Experienced nit folk

[Merename]

So I suspect I picked up nits at work. Have never dealt with them before, kids are 4 and 16mo. For a couple days I’ve been itchy, had DH look last night and he thought he saw some white things at the back. Ordered nitty gritty comb last night but hasn’t arrived, so ended up at chemist and bought white combs, and Hedrin as a back up. Combed us all in bath with conditioner this afternoon, DH did me, spent ages, we didn’t find anything.

Do you think if it were nits it would be more obvious? I haven’t felt particularly itchy since doing it so I’m wondering if it’s been a big psychosomatic experience! The kids hadn’t been itching that I’ve seen, but it was driving me mad itching myself last night!

Should I do Hedrin tonight to put my mind at rest maybe?

Go for it

You can have a lot of nits and it not be obvious.
My two children picked them up and I treated them. Checked DH, checked myself with a bit comb and found nothing.
However my head got itchy. So I checked repeatedly and still found nothing. I got my mum to check. She also found nothing.
Then I got obvious bites on my neck. So I gave in and properly treated my hair. Once I'd had the stuff on and started combing it through, then I found the little buggers.
I needed two treatments to get them all.

Do it again with the nitty gritty comb - they are the only good combs around in my opinion. They get out so much more than any other kinds.

Yes second that. Wait til you get the nitty gritty you'll know if you have them then!

Hedrin won't work, white comb won't work.

There is also a special technique. When I initially just combed through with a nit comb I found nothing. But when I then got a nitty gritty and combed each lock of hair individually from lots of different directions, I found masses of the buggers

It's almost impossible to check your own hair- I am the chief nit catcher in our family and DH doesn't really have a clue what he's looking for.

Try shaking and brushing your hair when it's dry over the bath, or a big white sheet. If you have got nits, the older ones can drop out and you can see them against the white. This will only work for older ones though, as the younger ones are better at clinging on.

Or do the nit comb thing again, but you have to start the nit comb teeth right at the very bottom. After each stroke, wipe it on kitchen towel, again, it's easier to see any nits against the white.

But I do find that whenever I know that people around me have or have had nits, I automatically itch so I think a lot is psychological!

A Nitty Gritty comb will leave you in no doubt.

Lots of conditioner, section off the hair and comb through, right from the roots. Swoosh the comb in a white bowl after each stroke, or wipe on a piece of kitchen roll, and you soon see them. Pale eggs, black critters.

White bowl of water, that should say!

You may not be itchy because they have not hatched yet.

DS has got them a couple of times, I used my straighteners to kill the bulk of them and remove the rest using normal hair conditioner in copious quantities and the nitty gritty comb.

... and repeat every day or two for a couple of weeks.

Ah yes I somehow suspect it isn’t over, perhaps there just aren’t many yet. Nitty gritty due to arrive today. DH and DD1 gone babysitting at a cousins so all I can do is have a go myself again later when nitty gritty arrives. We did do it in small sections, wiping as we went, when I did DD I was rinsing comb in bath and checking for floaters. But DD and I have fairly fine hair so did think that white comb didn’t perhaps give enough resistance. Or it’s all in my head - I don’t feel itchy now like I did last night. And I’m not sure about doing Hedrin without doing everyone else at the same time - maybe should wait til tomorrow night.

They don't float!

One of mine came home with nits for the first time last year. My first impulse was to shave all our heads and oil them with bleach... then compromised by buying one of every brand of nit shampoo and a nitty gritty comb.
I didn't have any although my head itched like mad for days, I think it was just me being grossed out by what I'd seen on the DC's heads! White bits might also be a bit of psoriasis or eczema on the scalp.
Agree with PPs that only the metal nitty gritty comb will deliver the goods. It was the one the DC feared the most

The only thing that worked on DD was an electronic comb. If there were nits in school she'd catch them. This was pre nifty gritty.

I was on here asking the same a couple months back. we won the war in a few days. Hedrin. then nit comb through hair when wet with conditioner. (poundland banana one works great) hot hair dryer and straightners for back up. The high heat kills any leftover eggs. I backed up dd's hair with a bottle of nit reppelent spray on her hair before school. Its roughly a pound a bottle. Good luck.

Also if you feel the slightest itch after treatment just take the comb and run it through at that point on the dry hair. Caught quite a few that way.

I’m sitting scratching the scalp off my self!

Agree with pp and the nitty gritty. Even give your hair a good blast with the hair dryer....I’ve noticed before that the little shits all make their way to the top of the head. Easy to get them lifted there.

They don’t float! Good to know! I like the tip about using the comb at the spot of the itch, makes sense. That was me following some advice I’d read on an old mumsnet thread, but I think it was more along the line of the dipping the comb in a white bowl advice and I’d decided the bath would do. So possibly some eggs came out that sank in the bath. Comb has just arrived! Don’t have straighteners but hair dryer.

Been obsessively preening DD2 like a monkey - she’s only got an inch or two of fine baby hair so I’m assuming I’d see eggs more on her. Another question actually- I’ve picked out every pale speck that I’ve seen on her, but they really have been specks, not really egg-like or as substantial as pics online look like. Are they a definite egg shape?

Ps this thread is delivering all I had hoped for

Wow this nitty gritty comb is some piece of kit! Feels like it’ll rip my hair out on dry hair. Can’t really be arsed going for another combing session but guess I must! Feeling a little more itching and I gather they party more at night so maybe that’s why I didn’t itch much during day

Ooh, don't use on dry hair!

The idea of using conditioner is so the buggers can’t jump out for safety. Doing it on dry hair is pointless.

The nitty gritty combs are great, but you’ve really got to use it on wet hair (with conditioner). You need to get right in close to the scalp with it, because they lay the eggs near the scalp.

We did get some lice out of DC’s hair when dry combing, but the lice can run away if they’re in dry hair.

We also combed out a live adult louse the day after a Hedrin treatment, so that’s not 100% effective.

We did the wet combing with conditioner every night - plus Hedrin at the recommended time intervals - until we’d gone a few days with no sign of lice or eggs on the comb.

And then weekly wet combing since then.

I throughly enjoy nit picking and lice removal and get excited when I find any in DDs hair. It's rife at her school. However on a serious note I do a preventative check every week.

Things I've learned so far:

• they are not terribly obvious once you know what you're looking for and even then you can still miss them.

-I've not dealt with nits/lice on my own head but I'd recommend the hedrin you leave in overnight and of which you much repeat days later to break the cycle. -Nit combs do not remove nits (eggs) in my opinion. After a hedrin treatment the combs might be more successful at removal I'd say.

• nit eggs are glued onto the shaft of the hair very close to the scalp and requires gripping with your nails using thumb and index finger and then pulling and dislodging the nit down the length of the hair.

-lice do not jump -lice are very good at hiding after you part the hair during a check. -go in for a check while wearing a head torch. -nit picking is time consuming but if the patient is kept busy it can be done depending on the texture of the hair I guess! -lice and eggs can't survive away from the scalp. They need to be near the skin for food and warmth.

Facinating wee creatures and it's normal to have them. I'll never forgive my DM for freaking out when DD had nits. Gave her a complex ffs.

What I mean is, is that it's a normal thing to have at some point. But obviously you don't want to share your head with critters.