can you catch head lice from a hairdresser's comb?

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

DS (8) has got headlice for the first time. I did the combing and Full Marks treatment last night and found about 2 or 3 adult-looking ones, and then around 1 very small ones, plus a few egg cases, all of which I bloody well hope I got out!

No sign on anyone else in the family yet (or any friends) and we've not had any letters from school asking people to check so a bit flummoxed as to wherre he's got them from.

I do know he's had an itchy head for a while but been checking periodically and couldn't see anything till last night so assumed it was midge bites or dandruff that was making him itch. However, he had his hair cut 2 weeks ago and I seem to recall the itching started a couple of days after that, maybe even the day after.

I am now paranoid he's caught it from the hairdresser's comb or something. Especially as I need my own hair cutting - it's really putting me off going there!

Is it actually possible?

I've never heard of such a thing happening. Lice walk from one head to another, so it highly likely that he got them at school or other place where kids put their heads together. All schools will have some of the children with headlice at a particular moment. My school no longer sends letters out, as they feel parents don't check regularly as they should if letters are sent. The hairdressers is most likely safe - keep checking the whole family's heads though - there may be eggs waiting to hatch over the next week or two.

i agree, probably picked them up from school, if ds gets them i usually use full marks and give a big comb then give it a two to three days and do it again to be on the safe side.

I think it's possible as a friend who's a hairdresser was deeply pissed off some years ago when a mother turned up with a daughter for a haircut and her hair was crawling with lice. They had to steam clean and boil wash everything before letting anyone else in (ie close for a day) so were all really annoyed, most especially because she said there was just no way the mother could have not noticed, her hair was literally moving. And that was as soon as she sat down for the gown, they hadn't actually put anything to her head.

I'm sure part of it was just absolute risk management but she seemed to suggest they might transmit the lice if they didn't go for the drastic solution.

It may be possible, but 99% more likely to have come from school.

Possible but as a hairdresser I would very very unlikely... You can never really pinpoint where they get it from but it's usually school/nursery.

I think it's unlikely from the hairdressers - as I would expect them to otiose if there were lice on a comb. Also, if he was scratching, it's likely he had an infestation by that point (the odd one probably isn't enough to cause that much itching), so my guess would be picking them up from other children in the weeks before that.

If future, I suggest you don't rely on just looking at DC's head to check, as the little blighters are agile and it's far too easy to miss them (and once adult they lay about 30 eggs a day ugh). For a diagnostic, do a quick comb, wiping after each pass on kitchen roll, and see what emerges. If you find signs, then go and comb through every single section.

Thanks for the replies. Just to update, I sent a letter in to school the next day (the day they broke up for the holidays) and lo and behold when I picked him up after school there were loads of kids wandering about holding head lice letters! It's the first one school has sent out all year so either ds is the first notified case all academic year, or else they don't send letters out with each notified case but maybe in this case sent one out as a big "nit check" push over the holidays.

Back to the hairdressers issue: I was chatting to the hair stylist once about head lice and she said she found one once on a child's head as she was cutting her hair and so couldn't carry on. So I'm sure that they're not blasé about it, I guess I was thinking more if they hadn't noticed a case of them on a child's
head and then cut Ds's hair straight after,maybe one could transfer from the comb to his head unnoticed?

Ds has very short hair and is not the huggy type so I can't figure out how it could have happened at school.

I think it's far more likely that he's caught them at school, especially as there are three adult ones. They would all have had to be transferred together as they didn't have time to grow from eggs in two weeks.

They probably came from a child whose parents chose not to tell the school because they are embarrassed or simply don't know their child has them. Children work together on so many tasks these days that it's quite likely they will literally put their heads together.

Lots of people think they can check for head lice just by looking which is complete rubbish.

My DD was getting them regularly in school until a friend, whose DD was also catching them, and I went round the playground and asked every parent to check their child's head. Lots said they would have noticed and were surprised to hear that you have to use a nit comb to find them. We got the message across and the problem didn't arise again.

Hopefully the headlice letter will prompt the guilty party to check their child this weekend and solve the problem for you.