Screening for Head Lice

Head lice can be hard to see. You need to look closely and because lice and their eggs are so small and glued to the hair, takes patience, time, accuracy and a high quality lice comb.

Use disposable gloves and look at the person’s head under a bright light. Full sun or the brightest lights in your home during daylight hours work well. A magnifying glass can help. A high quality, stainless steel lice comb (vs the low quality plastic combs) is extremely helpful.

Before the head screen:

-Make sure the hair is completely dry

-Make sure the hair is detangled as much as possible

-Do not have any hair product such as mousse or gel

To look for head lice:

• Perform a hair-strand by hair-strand screen. Lice is the size of a sesame seed and lice eggs are the size of a grain of sand
• Part the hair all the way down to the scalp in very small sections.
• Examine the scalp and hair for moving lice and eggs (nits).
• Look at the whole head in the same way.
• Look closely around the crown of the head and the top of the neck and ears (the most common locations for eggs because it is warm in those places).
• A proper head screen can take as quick as 1 minute if lice or eggs are found and as long as 20 minutes for someone with long hair

Both children and adults should be treated right away if any lice or eggs are found.

Torrance Lice Removal has been in business since 2015 and has a 99%+ success rate. Our team of certified head lice technicians can provide you with a professional head lice screening and/or treatment and can get you lice free in about 1 hour.