Should you be able to SEE nits?

[toweling]

Trying to reassure myself at this time on a Sunday night.

My DC haven't had nits yet but very coincidentally we have ALL had an itchy head for a few days.

I can't see ANYTHING in my DC's hair at all. I've checked multiple times with a headtorch and dry combed it with a nit comb and nothing.

Should this reassure me enough? Is it likely to find them just by looking? Or do you really need to do the conditioner and wet hair combing route?

I have two boys and do fairly frequent spot checks (full head covered with conditioner and nitty gritty comb through) on them, mainly DS2 who is reception and has more hair. I only tend to do comb throughs on DS1 if we get a message from school.

We all had them in the summer thanks to one of the boys bringing them home, and the only way to get rid was to do a wet conditioner comb through every night. And then when that was clear, every other night, then every three nights etc. Once you’ve had a few clear combs, leave for a week or so then do another. Only then if it’s clear can you count yourself safe! The eggs are hard to get, you could do a whole head comb and find one, but if you’ve missed just one or two others, then in a few days you’ll have a live louse, they’ll mate and the whole thing starts again. You need to get all the eggs. I only found about 2 actual lice on my own hair last summer but they’d laid eggs. Google the head lice life cycle, you’ll see why these bastards have survived social distancing!

I agree with PP that it depends on the hair. In one of my DD’s hair I’ve been able to see them early on and the other can’t see them at all.

I wet comb with conditioner and a nitty gritty comb, wipe each time onto a piece of kitchen roll.