Wet Combing Treatment For Head Lice

How do you do it?

Each session can be time consuming (it takes about 15-30 minutes to do a wet combing session properly.) You can buy a special fine toothed 'detection comb' from a pharmacy. (The teeth of normal combs are too far apart.) You can also get a 'bug busting' kit on prescription which contains the correct sized comb.

• Wash the hair in the normal way with ordinary shampoo.
• Rinse out the shampoo and put on lots of ordinary conditioner.
• Comb the hair with a normal comb to get rid of tangles.
• When the hair is untangled switch to the detection comb.
• Slot the teeth of the detection comb into the hair at the roots so it is touching the scalp.
• Draw the detection comb through to the tips of the hair.
• Repeat this in all directions until you have combed all the hair from the roots.
• Check the comb for lice after each stroke. A magnifying glass may help.
• If you see any lice, clean the comb by wiping it on a tissue, or rinse it before the next stroke.
• Comb over a white surface such as white paper. This is so that any head lice that are flicked out by the comb are easy to see.
• After you have combed the whole head, rinse out the conditioner.
• Whilst the hair is still wet, use an ordinary comb to get rid of tangles.
• Repeat the detection combing in the rinsed hair to check for any lice which you might have missed the first time.

You need to do the above routine every 4 days for at least 4 sessions (2 weeks).

• The first combing session should remove all hatched head lice, but does not remove eggs.
• Any young lice that hatch from eggs after the first session are removed at the second, third and fourth sessions. This is why it is important to do the full 4 sessions.
• If you see full-grown lice at the second, third, or fourth session, this means that some had been missed on the first session, or you have become re-infected from someone else. If this occurs, you should increase the number of sessions. In effect, following any session where you find adult head lice, you should do 3 further sessions at 4 day intervals where you do not see adult lice.

Do family and friends need treatment?

Only if they have lice. All people in the same home, and other close 'head to head' contacts of the previous 4-6 weeks should be contacted. Tell them to look for lice and treat if necessary. (It used to be advised to treat all close contacts even if they had no symptoms. This has changed to just treating people with definite head lice infection.) All people with head lice in the same home should be treated at the same time. This stops lice being passed around again.

Further information

You can get further details of wet combing treatment ('Bug Busting') from:
Community Hygiene Concern, Manor Gardens Centre, 6-9 Manor Gardens, London, N7 6LA
Tel: 020 7686 4321   Web: www.nits.net

© EMIS and PIP 2004   Updated: August 2003   CHIQ Accredited   PRODIGY Validated