It’s that time of the year again, and we have noticed how many of our clients are struggling with those horrid little monsters; the nit (egg) or head lice (insect)!

Firstly, please don’t be embarrassed – it happens to most mums at some point.  If it doesn’t, it probably means that they are lucky, rather than that they did anything different to yourself.

1. Tea Tree Oil Shampoo & conditioner – tea tree oil is quite potent smelling, but that must be the key to it’s success.  This is one of the techniques I use, and so far ‘touch wood’ it’s been 100% successful at repelling the nits and stopping infestations.
2. Tie their hair up – Plaiting your daughter’s hair or tieing it up for school is really important to help stop them from getting infested again.  Boys get nits too, but girls are more prone due to their longer hair.
3. Leave in Spray – apparently putting product, hair spray or a leave in conditioner in your child’s hair is one way of putting off the nits, as they prefer to walk through clean hair.  This is my 2nd technique personally; as both children have curly hair I’ve always used Unite 7 Seconds Leave in conditioner to help the dreaded brushing process.  It’s a very light conditioner and could be used on anyone’s hair, especially as it protects against chlorine and weather damage.
4. The Nitty Gritty Comb – many of our mums claim that combing twice a week with the nitty gritty comb is the answer.  It’s the constant attention that is the key.  Check when conditioning the hair, rather than when it is wet, as the nits won’t be able to get away.  Section the hair into small areas and comb carefully through.  The eggs are near the scalp.
5. Oil – Instead of conditioner you can use any kind of oil (coconut oil is great for the hair) to help smother the nits, before you start to comb them out.  It’s great for the condition of the hair as well.
6. Electronic Nit Comb – want to zap those little blighters for good without chemicals, then several love the electronic comb options.  It’s great as it can be used dry, BUT it doesn’t kill the eggs, you’ll still have to get rid of them.
7. Listerine – an unusual recommendation from one of our Mums, but apparently Listerine does the job once you’ve got an infection; makes me wonder what it does to our teeth!
8. Look for nits AND eggs for several weeks – what some mums don’t know is that you can’t see all the eggs with the naked eye and the white eggs have already been hatched.  So you need to keep going until you are sure there are no unhatched eggs as well.  Once your child has been infested you will need to keep checking for ATLEAST 2 weeks to make sure that you have got all the nits as they hatch.
9. If your child had nits, remember to wash all their bedding and clothes on a hot wash, including hats & scarves.
10. If one member of the family has nits, you need to check everyone.  Itching is not always a symptom, so even if they are not itching, they need to be checked.  You don’t need to treat your animals.

I’m going to tell you a funny story now.  My Mother was a very romantic woman and also a nurse in WW2.  She decided to send a lock of her hair to her new boyfriend who had just been sent out to war.  Sadly, she had to send him another letter a week later to burn the lock, as she had caught nits from the children on the ward.  How embarrassing is that.  (Don’t worry he returned safe and sound from both the war and the nits!).

Please let us know if you are worried your child might have nits before your appointment and we can check for you.  I’m sorry that we can’t help by de-nitting your children at the salon.  Unfortunately for us, if we got infested it would be disastrous.  If a child comes in with nits, and we start the service without noticing, everything that was in the vicinity of them is either boil washed or bleached to high heaven afterwards.  So instead, we thought we would try to help by coming up with these top tips.  If you have any more tips yourself, please do add them in the comments, we’d love to know!