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There are no over-the-counter or prescription treatments that totally kill both lice and nits. Nits cannot be washed out or brushed out of the hair. They must be picked or pulled out with a special nit comb or by hand.
Head lice eggs are oval, and the size of a pinhead. They are firmly attached to the hair shaft and cannot be brushed off. (A live egg will make a 'pop' sound if you crush it between your fingernails.) The easiest and most effective way to find head lice is to use the conditioner and comb treatment weekly.
Eggs and nits also stick to the hair shaft, so they don't come off easily. If you try to pull one out of the hair with your fingers, it won't budge—it will move only if you use your nails to get behind it and force it off.
Eggs from head lice, also called nits, are incredibly difficult to remove. Female lice lay eggs directly onto strands of hair, and they cement them in place with a glue-like substance, making them hard to get rid of.
There is no way to look at a nit with the naked eye and determine if it is dead or alive. And although some people claim it does, popping them does not prove that one way or the other either. They are just too small. The only proof is when they don't hatch 7-10 days later.
If you want to check it with the pads of your fingers you will feel the hard eggs, especially if you have a lot, but you cannot remove them just by touching them – instead, you have to use your fingernails to pull them off because the glue that attaches them is very strong and keeps them firmly attached to the hair ...
Lice eggs (nits) may be easier to see than live lice. They look like tiny yellow or white dots attached to the hair, close to the scalp. Nits can look like dandruff. But you can't pick them off with your fingernail or brush them away.
Spinosad topical suspension, 0.9%, was approved by the FDA in 2011. Since it kills live lice as well as unhatched eggs, retreatment is usually not needed. Nit combing is not required. Spinosad topical suspension is approved for the treatment of children 6 months of age and older.
Combs with flat-faced teeth spaced 0.2 to 0.3mm apart are best for removing head lice, although combs with smaller gaps can be used to remove eggs and nits (egg cases) after treatment. Detection combing can be carried out on dry or wet hair.
If you do not comb out all the remaining nits, they will hatch and restart the cycle in 7-10 days from that point. That's why we recommend 3 treatments over a 12-day period of time. This stops the life cycle of lice. These are nits at different stages and a louse.
Head lice usually lay their eggs (nits) on the nape of the neck or behind the ears. They stick firmly to your hair, usually at a distance of less than one centimeter from the scalp.
Dead nits are often black in colour and are found well away from the scalp. Nits are laid on the hair shaft within 1cm of the scalp and take about 7-10 days to hatch into head lice.
Eggs that still contain a louse embryo are brownish in color, while the empty egg shells are white to grey. As the hair grow approximately 1cm a month, eggs that are about 1cm from the scalp are more than likely to have already hatched or to contain a dead embryo.
Lice and nits can be removed by wet combing. You should try this method first. You can buy a special fine-toothed comb (detection comb) online or from pharmacies to remove head lice and nits.
The shampoo, cream rinse, or spray kills the live lice on the head but may not kill the nits. While the nits don't need to be removed from the hair, some people use a comb to remove nits after using lice treatment because they don't like the look of nits in the hair.
But unfortunately, the nits will not simply fall out your hair. The lice themselves take 7 to 11 days to hatch, so after that what is attached to the hair is the empty eggshell or the dead nit. These will stay attached to the hair and as the hair grows you will find them further and further down the hair shaft.
You can check for lice in either wet or dry hair, but we recommend wetting the hair and preferably adding conditioner. The lice do not move as much and they attach more easily to the lice comb (10, 13).
Use fingers to separate hair and create a part. The part should allow you to clearly see the person's scalp. Look for lice crawling on the scalp where the hair is parted or on the hair shaft. The lice will be dark in color and the size of a poppyseed.
Can someone have nits but no lice? It may be possible to have nits but no lice. If a person cannot find any nymphs or adult lice in the scalp and the nits are more than a quarter of an inch from the scalp, these may be dead and from an old infestation. However, the lice could be in hiding.
Children can have a few nits without actually having a case of head lice. Usually children have no more than 10 to 20 live lice. Good lighting is important when you are checking. Head lice move fast and are hard to see.
If any nits are missed and they hatch, the 2nd or 3rd treatments are easy and perfectly timed. Those treatments will eliminate young lice before they have a chance to mature and lay more nits. Keep in mind, a person is only contagious with an adult female louse.
Can head lice and nits live on pillows or sheets? Lice and nits can live on pillows and sheets. Lice glue their eggs to the hair strands of their host. However, if a piece of hair with an egg falls out while the lice host is sleeping, an egg could end up on pillows or sheets.