You know it’s a good day when you wake up nestled comfortably in someone’s head full of hair. That’s how life begins for a newly hatched louse. It starts off the cycle as a white dot, hidden in the cascades of some poor soul’s hair before it hatches.
As a louse, your goal is simple. You have to suck blood from your host’s scalp to survive and grow. The nutrients in their head are your sole source of food intake. You crawl around the head and resurface only when you shouldn’t, in elevators, during important meetings; when you see other viable targets.
The Nit Phase
There are three stages to the life of a louse: nit (egg), nymph, and adult louse. In the earliest phase, it’s very easy to confuse nits with dandruff. They both look like small white specks. However, they both inhabit different positions along the length of the hair and one is easily removed. Dandruff is usually more visible on the surface, whereas, nits are found within
a few centimeters of the hair shaft. Once they’re removed from the hair, they can no longer turn into lice.
The Nymph Phase
The nymph phase can also be very tricky. This is right before they turn into a louse; it takes the form of an almost transparent version of lice, which makes it even more difficult to detect. Almost a week old, they scamper and roam around the human head—their ultimate playground. They play hide and seek because their life literally depends on it. Once found, picked, and treated by a certified lice specialist, lice are unable to survive outside of the hair for more than 48 hours.
Treating lice can be tricky and is handled best by professionals. OTC medication contains chemicals which lice have become resistant to over the years. Hence, they’ve become practically useless for removing head lice. Home remedies may help in making your hair healthy, but do very little for removing nits and head lice. Lice look for opportunities to access more surface area and other cleaner scalps to infest where they can breed. It’s a popular myth that keeping your head clean prevents lice infestation. To learn how to prevent lice infestation, read
here.
For more information on how to get rid of lice, regardless of what stage they might be in, reach out to us for
head lice removal at Lice Troopers. We care about your hair and we know how to prevent a recurring lice problem. This is your one stop solution to your lice problems.
