The “MAESWAY METHOD“
Hi, Miss Rosie here. I know that many parents are struggling with the problem of resistant head lice. Back in 2001, after more than 3 months, and spending more than $300 to try to rid my daughters of a nasty infestation, I came to the conclusion that the products found at the drugstore have lost their ability to effectively kill lice…and I was just wasting my money and subjecting my children to a nasty, smelly bunch of chemicals.
So, I went online to see how other people throughout the world were dealing with this problem. There are countless remedies out there-from mayonnaise to olive oil to tea tree oil…you name it, someone has tried it. But the most interesting method I found, and the one I’d like to shout from the rooftops everywhere, is the “Maesway Method”.
Before I say another word, I’d like to reassure you that I won’t charge you a penny for this information, and the treatment itself costs less than $5.00 US for the ingredients. So don’t worry about the cost…there isn’t any from my side, and you probably have the ingredients already in your house!
Now, to get on with it, it seems that Mae Loat, in Australia, was having the same problem parents everywhere are having…resistant head lice. However, when they went for their vacation to the seashore, her daughter’s lice seemed to disappear! She figured that the salt from the salt water was what was killing them. When she got home, she experimented with many things, and finally hit upon a method to keep the salt solution on the head, while it did the job of killing lice.
She uses shower gel, mixed with salt, to put on the head. After treating her daughters with this method, their lice disappeared, and never came back.
Now, unfortunately, we don’t use shower gel in our house, because we are allergic to it. So, I had to find something else to use to mix with the salt. Mae had suggested corn syrup, and as I had a huge bottle of corn syrup in the cupboard, I went right in and mixed it up, let it blend for 1/2 hour, and then glopped it onto my daughter’s long, thick hair.(At 12 years old, her beautiful red hair came to the top of her tush! I REALLY did not want to have to cut it!)
I discovered that it needed a bit of help from a spray bottle of water to spread through her hair, but once I had it completely covering her hair, I put a pillowcase around everything, and let her watch a Disney video. The 90 minutes of a standard animated film seems to be a good time limit, and it makes the time go by faster! I then sent her in to shower the glop out of her hair, and when I combed through her hair I could not find one single louse…dead or alive! (The towel and pillowcase were FULL of them!) I was amazed at how effectively this had taken care of the problem.
We completed the entire program, though I did find the corn syrup a bit too gloppy and icky, so we switched to S**ve shampoo from the dollar store, and it worked very well. I’m delighted to say that since that first day, we have not seen any lice on her head…until she got older, and ran off to join the “Rainbow Family”. But when she came home for a visit, just a few applications of salt shampoo, and once again, my daughter was lice-free. Thankfully, by this time, she has also outgrown the Rainbow Family too!
Now, since the schools have a “no nit” policy, it is still necessary to remove the nits, but if the treatment is done during summer vacation, the nits should pretty much fall out on their own with proper grooming. Rinsing the hair with white vinegar helps to loosen the glue that holds the nits onto the hair shaft.
Are you ready to get started, and say goodbye to lice forever? Then read on for the complete “Maesway Method”. I have made a few adjustments to Mae’s original text, to make this acceptable for all readers, but per her request to keep it as intact as possible, I am including almost everything. Unfortunately, since I wrote this back in 2001 to give to my daughter’s school, Mae’s site has disappeared from the internet. However, I still wish to give credit where credit is due, so here’s to Mae Loat of Victoria, Australia!
Method:
Take one regular bottle of shower gel or dollar-store shampoo (See note 2 below) and add one sixth of its volume of ordinary dry table salt in 4 cup mixing bowl or measuring cup with a pour spout (See note 3 below). Mixing gently will produce a thickish gritty liquid . Allow to stand 30 minutes, stir gently and then transfer back to the shampoo bottle (if it has a nozzle for application). This is by far the easiest method of application. Some un-dissolved salt is normal. Ignore.
Application:
Provide a face towel to keep the mix out of eyes. Do not apply unless you are sure that you have sufficient water to rinse the mixture off. Apply the mixture to a dry head so that the hair is coated from root to tip leaving no dry areas as hiding places for lice. Pay particular attention to the area behind the ears. Be generous in the application. A full head of hair may take 6 ounces/180 ml. or more. (Long hair may take up to 12 ounces!) You may need to use a spray bottle with water to get the mixture to attach properly.
Tie the hair into a scarf or old pillow case and set the kids to watch TV or other quiet activity. Leave the salt/gel on the head 60-90 minutes then shower off or rinse with plenty of water. The use of a good lice comb (See note 4 below) should show dead lice. Then you know that you are well on the road to success.
The worst that can be said about this method is that it is rather itchy. If dealing with a very young child, start with 30 minutes, and try to cajole them into leaving it on for at least 60 minutes. Give them a non-splintery chopstick to reach the itchy places!
Continued Treatment:
Repeat the mixture application every 4 days for a total of 5 treatments. This ensures that you are well in front of the normal breed/hatch life cycle of head lice. (See note 5 below). If any lice escaped the first treatment, if any hatched in the meantime, or if any chanced to find their way back to the head from bedding or soft toys, they are going to be killed in the next treatment before they have had a chance to lay eggs (nits). If one of your children has head lice, there is a strong possibility that some or all of the others are also infested. Much work can often be saved by treating all alike and at the same time. Maybe parents too!
