Head-to-head contact with an already infested person is the most common way to get head lice. Head-to-head contact is common during play at school, at home, and elsewhere (sports activities, playground, slumber parties, camp). Although uncommon, head lice can be spread by sharing clothing or belongings.
Head lice most often affect children. The insects usually spread through direct transfer from the hair of one person to the hair of another. Having head lice isn't a sign of poor personal hygiene or an unclean living environment. Head lice don't carry bacterial or viral diseases.
Lice are attracted to the blood they get through your scalp – short, long, clean or dirty.
Head-to-head contact with an already infested person is the most common way to get head lice. Head-to-head contact is common during play at school, at home, and elsewhere (sports activities, playground, slumber parties, camp). Although uncommon, head lice can be spread by sharing clothing or belongings.
Heavy and chronic lice infestation can be associated with severe iron deficiency anaemia. Lice infestation should be considered as a possible cause of iron deficiency anaemia in patients with poor hygiene, such as children, homeless patients and psychiatric patients.
You can get lice by coming into contact with either lice or their eggs. Lice can't jump or fly. They spread through: Head-to-head or body-to-body contact.
You can get body lice similarly from clothing or from close physical contact with a person who has them. Head lice are more common in younger children because they require even more physical contact for transmission. Usually, you would have to be in head-to-head contact with a person who has lice.
Head lice survive less than one or two days if they fall off the scalp and cannot feed. Head lice eggs (nits) cannot hatch and usually die within a week if they do not remain under ideal conditions of heat and humidity similar to those found close to the human scalp.
Suffocate the Lice
Soak your child's head in olive oil or coconut oil. Cover with a shower cap for at least 2 hours (or preferably overnight). When ready, remove the shower cap, and separate the hair into small sections, then use a metal nit comb to carefully remove the lice and eggs. Rinse the hair well with shampoo.
As head lice can live on pillows, you'll need to clean them. Adult lice can only survive for two days without a host. However, they can still lay eggs. If the infected person has had a lice treatment and then picks up stray lice from their pillow, the lice infestation cycle can start all over again.
Symptoms. You don't usually start experiencing scalp itching when lice first arrive in your hair. You may not experience itching until about 4 to 6 weeks after lice exposure. This is because the lice take time to multiply and cause symptoms of itchiness.
Adults are not immune to head lice. In fact, if you have any close contact with children or even parents of children you can be at risk of catching them if they have them. Lice transfer primarily through head to head contact, so you would have to get close to the other person.
While head lice live in your hair and feed on your scalp, body lice usually live in your clothes and bedding. They travel to your skin several times a day to feed on blood. Your clothing seams are the most common places for body lice to lay their eggs (nits).
Vinegar contains properties that kill and get rid of nits and lice. This mixture should be applied directly to the whole scalp. Mix 1 cup of vinegar with 1 cup of warm water. Next, distribute this mixture onto the scalp and cover your hair with a hair cap.
Someone without lice has direct contact with the head of someone infested with lice. Head lice do not live on body hair, just head hair. You won't get lice simply being in the same room as someone with lice. You won't get lice shaking hands with an infested person.
In the United States, infestation with head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) is most common among preschool- and elementary school-age children and their household members and caretakers.
Not everyone feels lice moving around on their scalp, but some people do. Dr. Garcia says that most of her patients say they “don't feel anything,” but others may get a creepy, tickling sensation as lice move around their head.
Adult lice can't live longer than 24 hours or so on nonhuman surfaces like carpets, hardwood floors, clothing, furniture, sports helmets, headphones, or hair accessories. However, if you have identified lice in your home, isolate and wash those items and areas within at least 72 hours.
They bite anywhere they are feeding on the head, but they are particularly fond of the back of the head and the area behind the ears because this is a warmer area of the scalp. The bites often appear as small reddish or pink bumps, sometimes with crusted blood. When scratched excessively, the bites can become infected.
There are two reasons for a recurrent lice infestation: The lice treatment you used didn't work. You or someone in your family came in contact with lice again.
There is no specific hair type that lice prefer. All lice need is a clean strand of hair to attach to. It doesn't matter the thickness, the length, if it's been colored, if it's straight, or if it's curly. It has been found that people with longer hair tend to report getting lice.
Repeat treatment every day or every other day for 2 weeks. Some lice eggs (nits) survive head lice treatments. The only way to be sure that lice won't come back is to pick out all nits. Nits left on the hair can hatch and cause a new case of head lice.
They're Easy to Spot
Although lice and their nits are small, you can see them with the naked eye. They can be white, brown, or dark gray. You're more likely to find them in the hair at the back of your neck or behind your ears. The nits are round or oval specks that are tightly stuck to hairs near the scalp.
Do not use a conditioner. It can keep the lice medicine from working. Rinse well with warm water and towel dry. Do not use the towel again until it has been laundered.