20 facts you need to know about head lice

I managed to escape the curse of headlice until the age of 7. Mummy thought it was because she was so meticulous about combing conditioner through my hair every time we washed it. But inevitably the day came when we had to face facts. Head lice come to us all at some point. Sadly we discovered it at bed-time, after a particularly long day – you can see here how that went!

I have super-thick hair, so I spent 2 hours in a bath while Mummy practically scalped the nits off me. Such was her horror and desire to never de-louse me again, that she set about discovering all the facts about head lice she could ever need to know. Some of them surprised her. This infographic tells you all you need to know about head lice:

20-facts-about-headlice

20 Facts About Headlice Infographic by the team at Giraffe Childcare

I’m itching already, just reading about the little critters!

20 thoughts on “20 facts you need to know about head lice”

  1. Thanks for this – useful now that Austin’s started pre-school and is coming into contact with lots of other children every day. Mind you, he learned about nits from Get Well Soon the other day, and has been telling everyone he’s got them, and his head’s itchy, even though he’s completely lice-free! I’m waiting for disgruntled parents to start telling me off at the school gates for not treating him sooner….

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  2. *scratches*
    As a tip, we also use Vosene head lice repellent shampoo. Since using this we haven’t had any.
    *scratches*

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    • Same here. Always have done, actually – GG’s hair is so thick that I’ve always been terrified of them. Didn’t stop us getting them though 🙁

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  3. I was lucky in the lice game, only middle child had lice, and only once thank goodness. I tried the medicated method with her, along with daily combing, and it was completely ineffective. I had read somewhere that lice didn’t like vinegar, so I started washing her hair with straight vinegar along with the combing. Middle child’s hair was long plus extremely curly, it would take me hours and I must give her credit for sitting still for so long. It was in the warm months, so we were able to go outside after dinner and I would comb until sunset. Eventually it worked and lice never showed up again in our household.

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  4. Whenever I even hear the word headlice I itch!! Poor Grace had them at around the age of 3 on a reoccurring basis for about 4 VERY long months. HORRID HORRID HORRID!!

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  5. Flipping things! One in 10 children every year?! We’ve been having someone else’s share! We have had them so many times I cannot begin to county. They long ago ceased to be a taboo subject they’re just part of normal life now.
    Although… *crosses fingers, touches wood* we haven’t had them this school year. Daughter has very long hair and it is always plaited now rather than ‘swishy’ bunches and ponytails, boys have much shorter hair than they used to and eldest is now at secondary school.

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  6. Thanks for this – we keep hearing from our 6 year old’s school that there is yet another case of head lice, but so far each check has come up louse-free for us…..hope I haven’t jinxed it now!!

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  7. My sister had it when we were kids and it was nightmare!! Then an Indian friend of ours told us about Neem oil which proved to be very useful! My mom still swears by it.. it smells awful though:(

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  8. Very nice infographic and all of the information is correct! For those in need of help to get rid of head lice check out our services!

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  9. I know this is an old post but am hoping someone sees this and can help anyway. My children have never had lice before and I now have 4 in school (grades K, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd) and this year has been a nightmare. They got lice and all 3 of my girls had it. It took forever to get them completely gone but finally we did by getting them all out of their hair and then bombing our house. No problems for a month and then they got them again so we repeated the process and it took less time this time to get them 100% gone, about 2 weeks we had no issues and then 1 of my girls got them again and we dealt with it without the other kids getting infected thankfully. It has been a month and now we are dealing with it again! All 3 girls have them! My mom works at the school and said it has been an epidemic this year with tons of kids getting them. The kids get sent home and are back to school the next day. I have lectured the kids about NOT touching anyone else’s hair. It isn’t a cleanliness issue because the kids all bathe and wash their hair every single day. My home is clean (we have carpet and a cat which is what I thought the issue might be and the bombing really did seem to do the trick but this post said pets/carpet are not issues at all so now I am more confused) . I can’t make sure the kids aren’t touching other kids’ hair but it seems unlikely at this point since this has been such an issue. I just don’t know what to do. If the school send the kids home but those parents are not diligent in ensuring that the kids are completely lice free before they go back what do we do? I am at a point where I am considering pulling them out of school because of this problem (it really is that bad) so ANY advice would be helpful. PS: I considered shaving their heads as much as i don’t want to but this post also said that would be ineffective and if that is the case there is no sense in embarrassing them for no reason. PLEASE HELP!!!

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    • Gosh I don’t know what to say! I’d probably go and speak to school about it. Also I use a nitty gritty comb and conditioner on my kids once a week, just in case they’ve picked one up that hasn’t laid eggs yet. I have caught s couple in time that way. Good luck with it

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  10. I would love to hand this out to my preschool parents, but when I try to print it I can’t get the entire myths to print. Can you email me this?

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