Lice Away

School is back in session and so are the lice. I never had lice until I was 34. And since then, I have had it probably 8 times. It is a constant battle around here.
By now, I have a routine down. We mainly use LiceFree, a pesticide-free homeopathic gel that has worked well for us. In a pinch, I use olive oil, but it is messy and leaves hair soft, yet very greasy looking. The LiceFree works by dehydrating the lice, so it actually leaves hair quite dry, but that is fairly easily remedied.
Anyways, dealing with lice no longer creeps me out, but it is time consuming and expensive. To treat me and the kids costs about $30, and takes about 2 hours to treat us, about 3 loads of laundry, and a thorough vacuuming. In other words, it takes up most of my day each time we find them.
So, my new goal now is to prevent them from even getting on us in the first place. Lice seem to thrive here in Portland, especially with young kids who are likely to be very close to one another. And since going anti-social doesn't seem like the right option, I think all I can do is try to make our hair unappealing to those little buggers.
After reading various blog pages about lice prevention sprays, I decided to make one to try out. I got a spray bottle and added 30 drops of lavender oil and 30 drops of rosemary oil for each 4 ounces of distilled water. I call it Lice Away. It doesn't smell wonderful, but it doesn't smell terrible either. My goal is to spray on all of our heads each morning, hoping to keep the lice away. I guess I will let you know how it works...
Anyone else have a wonderful lice deterrent recipe that they can share? I wouldn't mind having a few tricks up my sleeve....