Goodbye Head Lice

Courtesy of Adieu les poux

Improving your experience of head lice

Advice on head lice working with NHS guidance

Help when coping with an infestation

Listen to the Science

Vital knowledge about the behaviour of head lice

Lice move rapidly away from disturbance in dry or damp hair evading detection. Really wet lice stay still. Shampooing soaks lice, conditioner prolongs the soaking and makes untangling the hair with a wide-tooth comb easier before comfortable wet combing with the purpose-designed Bug Buster lifts out the motionless lice.

Lice live near the scalp, their source of food and warmth.  It is less accurate to skip shampooing, because conditioner tends to ‘sit’ on dry hair, leaving lice able to move freely underneath. Also metal nit combs are less efficient for removing lice, which get caught unnoticed between their tightly spaced teeth and can then be combed back into the hair undamaged.

Review the Evidence that Bug Busting wet combing works best:

• Louse Detection Methods & Comb Design, 2002-2022
• Combs and Combing for effective detection and eradication of head lice and nits, 2016
• NICE Clinical Knowledge Summary – Head Lice
• Differing definitions and outcomes of “wet combing” in the eradication of head lice (pediculosis capitis), 2018
• International recommendations for an effective control of head louse infestations, 2020

Vital knowledge about the life-cycle

• A head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) usually hatches 7 to 10 days after the egg is laid (but the maximum range is 5 to 11 days).
• A newly-hatched head louse becomes full-grown (3mm long) in a minimum of 6 days.
• Full-grown head lice move from head to head; younger lice tend to stay on the head where they hatch.

• Full-grown lice mate and the female starts laying eggs, at the earliest on day 7 after she herself hatched.

Breaking the life-cycle

Preventing head lice from spreading: it is critical to remove the lice from the head before they are six days old

Preventing head lice from reproducing: a new generation of eggs can be laid from day seven after hatching

Many products rely on killing lice as they hatch because it is difficult to kill live eggs with chemicals, and hard to ensure the removal of all eggs by combing.

With a double dose treatment, applied on day 1 and a week later (day 8) the three risks are that:

1. Lice hatch from eggs directly after the first application and reach adulthood before the second application, so they can spread and lay eggs
2. Lice may continue to hatch till day 11 even after a second application on day 7/8
3. New full-grown lice, caught from other infested heads between applications, will lay more eggs.

If you get your treatment product from a pharmacy, ask the pharmacist to go through the instructions with you.

If you buy off-the-shelf, read the information on the pack to find out how many applications per infested head are required.

Remember that whatever the product, you always have to check for lice on days 5, 9 and 12/13 and remove them to avoid the three risks of continuing infestation.

You can cover all three risks with a Bug Buster Kit alone. Use the specially designed combs according to the step-by-step instructions for detection, cure and nit removal. This saves the expense of the treatment product and the time required to shampoo the treatment applications from the head.  Buy Bug Buster Kit

Families

A single Bug Buster Kit is re-usable by a whole family for years.

Parents seeking prescription treatment for their children may choose a Bug Buster Kit, which is a Registered Medical Device available on NHS prescription free for children. If you prefer another treatment, request a Bug Buster Kit as well to check the treatment has worked.

Schools

Ask for a link to our website www.nits.net to be added to the school website.

When families check the Bug Busting way together, and then check again that any treatment choice has worked, it cuts the cost and stigma of head lice.

Inform yourself what a treatment entails before you choose one

Use products responsibly

• Keep all products for the control of head lice out of the reach of children.
• Remember to avoid naked flames, cigarettes and other sources of ignition throughout the treatment period whenever a product is applied to DRY hair.
• Take precautions against slipping if any spills.

Read about the discussion on safety standards here

See our Mistaken Advice page