Welcome to Head Lice Information Center, we hope you can find useful information on head lice treatments and prevention here.
You might have heard or known of people who have problems with head lice, or you might think that it only happens to homeless or lazy people who didn’t wash their hair often. It never occurred to you that it would happen to you or your kids. Unfortunately, good personal hygiene does not mean you can’t get head lice. In fact, anyone can get infected. Whether you discovered it on your own or through another person like your doctor, that you and probably your entire family have gotten lice, how do you solve the problem?
Many people have got lice at some point of their lives. Perhaps you have remembered some advice from friends and relatives or from how your mom helped you to remove head lice when you were little. The best way, however, is to treat lice quickly and accurately is by getting the right head lice information, facts and knowledge so that you can completely eliminate lice for good.
So what exactly are head lice? They are actually a small parasite insect without wings that live within the human hair and survived on sucking small amount of blood extracted from the scalp. It is a common problem with children aged 3 to 12, with girls having a higher chance of getting it than boys. One important piece of head lice information to know is that they are not life threatening and they do not spread disease.
Lice and nits are very difficult to spot and thus can be easily overlooked. It is good to stay alert and look out for signs and symptoms of head lice infection, especially when your children are coming into contact with other kids in schools. One of the most obvious symptoms is frequent scratching of scalp. The itching problem might be progressive and will not necessary take place from the start of infection, as it also depends on you or your child’s skin sensitivity to the lice. Sometimes, it can take weeks before the itching starts to begin.
Look out for nits in the hair, which are also known as lice eggs. They are usually small eggs that are of yellow, tan or brown colors before they hatch. After they hatched, their shells might turn white or clear. Nits are visible and can be seen on the hair shafts. Many people tend to mistaken nits as dandruff or hair product residues like hairspray or hair gel. A good way to differentiate between dandruff and nits is to see if they get brushed off the hair easily. Dandruff will fall off easily but not nits, which tend to stick like leeches. Nits feel harder and you can actually feel them with your fingers, unlike dandruff. Unless the infestation is serious, it is more common to see nits on the hair shaft rather than seeing live parasites crawling on the scalp.
Nits get hatched one to two weeks after they are laid. They started off as nymphs, which are baby lice with the size no larger then a sesame seed and are typically tan in color. Nymphs become adult lice one to two weeks after they are hatched. They survived on the constant heat and feed on the blood from the scalp. However, they can only survive for about one to two days if they are away from the scalp.
Please feel free to read our articles here at head lice information center or join our mailing list for more tips. Treating head lice can be a harrowing experience, many people don’t even know where to start. It is not recommended to solely rely on getting advice from friends and family. See a doctor if you must, otherwise it pays to stay aware and be informed about preventing and treating head lice.