Wash everyone’s bedding! My daughters loved to come in and cuddle with Mom, and I believe the only thing that saved me from an infestation was the fact that I colored my hair monthly, and blew it dry daily. I made sure to wash ALL the bedding, and set aside any soft toys and pillows without cases for at least a week.
Be Watchful.
With the treatment finished and all heads clear of lice, be alert to the possibility of re-infestation from other children. Regular inspection is essential. Here’s how. Lightly damp the hair and apply conditioner. Comb through with a good lice comb, carefully checking for lice by wiping the comb off onto white tissue. Examine the tissue very carefully for signs of head lice. A magnifying glass may help.
Do this perhaps every 7 to 10 days and immediately restart the treatment if you see lice. Do not wait for the kids to complain of an itching head. You should seriously consider treating the whole family likewise, as a precaution. If nothing else, it stops adults from itching when thinking of head lice!!!
Feel good.
I feel I have regained control of my life after using this method of lice control. For two girls with long hair this regime only adds about 20 minutes a week to their normal hygiene routines. This method has saved me much time and money, and has taken all of the frustration out of lice control. Best of all, I know I shall be in control if re-infestation ever occurs.
Publish, and be thanked!
I am publishing these web pages in order to help all those parents trying to do the very best for their children, and in the sincere hope that you will help me to give this treatment method the widest possible distribution. There must be a huge number of people at their wits end, and at the bottom of their purses, trying to deal with this all too common problem. Help them to help themselves by printing and sharing this method.
Email to friends and relatives. Your PTA and youth organizations may wish to help spread the word far and wide. If you run a web site, perhaps you could establish links to this page. Your help in this is eagerly sought and will most certainly be appreciated. Please make every effort to send this message in its entirety so that the recipients can also pass it on complete. It may not be possible to rid the world of head lice, but we can go a long way towards reducing the nuisance value of these pests and to remove much of the social stigma attached to them.
Questions:
If you submit questions that I am capable of answering, I will place the collected answers in the FAQ page. I am not an expert, just a mother with a mission!. Your success and failures, your direct input and comments, are of extreme interest to me. I will certainly read all my comments and endeavor to respond appropriately. My time is limited so please understand that my best efforts may not be good enough sometimes.
Note 1.
- For head lice, death by salt probably occurs by dehydration. ie Loss of body fluids through soft membrane’s and body openings. This is just my theory.
Note 2.
- Shower/shampoo gels are not created equal. If the product you try collapses to a thin liquid once the salt is added, try another brand. If you or your children have sensitive skin, prudence would suggest a small test of the solution.
Note 3
- The salt gel is composed of: Six parts of shower or bath gel, gently mixed with One part of granulated table salt. Example : If you have a 20 ounce bottle of bath/shower gel ( 20 divided by 6 ) equals 3.3 ounces of dry granulated table salt to be added. (This is slightly less than 1/2 cup)
Please note that the dry volume of granulated table salt is near equal to its weight. So that 3.3 ounces of table salt by dry volume measure would in fact weigh near enough to 3.3 ounces for our purpose. Minor variations of gel to salt ratio appear to be of no real significance; in fact, when we used the method again a couple of years ago, we just added a bunch of salt to a bottle of shampoo, and it worked just fine!
Note 4.
- Get an efficient lice comb. The ones with short tines are useless and rip the hair. Kids hate them because they hurt. I now use a lice comb with long round metal tines. These tines slip through damp hair and are really effective in removing lice, dead or alive. The one I use is called a LiceMeister® but there are others on the market. Any good pharmacy will order items not currently stocked. If you do nothing else, you must do this. If you have ordered a comb, you may wish to start the treatment and then check the results later when the comb arrives. Not ideal, but much better than doing nothing.
Note 5.
- The timing of the treatment at four day intervals is carefully worked out to kill any newly hatched lice. If one application is skipped for any reason, make every effort to apply the treatment on the following day, and every 4 days after that until completed. Skipping applications completely may lead to hardy head lice being able to lay eggs and start the cycle all over again. Avoid this if at all possible.
So, there you have it. Seems too easy to be real, doesn’t it? But I can assure you that it is not only easy and effective, but best of all, inexpensive! In fact, I treated two girls for less than $5.00 total! No need to spend huge amounts of money on products that no longer work, when you can use the simplest ingredients to do a better job!
Let’s do our best to rid our schools of this pest, and if this method works for you, make sure to tell others! If you have any questions, leave it in the comments, and I will get back to you as soon as I can. I am very interested in hearing about your experiences with Mae’s method, word of mouth is the best “advertising” and the more people who report success and their way of using this method, the more people who will have lice-free children!
Oh, and here’s the thing…I’m not doing this to make any money off of it. If a billion people around the world benefit from this, then I will simply thank the Source of all for allowing me to be of use to my fellow humans. If it will make you feel better to send me money for making this information available to you, then leave a note and I’ll give you my PayPal link. But I’d rather you tell everyone you know, and spread the knowledge.
Best of luck to everyone, and let me know how it works.
Much love to all!
Miss Rosie
Get Rid of Lice Today! 