Oftentimes, a person who suspects he or she has head lice will prematurely contemplate how to get rid of head lice without first confirming the presence of nits. Treating head lice without first determining if an infection is present is, of course, a mistake! Certainly you can’t treat an infection that you do not have! Therefore, it is important to confirm suspicions at the onset, and the most effective way of doing so is through the search of nits in the scalp and hair.

A nit is a louse egg. You have probably heard the term “nitpicking” and this term refers to the picking out of the nits. When the lice eggs have been laid they rest on the scalp and it will be weeks before they hatch. If they are on the scalp then the person probably is already infested with lice or will be soon. This factor can be used to determine whether or not lice is present.

If you have nits, you should be aware of the characteristics they have that makes it easy for you to find them. Their colors include yellow, tan, cream, and brown, and they are not large. They do not come off if you try to brush or pry them off like dandruff does. The closer they are to the scalp, the newer the infection is. You can also spot them grabbing on to hairs on your scalp, and they are oval shaped.

Searching for nits by hand is technically possible, but it can be time consuming. A better method is to use a fine toothed comb. Special combs exist specifically for finding these eggs; they are called nit combs. Either way will work. If the combing is done correctly, you may be able to remove the eggs from your hair.

You need to be sure that if you find anything, it’s nits and not something else, as not everything that can be found on the head is a nit. Sometimes dandruff or hair product residue can look a lot like lice eggs. If you know what the identifying characteristics of nits are, you’ll be able to tell whether what you’ve found is a nit or not.

If you do happen to find louse eggs, then you can be certain that you have an infection. You can then concentrate on treating the infestation and removing the lice. Searching for nits may take some time, but it will be worth it once the lice are gone.

Only treating head lice will perpetuate the infestation. Their eggs can remain on the scalp for weeks before hatching. Nits are tiny oval-shaped parasites in colors ranging from brown to yellow that cling to scalp hairs and as infestation progresses, they move further away from the scalp. Their presence confirms infestation of head lice in a person. Instead of trying to remove them by pulling or shaking, one can use a fine-toothed comb to detach them from the hair. This is a complete solution to the problem of how to get rid of head lice infestation.

- jason ciment

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