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Children usually pick up head lice from participating in group activities at school. However, head lice are not a sign of poor personal hygiene.

In this article:

What are head lice?   

Causes   

How Chemist Online can help

Symptoms   

Treatment   

Advice & Support

What are head lice?
Anyone can get head lice, but they most commonly affect children. Although the only way to get rid of head lice is to undergo a course of treatment, it is important to note that head lice is not a sign of dirty hair or that the person with head lice (or their family) adopt a lax attitude to personal hygiene in general. In fact, even someone who washes their hair more than once a day with an expensive brand of shampoo can still get head lice.

Head lice are not the same things a ‘nits’. In short, nits are the little eggs that a head louse (a dot-sized insect) will lay in the hair after it has jumped on to another’s head and begun feeding on the scalp.

Symptoms
Symptoms of head lice usually include:

itchiness around the head, ears and neck

bites

nits (and egg shells left in the hair from them)

tiny red spots on the scalp and behind the ears

infection

visible head lice moving through the hair

Causes
Children catch head lice from each other. The head lice ‘jump’ from head to head, and are particularly attracted to long hair. With adults, a head lice infection can occur through a parent cuddling their child who has the condition, for example – they may catch the head lice too, because of the close contact.


Treatment
Treatment for head lice includes:

Removing head lice from your child’s hair by regularly using a fine-toothed comb every four days for at least two weeks, and combing the lice out onto a white towel or sheet. Comb in a downwards motion from the scalp to the nape of the neck (where the head lice particularly like to live), and from the root of the hair to the tip

Dimethicone – a non-insecticide treatment that coats the surface of the lice, killing them in the process

Insecticides treatments – powerful chemicals, such as: malathion, phenothrin and permethrin

Herbal remedies – tea tree oil, homeopathic tinctures and herbal extracts can be effective

Note: Where these treatments prove unsuccessful, your GP may prescribe Carylderm – a carbaryl treatment proven in treating head lice in both children and adults.

How Chemist Online can help
Through this website we have a range of treatments available to buy which can help to relieve the symptoms of head lice, such as: the Head Lice Detection Kit introduced by Lyclear. This is a handy head lice detection kit for the whole family. The kit includes: multicoloured combs, a magnifier and instruction manuals. The combs are easy to clean with warm soapy water or, alternately, can be thrown away after use. We can also offer you Full Marks Solution Spray – which consists of 3 simple steps to kill head lice and eliminate eggs, and Vosene Kids 3 in 1 Shampoo and Conditioner.


www.chemistonline.co.uk

Advice & Support
Community Hygiene Concern
22 Darin Court
Crownhill
Milton Keynes
MK8 0AD
Helpline: 01908 561928
Website: www.chc.org, e-mail here


This information and advice is not intended to replace the advice of your GP or chemist. Chemist Online is also not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a user based upon the content of the Chemist Online website. Chemist Online is also not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites.