Question:
Wondering if something simple like use of the heat cycle on hairdryer
could prevent head lice. I would like to discuss this with someone
knowledgeable about the temperature sensitivity of head lice.
Answer:
A lot of work was done in the first half of the 20th century on the
temperature sensitivity of body lice and some on head lice. Eggs of body
lice were killed by 53.5C for 5 min, 52C for 10 min, 50C for 30 min.
If hair dryers have a role in killing head lice, a few key "therapeutic"
questions before one gets too hopeful are:
1. How hot does a hair dryer make the hair next to the scalp?
2. How much heat and for how long can be tolerated by a lousy head?
I am not knowledgeable re: temp sensitivity of head lice, but thought
you might be interested in hearing that several years ago I read a
woman's personal account of her first-hand experience with them. (It may
have been in Redbook, it was a doctors' office magazine collection.)
ANyway, it was awhile before she discovered the cause of her itching -
she at first attributed it to the aftermath of getting a permanent.
Everyone in the house EXCEPT THE TEENAGE SON shared this condition, and
her doctor reasoned that he may have escaped because he was in the habit
of blow drying his hair holding the hair dryer about 1 inch away.
