Diagnosis

We constantly see wrong self-diagnoses!
Itching or not? Found something or nothing?
It doesn't tell you anything!

We offer the only two screening options that guarantees 100% certainty:
1) in our clinic
2) DIY at home

In our clinic
The specialist screens the hair in a forensic manner by dry-combing and visual inspection.
The screening in the clinic costs €29,-
You choose this when:

→ you suspect you have head lice yourself and find it difficult to comb your own hair.
→ you only need a one-time screening

Make Screening Booking

DIY at home
With the ‘Lice Clinic Comb Kit’ you can easily and with 100% certainty detect any infestation.
The Comb Kit, priced at €39.90, contains enough Comb Cream for 7 combing sessions.
You choose this when:

→ multiple family members may be infected and you wish to receive treatment at our clinic.
First screen everybody at home to avoid a separate check-up appointment and we can treat you immediately.
→ you want to be able to check or treat your family members regularly for prevention.

Once you have purchased the Comb Kit, follow these steps:
Combing > Looking > Determining!

Combing
With our unique nit comb and lice-catching Comb Cream, you can easily remove more than 95% of the lice and nits from your hair in just one combing session.
Comb according to these combing instructions to achieve a guaranteed result.

Looking
By collecting the lice and nits in a bowl of water, you can fish them out and place them on a piece of white paper in good lighting to examine and photograph them properly. Be sure to watch the video below for guidance!

Determining
With the help of the video below and the photos provided, you can easily compare and determine whether you actually have head lice.

Especially those tiny eggs (nits) can be difficult to recognize and  distinguish. Dirt and dandruff are often mistaken for nits.

Nits versus dirt

Nits are brown, not black, and always have the same size and oval shape with a 'tail' attached. Nits are firmly glued to the hair:



Dirt, on the other hand, is irregular and uneven in shape and size and freely scatters in the hair or on the scalp:

Especially people with an imaginary infestation, usually due to a wrong (self)-diagnosis but sometimes in the form of a more chronic nature caused by psychological issues, also know as 'Ekbom-Syndrom', who therefore comb and treat themselves for an extended period, often find many (black) specks.
These are fragments of scabs, broken hairs, hair roots, coagulated blood, etc., resulting from the damage to the skin and hair.  

Nits versus dandruff

White nits are empty eggshells left behind after the young louse (nymph) hatches from the egg.
White nits still maintain the same oval shape and size as brown nits and are still firmly attached to the hair.
Since these white nits grow out with the hair, they are usually located farther from the scalp and are therefore more visible:

However, white specks can also be dandruff.
Dry, flaky dandruff has a flat, irregular shape and size that can be found freely in the hair and on the scalp:

Another type of dandruff is found as white sheaths around the hair. Especially this type of dandruff closely resembles white nits, which is why it is also called Pseudo-Nits.
The major difference is that white nits adhere to the hair shafts laterally, whereas Pseudo-Nits surround the hair like a sheath:

A viable nit always meets all three of the following conditions: 

• Brown, oval/droplet-shaped
• Firmly attached to the hair
• A few millimeters, maximum 1 cm away from the skin

A viable nit is also always completely filled, either with liquid or with the embryo.
A nit that is partly light and partly dark in color is a nit with an old, dead, shriveled embryo inside.

A (partially) empty (white) or dead (brown) nit can remain stuck in the hair for up to a year.
This means that you can still find nits even long after the infestation has been resolved! 

More than 10 days without finding a louse ?
Then the infestation is resolved!

Unless you overlooked the louse!
Making absolute sure you don't miss anything, can be done by using our 'Comb Kit', containing an effective lice-catching 'Comb Cream' and nit-catching professional nit comb.

A nit always hatches within 7-10 days.
In the case of an active infestation, there will always be newly hatched lice within that time.

Not every bug in the hair is a louse.
Common insects also occasionally get caught in the hair.
A louse can only crawl from hair to hair. It cannot walk, jump, or fly across surfaces.
It has six legs attached to the smaller front-body, no legs on the bigger abdomen, and two small antennae.
A louse is light to dark brown in color but can sometimes appear red due to the blood they consume.

Their flat shape allows them to be well-camouflaged in the hair:

Young lice are called nymphs.
These can sometimes be as small as a speck of dust.
Especially the nymphs slip easily through the teeth of the nit comb. That's why we recommend a thick layer of our 'Comb Cream', as it  encapsulates the nymphs and the nit comb removes them cream and all. 

The nymph develops into an adult louse in an average of 10 days, after molting three times.  

More information about lice, nits, their life cycle, ways of infestation, itching and more, you can find on our webpage Head lice facts