“Non-toxic, deep-penetrating, comb-free” blares the ad for licex. It sounds like the dream come true of every parent whose child has ever brought head lice home from school. But is licex to good to be true? Let’s take a look.

The Life Of A Louse

Head lice are parasites that live on the human scalp. They have three distinct life phases. Head lice begin as eggs, known as nits. The parent louse lays the nits on a shaft of hair, close to the scalp. Nits hatch anytime from six to nine days after being laid.

The next life phase is that of “nymph.” Unlike the beauties in Greek mythology, head lice nymphs look like little adults. For seven days after being hatched, they go through a period of quick growth.

As an adult, though no bigger than a pinhead, the louse feeds on blood from its host anywhere from three to five times per day. It injects saliva into the host’s scalp to cause irritation and encourage bleeding. Adult head lice are also quite fertile, laying up to eight eggs per day for the rest of their life span.

In order to be effective, a product must not only kill the adult lice and nymphs, but also the nits. That is where many lice-killing products fall short.

licex: A Non-Toxic Killer?

licex bills itself as a non-toxic killer that need be used only once to banish head lice. Although most users agree that licex, when used according to direction, is a useful product, it falls a little short of some of its more extravagant claims.

licex, for instance, is not quite chemical free. According to www.scorecard.com, a pollution watch dog group, it contains as active ingredients Piperonyl Butoxide and Pyrethrum, both suspected cancer-causing agents.

Using licex is actually a two-stage process. In the first stage, an oil is applied to the scalp and left on for thirty to sixty minutes. The hair and scalp are then thoroughly rinsed. This oil is supposed to kill lice in all three life-stages, including the nit stage. Some user-reviewers agree with this claim, others report having to repeat use of the product before the lice are demolished for good.

Step two involves what is known as a “protectant.” This protectant is applied to the scalp and combed through the infested person’s hair. (Didn’t the ad say something about no

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