Expert warns against popular hack for getting rid of headlice
As a parent, there are several things you worry about your children returning home from school with.
A telling-off note from the teacher, an extortionately priced school trip, a cut or bruise from some rough and tumble play. None of these things are ideal.
But - as the majority of mums and dads across the globe will be well aware - there's something arguably more daunting that could enter the threshold of your home upon you kid's arrival from school... and that's head lice.
Or 'nits', if you're British.
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These pesky little blood-suckers are very common in young children and their families, and infamously an absolute NIGHTMARE to get rid of.
And even more frustrating is there's absolutely nothing that parents can do to protect their children from catching them - unless you send them to school in an inflatable zorb ball...
That's because these head-scratching little nuisances are spread from head-to-head contact, so if your youngster is playing closely alongside some of their classmates on the playground, or sharing pillows at sleepovers, there's a high chance you'll be forced to handle a lice outbreak at home.
When it comes to removing nits from your child's hair, health and haircare professionals all over the world have been preaching the 'right' way to treat them for years.
So much so, that determining the fact from the fiction when it comes to head lice myth can sometimes feel impossible.
While the use of wet-combing with a special fine-toothed comb or using medicated lotions and sprays are common means of erasing the troublesome creatures, amid the somewhat bizarre, recently-discovered theories is one that has left heath experts baffled.
Taking to a parenting advice group this week, one mother revealed she's been using HAIR STRAIGHTENERS to kill nits for years now.
After another user asked for lice removal hacks, she penned: "Use a rank cheapest hair conditioner you can find and a nit comb. Or as I did, use hair straighteners they did the trick in burning the rest lol."
Despite the alleged hack, head lice experts have hit out at the use of straighteners on the tiresome little buggers, claiming they're not as efficient as people think in removing them entirely.
Professionals working for LiceDoctors.com explained that these devices simply don't penetrate the shell of nits.
"High enough direct heat is needed to kill lice eggs and heat from straighteners may not penetrate the eggshell," the team note.
"These nits have very tough exteriors. Also, shells will stay on the strands of hair until they are removed by handpicking or combing.
"This may not bothersome, but if you are planning on getting your hair cut or you must pass inspection from a school nurse, you could be turned away if a nit, dead or alive, is found in your hair."
On top of this issue, they add that the mobility of nits can make it impossible to catch all of them with straighteners.
"With respect to a hair straightening device, there is no short answer to will a hair straightener kill head lice," the team note. "Straightening devices possess enough heat to kill a louse that they it comes into contact with it, but can lice survive a hair straightener?
"Lice are mobile so if they are not directly hit by the straightener they will not be affected by it. They move so fast that it would be very tricky to try to catch lice with a straightening device.
"So in theory, a flat iron generates enough heat to kill lice, but practically speaking, it is very hard to corral the bugs in order for the flat iron to kill them."
Rhianna Benson