Yes, chlorine will kill lice. But why are you asking? After all, lots of things kill head lice.

If you’re thinking of taking a prolonged dip in the swimming pool as a way of treating head lice, you should think again. Neither the water nor the chlorine in it will likely be enough to kill them or get them out of your hair. It especially will have no impact on their eggs (also called nits) that are glued to your hair shafts.

If you’re thinking of dousing your head with a concentrated chlorine solution, that’s a really bad idea. It could burn your skin or eyes. There are much safer ways of treating head lice, including herbal remedies for lice, heated air, and a lice comb.

If you do remove head lice with a lice comb (which will lift lice and eggs off the hair, but not necessarily kill them) and want to make sure they’re good and dead, I suppose you could dump them into a bowl of chlorine bleach. Even if that doesn’t kill them, they’ll be dead in 24-48 hours anyway with no human blood to feed on.

I recommend you not use chlorine at all, but rather let a professional treat your head lice.