A dreaded four-letter word

You know how some say what you fear most will be drawn to you?  You worry about something too much and it will happen?  No, our house didn't catch on fire (huge fear of mine) but our children did manage to get lice. 
I'm sorry if I just made your head itch.
I'm guessing it came from the school bus??  No idea. 
This happened over a month ago and I haven't seen one creepy crawly bug or any nits since the day I treated their heads.  But it wasn't any fun getting everything washed up! 
Ajay has had dry/itchy scalp for months and he has been scratching at his head since the summer.  When he started at the new school the school nurse checked him and declared him to be bug free but that he did have dry scalp. 
Just plain coconut oil wasn't helping and I felt bad seeing the poor kid scratch and scratch so I looked up natural ways to help.  I read that tea tree oil is good for dry scalp and I already had some on hand.  No, never mind, I couldn't find my bottle, must've gotten lost in the move. 
So I had Biju pick up a bottle while he was out.  Oh, and by the way, while you're there could you pick up some Peppermint oil for some toothpaste I'd like to make up and some Eucalyptus oil for Aren - it should help his cough.  Thank you very much.  What did you say?  All of those are on sale, and so is the lavender oil?  Sure, pick up another bottle of that, I'm almost out. 
I plunked Ajay at the kitchen table that evening and started looking through his hair to see if I could see any dandruff flakes and put on some TTO.  I didn't see flakes but I did see something that looked like dandruff but wouldn't come off of the hair.  I got the "oh crap" feeling in my stomach and started looking more.  Yup.  Lice confirmed.  Check Alex - yes, him too.  AAARRGGGHH!!
So I then looked up a way to treat lice without having to slather on the poisonous shampoos.  I found a recipe that called for coconut oil (check), Tea Tree Oil, Lavender Oil, Peppermint Oil, Eucalyptus Oil and Rosemary Oil.  Are you kidding me??  Except for the Rosemary, we had brand new bottles of everything else needed! 
I made up the concoction (minus the rosemary) and wrapped the boys' heads with towels and put on a movie for them to watch.  I checked Aren and didn't see anything (whew!).  I then went from room to room and started collecting EVERYthing I could so I could start the washing. 
We rinsed off the boys and I didn't feel like sitting with a nit comb (didn't have one that Saturday night anyway) so we just got out the clippers.  Buzz, there went their hair and all the little bugs with it. 
Next morning I double checked Aren, just in case.  Crap.  How did I miss that last night??  I didn't want to use the essential oil treatment on him, I thought it would be too strong for his young system.  Instead, I had read about a Vaseline treatment (which isn't all that good for him either, with all the petroleum in it).  I slathered up his little head until he looked like a little grease ball and let that stay on him all day.  Then I washed (and washed and washed) his hair and tried to use the nit comb that Biju had bought that day.  You try nit-picking through an 18 month olds hair.  He's a patient kid but even he got a little bored with what I was doing.  So with great trepidation I buzzed his hair off, too. 
I'm glad to restate that we are a lice-free household.  It is something I never hope to go through again. 
Here are our "Baldilocks" as Biju calls them....

 

 A couple days worth of growth coming in.  And Aren signing "kitty"