YES! Head lice are blood-sucking insects. The Head Louse is a tiny wingless, parasitic insect with six legs that lives on the human scalp and sucks blood out of your scalp.

The head lice family consists of nits, eggs, nymph and lice. There are female and male lice and head lice do reproduce sexually. The whole head lice family operates as a family. Nits are actually the empty egg casing of the eggs laid by the female louse. Head lice are tiny wingless parasites that consist of nits, nymphs and adult lice. The nymph is an adolescent who, once hatches from the egg, grows to a louse in a few weeks. The louse is adult head lice which has reached the maturity to lay eggs (nits).

Head Lice prevention is much easier and more pleasant for kids and parents by following a good routine that will make your child less likely to be affected. Keep the hair clean and wash them carefully. Make sure the ‘hair-to-hair’ contact is minimum. Do not share towels, caps, hats, combs, sweaters, headbands, headphones, scarves, hoodies, coats etc. Keep hairbrushes separate for all kids. Keep hair tied up.

Yes, combing for head lice is also an important part of controlling head lice. But you need to kill lice first to get best results and to prevent future recurrence. Combing is a traditional method of removing head lice and eggs from the hair. It is advised to use a specialised lice comb to ensure complete removal. But, Combing can take some time depending on the hair. Girls with long thick hair will need some patience as combing will take a while. Short or thin hair will usually be a much quicker process. The hair should be divided into 4cm sections and, using the teeth of the comb, run the comb from the root of the hair to the tip. After every comb wipe off the head lice and eggs on to a tissue and repeat until every strand of hair has been combed.

NO! They do not have wings or jumping legs, so cannot jump or fly, nor can they swim – but they do crawl at exceptional speeds and can crawl from hair to hair! This is how head lice are usually transferred, by crawling from one head to another – like in school, park, playground.

Lice are oval in shape and 0.5 -1 mm in length. They usually appear white, brown, or dark gray clear and remain attached to the hair strands. You can see them with your naked eye and it usually helps to spot them properly while removing them by comb.

NO! Pets can’t catch head lice and pass them onto people or vice versa! Lice are species-specific, which means there are different species of lice for each animal species that they depend on. Human lice need human blood to survive; dog lice need dog blood and so on. Therefore, if your child comes home from school with a diagnosis of head lice, your dog, cat or other pets in the household are not at risk of catching the lice or hatching eggs. Conversely, while lice are not common in dogs and cats, the species of lice that live on dogs and cats are not able to live on humans

Lice loves dark areas of your scalp. They are usually living behind your ears, where it is warm and moist. They also stay close to the scalp. So cutting your hair won't help. Shaving your head off is a bad step and should be avoided as you can easily get rid of the lice by using Hairshield Anti Lice Cream Wash.