Lice are not nice (Season 2)

September is the cruellest month. It’s goodbye dolce vita and hello post-holiday blues. School is starting, and the nits are gathering. Well, toughen up cookie! There’s no room for wimps when there’s a threat of head lice. Immediately draw our 100% organic weapon of massive destruction. Yes, your read it right: the good news is that they will suffer a tragic but totally ecological death, thanks to a magic potion: rice water.

This little marvel is lethal to them. The starch in it kills these ghastly non gratae and their awful off-springs instantly.

To prepare it, wash 1 cup (or more, depending on the number of people you are planning to feed) of uncooked rice – brown, white, basmati, jasmine, long grain, short grain or any rice you like except for black rice, unless you have dark hair. Put it in a pretty bowl and cover it with 3 cups of mineral or distilled cold water. Let it soak for 30 minutes. This wise precaution, even in the absence of undesirables to decimate, stops the lovely fragile grains from breaking and shortens cooking time.

Swirl the rice around or lightly knead it until the water turns cloudy. Strain out the rice water into a clean bowl. Your rice water is ready to use and your rice, to be cooked.

You can also boil the rice in 3 times the amount of mineral or distilled water recommended on the packet. Once the rice is cooked, strain it over a bowl to collect the precious liquid. Wait for it to cool and psychologically prepare yourself to zap the invaders with speed and efficiency.

Shampoo and rinse the infested hair. Pour the rice water on the sorry squatted scalp, then onto the hair. Comb it through the entire length. Wrap your hair tightly with cling film. Wait half an hour for the magic to work. Remove the cling film and put the tines of a nit comb through the hair, as close to the scalp as possible, and pull straight up. Once you scraped out all the creepy, crawly, itchy little vampires, rinse the hair thoroughly, wash it again and condition it. All lice and nits should have vanished without a trace. If this is not case, repeat the whole process a week later.

This wonderful water is not just a lice killer, it also makes your hair shiny and silky, stimulates growth, cures dandruff and reduces split ends. These are more than enough good reasons to use it as a hair conditioner a few times a week. Add a few drops of essential oil of lavender, peppermint or rosemary and you have the ultimate hair beautifier.

For other uses of this amazing water and of rice, you’ll have to wait for our next opus to be published.