A kinder, gentler way to deal with those nasty head lice... LOL. CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- A new method of killing head lice by suffocating them with a lotion that dries on the scalp like shrink-wrap appears to work as well as many conventional medicines, its inventor said Tuesday. In a paper published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dale Pearlman, a dermatologist in Menlo Park, California, said that with his method nits -- lice eggs -- did not need to be combed out of the hair first, and resistance to some drug treatments was not an issue. In two tests involving 133 children, the treatment eradicated lice in from 95 percent to 97 percent of cases, he said. The lotion was placed wet on the scalp then dried with a hair dryer to "shrink wrap" the lice and cut off their source of oxygen, he said. The treatment "effectively treats head lice without neurotoxins, nit removal or extensive house cleaning," he said in the report published in "Pediatrics," the academy's monthly journal. Doctor details new head lice treatment | 
