Oftentimes, a person who suspects he or she has head lice will prematurely contemplate how to get rid of head lice without first confirming the presence of nits. Treating head lice without first determining if an infection is present is, of course, a mistake! Certainly you can't treat an infection that you do not have! Therefore, it is important to confirm suspicions at the onset, and the most effective way of doing so is through the search of nits in the scalp and hair.

A nit is a term for a louse egg. You may be familiar with the word from the slang expression "nitpicking," which used to literally refer to the eggs. Once they are laid, they rest dormant on the scalp and do not hatch for weeks. If they are present, a person most likely has an active infestation or will have one soon. Because of this, determining whether the eggs are present is a good way to confirm one's suspicions of an infection.

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 you see louse eggs on the scalp then you can be sure that you have an infestation of lice. Now you can concentrate on treating the lice and removing the nits. The search for all the nits will be time consuming but worth the trouble to get rid of the lice.