Beat it, nits! Tips from a head lice expert

When the letter comes in from school, the subject line alone is enough to make you shudder. As soon as parents see the word «head lice», they instantly know that the itchy little critters have made a comeback. Not that they ever went away. However, it does seem like head lice infestations are particularly rife right now. It’s not the first note we’ve got from school in recent weeks. Plus, other parents are saying the same about their kids’ schools. When I found out my daughter had been in close contact with a child with head lice, I knew I had to douse her in anti-lice shampoo. Pronto.

Evidently, there are plenty of other people in the same boat. The sale of anti-lice products on Galaxus is booming right now:

So, it’s high time we found someone who knows what they’re talking about. More specifically, Johanna Gut, President of the Swiss Society of Head Lice Specialists («Schweizerische Gesellschaft der Kopflaus Fachleute») (website in German).

Ms. Gut, do people still refer to you and your colleagues as «lice girls»?
Unfortunately, yes. But we’re pretty firm in calling ourselves qualified head lice experts. Mind you, I often introduce myself to kids as «the lice lady». That sounds a bit nicer.

You’re actually the lice-lady-in-chief – you’re the President of the Swiss Society of Head Lice Specialists. How long have you been in the louse business?
I’m 69 now, and I’ve been in this line of work since I was 25. So, ages! You don’t need to do the math to figure it out. These days, it’s mainly older women who work as head lice specialists. I suppose that’s partly because the job often requires a lot of flexibility. Flexibility that’s hard to come by when you’re younger. Let’s face it, it’s not as if lice outbreaks can be planned.

When there’s a lice infestation, you go to the school that’s been hit.
Yes, that’s part of it. That, and the typical awareness-raising work. If a child is found to have lice, the school asks us to check all the kids’ heads. Mind you, we don’t do that everywhere – the regulations on dealing with lice vary between municipalities. Many school districts have now scrapped our services, unfortunately.

Are the consequences of that decision noticeable?
Yes. We’re seeing more lice infestations in areas with no lice specialists. We’re receiving an increasing number of inquiries from parents in the Zurich area – some of them actually cries for help. They feel overwhelmed about their situation.

The demand for anti-lice treatment products is going through the roof at Galaxus at the moment. We’re selling almost twice as many lice combs and more than three times as many anti-lice shampoos as we did last year. Are there more nits crawling around on people’s heads right now than usual?
It’s hard to say. Even our Executive Board isn’t in agreement on that. Some think lice infestations are more common than usual right now. Others haven’t had any work in months. I do think the sales figures for anti-lice products should be taken with a pinch of salt, though. There are other plausible causes for the increase.

Such as?
During the pandemic, we had almost no lice at all. Which makes sense, given we were spending less time with other people. As a result, drugstores and pharmacies reduced their stocks of anti-lice treatments. After the pandemic, demand went back up, but there was a shortage of products for combatting lice. Then, there was the war in Ukraine and a scarcity of raw materials. About a year and a half year ago, there were hardly any anti-lice products available in Switzerland. If we compare today’s sales figures with these relatively low sales, the current numbers obviously seem much higher. That’s true of online retail anyway – the pandemic boosted online sales significantly. It’s also perfectly possible that parents are stockpiling anti-lice products without there necessarily being an ongoing outbreak. Or they could be buying them to give their kids preventive treatments.

That’s exactly what I’m doing. A few days ago, we got a letter informing us about an outbreak of lice in my daughter’s class. Yet again. This time, my daughter had been in close contact with the child in question. So, I immediately treated her with anti-lice shampoo.
Without checking first whether she had lice or nits?

Oh no, I did check. And I didn’t find any. But my daughter has insanely thick hair and I wanted to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.
You probably could’ve saved yourself the bother. If there are no lice present, even aggressive anti-lice shampoos won’t do anything. At most, they’ll have a negative impact on the hair.

But are there preventative measures we can take against head lice?
My advice would be to keep long hair tied back, but that’s no guarantee. Generally speaking, though, I’m always amazed at how slowly lice spread.

What do you mean?
Four close friends can have lice, while the fifth might not have a single one. I remember one school pupil whose head was crawling like an anthill, while a girl he’d been in close contact with barely had any nits. What I’m trying to say is that just because someone in your circle has lice, it doesn’t mean you’ll get them too.

That’s just one of many preconceptions. Similarly, many people still think that having head lice is a sign of poor hygiene.
True. Today, we know categorically that there’s no connection between the two. Lice aren’t picky – they don’t really care whether hair is greasy or clean. Many people also believe that washing hair with anti-lice shampoo once will put an end to the problem.

On the bottle of anti-lice shampoo I bought, it says you should repeat the treatment after seven days if necessary. So, only «if necessary». Is that wrong?
If you’d rather be on the safe side, it’s a good idea to repeat the treatment after 7–10 days. This is because of the louse’s life cycle. The first treatment usually kills lice, but it doesn’t get rid of their eggs. It’s very tricky to wipe them out. The eggs survive the anti-lice treatment, so you wait until the young lice hatch. That happens about seven or eight days after the lice lay their eggs.

Won’t the newly hatched lice already have laid new eggs?
They only do that later, when they reach sexual maturity. That’s why you use the time between the eggs hatching and the young lice becoming sexually mature for the second louse treatment. Whatever you do, you need to pull all the pesky, leftover nits (the empty, hatched eggs) out of the hair by hand – even after the first lice treatment. We also recommend this in our flyer (in German). It’s often a laborious task.

Do you think we’ll ever see the end of head lice?
No, they’ll probably always exist. Even the pandemic didn’t wipe them out. What I’m hoping for is that the stigma around head lice will eventually disappear. That people who have them will be able to openly say: «Look, I’ve got lice. Don’t come too close to me today.» Today, people feel ashamed instead, and don’t say anything about it. All that does is make it worse. I always say that lice are actually a good sign.

In what way?
They’re a sign of how social we are. We greet each other with kisses on the cheek, we push our heads together for selfies and kids have boisterous pyjama parties. People come together.

I’ve done the math now – you’ve been in the louse business for 44 years. How often have you had head lice yourself?
Only once, when my whole family got them. And that’s despite the fact I get so close to lice. We’re very careful at work, though. I always clip my hair back, use a fresh comb for each child and wash my hands several times. See? There’s no need to panic if you’re close to lice.