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Head lice can be difficult to treat for several reasons. One of the major challenges to successfully treating lice is that the bugs and nits are hard to find in the hair. That is where a bright lamp can help.
Perhaps you are sitting at the table in your Alabama home and you happen to look at your daughter's head just as a bug crawls out. OR you have sent your kids off to school and are getting yourself ready for work, when a call comes from the school nurse telling you that your son has head lice. "How is that possible?", you may wonder "I look at that child every day, how did I possibly miss this?" Well head lice hide in the hair, and their offspring called eggs or nits, camouflage in the hair.
Lice know just how to make it very difficult for you to find them; that is why and how they have lasted on this earth for hundreds of thousands of years.
It is easy to miss signs of head lice. First of all, not very one gets itchy. Some people have no symptoms of head lice. “The most common symptom of any type of lice is itching. Lice bites cause an allergic reaction that causes this itchy feeling. However, you may not feel itchy right away, especially if it's a light infestation.” Healthline Lice Symptoms
Second is that nits camouflage in the hair. They are easily missed by an untrained eye. Nits actually have a translucent shell that houses a baby louse called a nymph. The nymph is brownish in color and blends in with many hair colors.
Even when parents know to look for every nit, we have dispatched technicians to homes where people have worked on a child’s head for hours and the technician finds many remaining nits that were missed.
What Can Help You Find Lice and Nits in the Hair?
Among the tools that you need to combat lice and nits is bright light. Without a bright lamp or outside, natural sunlight, it will be even more challenging to find the lice. It is easier to diagnose a case of head lice by looking at nits rather than lice because the lice move around a lot and do so quickly. They also run away from light.
When you shine light on nits, the translucent shell will reflect the light a bit and that helps to locate them. Whether you choose to treat head lice on your own or decide to bring in a professional lice removal person, you will need bright light.
Lighting Choices for Nit-Picking
One option is a table lamp. Gooseneck lamps are easy to manage. They have the advantage of shining a light right on the area of the scalp on which you are working. They are portable so if you have your family seated around a kitchen table, you can move the lamp to accommodate the person on whom you are conducting your nit-picking endeavor.
A floor lamp works as well. The brighter the bulb the better. If you are in an otherwise dark room, a floor lamp that emits ambient light may be your best bet. Wearing a pair of magnifying glasses may be helpful, as well, depending on how acute your close up vision is.
A third option is a handheld light. This can be helpful to check the hair before and after you treat it. You really need both hands when you comb through section by section, removing the nits. If you have a helper, he or she can hold the light while you comb or hand pick the nits. Some people like to use an ultraviolet light, black light, or blue light.
Probably the best lighting of all is one that costs nothing: natural outdoor light. Natural sunlight provides an ideal ambiance for seeing and retrieving nits from the hair. If the weather is warm, bring your child outside and do your lice removal there. If it is cold outside, place the child on a chair or stool near a bright window, if you have one available. Bottom line is that any of these lighting options will help in the process of getting rid of head lice and nits.
Even with bright light it is still an overwhelming chore for many families to take on the task of lice removal. You can't be "sort of" done with lice. Either you have gotten out all of the nits or you still have an active case that will not go away by itself. If a couple of nits are left in the hair and there is no follow-up treatment, those nits will hatch, nymphs will emerge, and you will continue to have a lice infestation on your hands (or should I say on your head?).
If you want expertise and experience with a full guarantee, call LiceDoctors today in the Birmingham area at 205-598-2117 or in Montgomery, Alabama area at 334-557-1458 for lice treatment today. A qualified and knowledgeable lice technician will come to you with the know-how and tools to eradicate the lice! Make An Appointment Today!
