and tocopheryl acetate only) are effective at eradicating head lice compared with other treatments.” 

The Mayo Clinic states that “small clinical studies have suggested that ingredients in some of these products — mostly plant oils such as tea tree, anise, ylang-ylang, eucalyptus, and lemongrass — may work to repel lice, but their effectiveness is uncertain…. Until more research proves the effectiveness of head lice prevention products, you can take simple measures to minimize your child’s risk of getting lice.” Therefore, the Mayo Clinic recommends holding off from using essential oils to treat head lice until there is more clinical evidence to support using it. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics goes a step further and advocates that when it comes to using essential oils as a lice treatment, “until more data is available, their use in infants and children should be avoided.”

If you want to learn more about essential oils and head lice? Check out Lice Choice’s comprehensive complete guide about essential oils and lice treatment.