If you’ve got a child at primary school, it’s likely that head lice will turn up more than once. The more familiar you are with checking, treating and preventing it, the easier it becomes to manage.
Follow the guidance below to help feel confident tackling head lice head on.
Checking takes about 5 minutes. Here’s our top tips on checking for head lice and what to look out for.
There are three common things you might find in the hair when checking for lice:
Live lice – they are small, flat, wingless and fast-moving. They’re about the size of a sesame seed, pale gray or brown in color, and they don’t like light. If you spot something moving, that’s a louse.
Eggs (nits) – they are tiny and oval-shaped, glued tightly to the hair shaft close to the scalp. They look white or yellowish. Unlike dandruff, they don’t brush off.
Dandruff – flakes loose when you touch them, nits don’t. That’s the easiest way to tell the difference.
1. Wash and condition the hair as normal, or apply conditioner to dry hair.
2. Comb out any tangles with a regular brush or comb first.
3. Start at the scalp and draw the detection comb slowly through the hair from root to tip.
4. After each stroke, wipe the comb on the white tissue and check for anything on it.
5. Work through the whole head in sections, making sure you cover everywhere. Pay particular attention to the nape of the neck, behind the ears, and the crown.
Finding head lice doesn’t mean anything except that your child has been close to other children who had them. It’s completely normal and can be treated effectively.
Before you start
Follow our step-by-step instructions on how to apply Nittol Anti-Lice Lotion
Follow our step-by-step instructions on how to apply Nittol Anti-Lice Spray
Follow our step-by-step instructions on how to apply Nittol Anti-Lice Shampoo
Check the hair again after around 7 days, if you’re still seeing live lice, you’ll need to do a second treatment. This catches any lice that have hatched from eggs since the first application. As Nittol does not use pesticides, lice cannot develop resistance, and it is fine to use the product again.
If you’re still seeing live lice after a second treatment, speak to your pharmacist for guidance.
Head lice can’t be completely prevented. But there’s plenty you can do to reduce the chances and catch them early if they do show up.
Did you know?
Head lice have nothing to do with how often you wash your hair or how clean your home is. They spread by direct head-to-head contact, and they’re not fussy about who they visit.
Head lice spread by direct contact between heads. They can’t jump, fly, or survive for long off the scalp. They move from one head to another when children are close together, which is simply what children do.
They’re more common during the school year, particularly among elementary school-age children, because classrooms, playgrounds, and sleepovers bring heads close together.
Do a weekly comb-through. A regular check with a fine-toothed comb is a reliable way to catch head lice early.
Avoid sharing hats, hairbrushes, scarves, and anything else that sits on or near the hair
Tell the school if your child has head lice. You don’t need to name names, and most schools are used to it, but a heads-up gives other families a chance to check too.
Check everyone in the household. If you find lice on more than one person, treat them all at the same time on the same day. Treating one person while others are untreated will mean the lice keep moving back and forth.
A weekly comb-through with conditioner and a fine-toothed detection comb is a reliable prevention tool. It takes about five minutes, and it means you’ll catch any lice before they’ve had a chance to settle in. For families dealing with recurring head lice, a weekly check during bath time can help break the cycle.
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