Often the first thing people think of when they suspect they have head lice is to wonder how to get rid of head lice. It's common to find people choose a method of treating head lice before they've even confirmed they have a lice infection, and naturally it's not going to help treating an infection if you don't have it to begin with. Searching for nits is probably the best way to confirm your suspicious that you have an infection.

If you've ever heard of the slang expression "nitpicking", you might know about nits, which is a louse egg. In fact the expression used to actually mean the eggs. Louse eggs are dormant on your scalp after they are laid until they hatch, which takes weeks. Checking whether the eggs are there is a good way to prove that you have an infection if they are there you are infested or soon will be.

Nits are easy to spot as they share the same identifying characteristics. The tiny oval-shaped parasites attach themselves to scalp hairs. As the infection progresses, they will move further away from the scalp. Unlike dandruff, a nit will not come away from the hair shaft if you pull or shake it. They can be found in a range of colours, from brown and tan through to cream and yellow.

Although looking for nits by hand is possible, it can be a long and tedious process. A much more efficient way to search for nits is to employ the use of a fine-toothed comb, designed specifically for this purpose. These utensils are called nit combs. When done correctly, combing will be able to remove the eggs (nits) from your hair.

You should know nits' traits that make them different from other things on your scalp such as some types of residue from hair products and dandruff. This way you will not get them confused with lice eggs. You must be certain that what you have found is a nit and not something other than that. You must be careful that it is indeed a nit.

If nits are present, then you definitely have an infection of head lice. Once you confirm that, you can then act to eliminate the lice. While searching for nits is time-consuming, you will appreciate the results when you infestation is no longer present.

The presence of nits needs to be confirmed before thinking how to get rid of head lice. Treating head lice without first determining if an infection is present is, of course, a mistake! They are louse eggs, which, once laid, rest dormant on the scalp and take weeks to hatch. They are tiny oval-shaped parasites attach themselves to scalp hairs and come in different colours. They can be removed by using specially designed comb. Dandruff or hair product residue is not to be mistaken as the louse eggs. The search will be time consuming but worth the trouble to get rid of them.