You'd get tired of holding your head underwater long before they got tired of holding your hair.

Water as hot as you can bear might kill a few, but be careful. Drying with a blowdryer set at the highest temperature will kill a few too. They hate desiccation more than they dislike water.

BTW, try this thread too...

http://www.last-word.com/content_handling/show_tree/tree_id/2958.html

Jon's advice about killing the little blighters with a chemical remedy is much better than any ideas about drowning them.

Of course you can!

You know, some months ago we had a picture of a dead otter or something similar that had been soaked for so long that much of its hair had come out.

The good news is that your lice would die before you looked like that half-bald otter.

Just before...

You could save yourself some trouble by not wasting too much time combing. Get a recommended synthetic insecticidal treatment (NOT something "organic"! NOT "Herbal"! NOT, NOT, DOUBLE NOT "Homeopathic" "Naturopathic" or any other scam!) Check with the doctor or pharmacist whether there are local problems with resistance. Pyrethroids like permethrin are pretty reliable; so is Lindane (if you can get it).

If you do not have access to a doctor and you don't like your pharmacist, you should find that pet anti-tick, flea and louse shampoos will do a good job.

Clean up everything as well as you can until you are sure that the coast is clear.  Continue treatment for at least two weeks (many courses are for ten days, but sometimes eggs survive, and it is easier to wipe the lot out first time round.

Whatever you do, DON'T get creative! Use a commercial product, and follow the instructions to the letter.

Keep a sharp eye out afterwards. You never know where the little blighters came from, and you don't want to get confused and re-infected.

Follow these guidelines and you will wonder what all the fuss was about.

Use quack remedies and amateur advice about drowning, petrol, bathing caps, petroleum jelly (I kid you NOT!) and you will be sorrrrrryyyy!

In

WWII at German delousification stations often was a poster:

"Ob General, ob Grenadier, die Haare bleiben hier!"

"Either General, or  Grenadier, hair will stay here!"

My ancestors lived in Woiwodina, a typical Balkan

region with a lot of lice. There things were handeled simple:

boys (men) had their hair cut bald all the summertime.

In any grocery one could purchase mercury, which was

dispersed in some lard, making the famous "grey ointment".

:=)