The facts of lice

London mums Amanda Coplans, Gill Newton and Lillan Osterberg bonded at the schoolgates whilst swapping sob stories about their daughters’ eternal ‘head lice hell”. Amanda in particular was throwing money at so many chemical-filled head lice lotions that even her doctor dad started warning her against them. But the eradication battle was not lost - Lillan an aromatherapy masseur mixed neem and five aromatherapy oils together and Nitty Gritty was born.

Amanda who has also kept on her secondary career as a photographer on the music scene, explains:
“My daughter Dani always had head lice. She had long hair and I could never get rid of them. The only thing around was the chemicals but nothing worked. I was obsessed!

“After Lillan made her concoction, Dani tried it out and said, “mum this is brilliant, its got rid of them all and left my hair really shiny”. As a throwaway line, she told us to sell it at school – which is literally what gave us idea.”

So the trio dipped into their pockets and each invested £500 into an order of 200 bottles. The chemical and pesticide free USP merited a tiny blurb in the Daily Mirror – in the days before debit cards and online shopping – and resulted in sack loads of letters and cheques.

Next came a daily Repellent Spray later followed by partnership with two South American dads who’d invented the NitFree comb. This simple but brilliant metal implement has special grooves that removes lice and live eggs before they hatch. Its so effective, even alone as a wet-combing/conditioner device, that it carries a lifetime guarantee and is available on NHS prescription.

This year is the 10th anniversary since Lillan first mixed her Nitty Gritty potion. Other companies try to buy them out but they are not for sale, and they’ve a large distribution a thriving online shop and last year turned over £1 million. The US journal Pediatrics in Review (November 2006) showed that nine out of ten head lice are resistant to permethrin and phenothrin the key ingredients used in chemical lice lotions, so it sounds like the company rather than the lice can only go from strength to strength.

Here Amanda gives us the lice low-down…

How do you detect headlice?
Often there is no sign of infestation until nits - hatched empty egg cases - start to become visible as they grow out in the hair. It's best to use the Nitty Gritty Comb to do a careful visual check for nits, eggs and head lice once or twice a week. The best time to do this is when you wash and condition the hair, as in dry hair they will move rapidly away from the area being examined. Detection will be easiest with conditioner on the hair, as this will immobilise the lice. Section the hair and comb from the scalp downwards. After each stroke check the teeth of the comb for live lice. Fully grown head lice are about the size of a small ant, but newly hatched eggs can be as small as a pinhead. Also look for the darker eggs glued to the roots of the hair very close to the scalp.

Why do some people seem to get head lice continuously whilst others seem to be almost immune?
We had a meeting with a professor in entomology, a specialist in these little creatures, and he agreed that they seem to be attracted by body smell. It’s a bit like mosquitoes, some people get bitten to death whilst others aren’t touched. We’ve had twins and triplets where one sibling gets much, much worse and more frequent infestations than the other.

But there are other factors...?
Girls are most popular because they huddle closer to playmates and have more hair. And mums get them because they’re forever cuddling their kids. Boys are less likely to get them after the age of 7, when they stop close head contact. Head lice don’t like testosterone so once they become teenagers most of them and dads don’t get them.

So do lice only love clean hair?
That’s actually a middle class myth, to distract from fact their little darlings get them as well! Another bit of fiction that does the rounds is that lice only like people who eat a good diet.

Why do they make us itch?
its to do with the stuff that they inject - a local anaesthetic which is meant to numb the head whilst they feed. But most people are allergic it. Others aren’t so you could, in theory, have 100 headlice on your head and not know they’re there.

Why does it seem like lice come in different shades – is it them or our own hair colour?
If a grown-up louse has just had a meal they’re a much darker colour. Splat one of those on a bit of paper with your fingernail and a belly full of human blood will come out.
Actually having blonde hair is a bonus when it comes to spotting live lice but dark hair is better for seeing the eggs attached to the hair shaft.

How do you tell parents on their first child - with no previous experience of headlice - that your kid is infested?
I know the first thought is, “oh my God my little baby has been contaminated” but don’t panic it means your child has friends. You’ve got to have friends to catch them because lice need close head-to-head contact. By the time you’re on to second or third kid its an irritating and constant part of life.

Any tips for taming wriggling toddlers into sitting down and being de-loused?
Bribery works well and some mums have admitted to nit-combing their kid’s hair when they’re asleep! Make sure you sit them between your legs and remove the tangles before you start with the fine toothcomb. If you try to rip the comb through tangled hair their obviously not going to let it be done again or sit still.

And tips for older kids - like girls with long hair?
More bribery! And by parting the hair into sections so the live lice can’t run away. I think as kids get older you can show them how to do it themselves because girls in particular do like being clean and don’t like thought of headlice.

Could undectected lice be harmful?
They can’t cause anything serious. The worse that can happen, and certainly not common in this country, is when a big infestation is combined with an allergic reaction and a secondary infection comes from scratching a bleeding scalp with dirty fingernails.

There certainly is some truth in the saying, “feeling lousy” which comes from head lice loads and constantly scratching then you’re not going to be concentrating distracted by all the itching driving you crazy.

Can headlice swim in the bath?
No but they can close down their gills and breathing apparatus for some time like us holding head under water, they shut down so wouldn’t. Left in water they do die because they can only live whilst they’re on the head and feeding on blood.

Can fallen lice climb back into your hair?
When you find them dropped on places like bedclothes, hairbrushes and hats it must mean that they’re OAP’s at the end of their life cycle and past their reproductive stage. In some extremely rare cases they have been known to live for 24 hours. And we always forget that the males don’t lay eggs so if one lice gets on to your head it’s a 50/50 chance of infestation

For more ‘Facts of lice’ and to order online, download a prescription form or sign up your school or nursery to a half price discount scheme, go to  www.nittygritty.co.uk

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