ASHLEY PEACE sighs with dismay as she runs a nit comb through her daughters’ hair for the 12th day in a row.
Her two girls, aged nine and 11, caught the lice at school and, despite her spending £40 on over-the-counter treatments, dozens of egg casings are still falling from the comb.
Ashley, 48, says: “It sounds unkind, but I think there might be a few lazy parents who don’t treat their children for nits, so they’re aiding the spread.
“Everyone has to treat them or it doesn’t work.”
Schools up and down the country are currently suffering a plague of head lice.
The blood-sucking pests are causing chaos in homes and classrooms as parents struggle to keep them under control — with some desperate families even paying expert “lice busters” to come to their homes.
Dee Wright, who in 2006 launched The Hairforce, a UK-wide professional lice removal service, has seen a huge increase in bookings.
She says: “Head lice are at epidemic levels in many schools, with whole classes infested.
“We are the busiest we have ever been.”
Dee, of Primrose Hill, London, adds: “I see children of all ages at our clinics and their families are at their wits’ end.
“Since the pandemic we have been clearing some very heavy infestations – we are the busiest we have ever been at the moment.
“This is down to a lot of factors.
“People rely on head lice products that promise to end the infestation, but don’t.
“You still need to do the hard work of nit combing to get all the eggs out of the hair.
“Secondly, everyone is so much busier these days, meaning some things fall by the wayside — regular hair checking is one of them.
“We’ve also had many tell us their eyesight has got worse, so it’s more difficult for parents to spot nits.”
Primary school teacher Sarah*, from Cheshire, believes head lice cases are “completely out of control” in classrooms.
She says: “We have at least half the class scratching away at any one time and it makes it difficult for them to concentrate.
“I’ve had children whose heads have been absolutely alive with lice — you can see them crawling about from a few feet away.
“I’ve even seen them drop on to their books.”
Sarah believes that parents simply are not doing enough to stem the problem.
She says: “Some are just downright lazy and don’t bother to check their children’s hair, even when we speak to them about it.”
Spread by head-to-head contact, lice are grey-brown insects measuring up to 3mm, while nits are the eggs that are attached to hair before they hatch into lice.
A female louse can lay around six eggs a day, and feeds up to five times a day, on blood from the scalp of the human host.
Mum Ashley, a careers adviser from York, refers to the infestation as “super nits”.
She says: “My girls wash their own hair three times a week, so I only discovered the nits when I saw them scratching.
“I then spotted tons of eggs and bugs running all over the place, something I’ve never seen before.
“I knew it was the ‘super nits’ I’d been told about.
“I bought what I thought would be the strongest nit shampoo, spending £40 on five bottles of Full Marks 5 Minute Treatment.
“I painstakingly combed through the girls’ hair, and within two days I had my own infestation of super nits.
“It sent shivers down my spine.
“My daughters were also horrified but, after two weeks of using the nit shampoo and conditioner, they were clear.
“Myself and other mums are convinced these new super nits are resistant to treatment.
“If we don’t work together to combat nits by checking and treating our kids, the school run drama starts, with everyone blaming everyone else.”
Mum Jaz Harris, 31, also experienced an infestation of the super nits.
The content creator, of Rochford, Essex, found removing them tricky as her two-year-old son has what she describes as coiled, mixed-ethnicity hair.
She says: “When I examined his hair after nursery, I was shocked to find dozens of eggs stuck to the base and clumps of bugs hiding in his curls.
“These lice were bigger than normal — and there were more of them.
“The bottled treatment you get from chemists does not work on my son’s mixed-ethnicity hair, so my secret is to use Alberto Balsam raspberry conditioner, which is just £1 at Poundland.
“I smothered it on his hair before combing out as many lice and eggs as possible, then I covered his hair with coconut oil, suffocating the nits.
“I kept him out of nursery for a week to ensure he was nit-free.
“But I worry that some parents don’t properly treat their kids’ hair and hope the nursery staff will sort the problem.
“This makes beating super nits harder for everyone else.”
Expert Dee agrees it’s a tough problem to crack.
She says: “The cost-of-living crisis means buying head lice products at about £10 a bottle is not within people’s budgets.
“And we regularly see girls with very long hair down to their bottom.
“It looks great, but it is hard for a parent to manage when they have a head lice infestation.
“They have tried treating it with a bottle of product when they probably need three bottles given the amount of hair, plus they need to nit comb, nit comb, nit comb.
“But a lot of people just can’t afford it.”
Mum-of-two Sophie Ball, 47 — who has kids aged 10 and 12 — knows how bad nit infestations can be.
The stable owner from Solihull, West Mids, says: “I was horrified at first when my ten-year-old daughter discovered she had head lice.
“She came to me and said she had been finding bugs in her hair but had been too embarrassed to say anything.
“My heart broke for her.
“I was mortified I hadn’t noticed.
“There were hundreds of eggs.
“I coated her hair in conditioner and she stood under the shower while I combed her hair and washed them down the drain.
“We managed to get rid of them after just one treatment, but I’ve heard other parents say they’re unable to rid their children of head lice.
“When I was a child, the nit nurse came to school and everyone had their hair checked every term.
“My daughter’s school has a ‘no head lice’ policy, but they don’t ask you to report it and we don’t have any communication from the school if there are cases.
“It would be down to parents to announce on the class WhatsApp group that their child has head lice, which people are obviously reluctant to do.
“But it would slow the spread.”
Teacher Sarah echoes the need for clarity.
She says: “My school sends regular reminders to parents on how to check their child’s hair for lice, but when not everybody gets rid of them at the same time, they continue to spread.
“Our headteacher has asked if we’re able to get a regular nit nurse, but we were told that being checked for nits is damaging for children’s mental health.
“Sadly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the problem with nits as bad as it is now.”
THE Hairforce’s Dee Wright shares her top tips to nip a nit outbreak in the bud.
GO PUBLIC: Nits are not a dirty secret.
If you tell other parents you’ve found lice, they know to do an extra check on their own kids and catch them before they get out of control.
GET A NIT CHECK ROUTINE IN PLACE: Make a “nit check” part of your weekly routine.
After a Sunday night hair wash is good.
Use a good-quality nit comb, like Nitty Gritty nit comb, inset, £8.52 reduced from £13, at Amazon.
DO EXTRA CHECKS AFTER NIT “DANGER POINTS”: If your child has been at an event where they have been closer than usual to other children, do an extra head check.
Events such as school trips, parties and sleepovers are all ideal breeding grounds for head lice.
DON’T TAKE SHORTCUTS: When you buy a product to treat lice, make sure you follow the instructions carefully.
Don’t neglect doing a second treatment a week later, even if you can’t see any signs of eggs.
This is how lice cases get out of control.
IT’S NOT ONLY YOUNG KIDS: People often only check their primary school-aged children for head lice, but older children and adults can bring them into the home too.
It is important that the whole family checks their hair every week.
