Eight-year old Tiffany has left her Mum Kim scratching her head trying to find a solution to her daughter’s hair-raising condition.

Tiffany’s problem is really bad now.  We’re basically pulling our hair out.

We’ve used every product on the market and unfortunately nothing has been able to help her.

My friends always tease me about my problem.  That makes me sad.

Hello Tiffany.  Have a seat there.  Tell me what’s been worrying you.  What’s the problem?

People keep on calling me names.

Why do they call you names?

Because I’ve got nits.

You’ve got nits! How do you know you’ve got nits?

My Mum told me.

Mum tell me what’s been going on.

She’s had nits now for the last four years.  I think the nits and the eggs themselves are becoming accustomed to what we’ve been using.  Erm, the eggs themselves are fused to the hair and unfortunately there’s nothing I can do.  I can’t pull them out of her hair unfortunately.

Tiffany nits are a very, very common thing. There’re lots and lots of children – particularly when they’re at school, because you’re all together you get nits.  I’ve had nits.

What’s not so common is to have it for four years like you, which is a very, very long time.

Yes.

How do people know you’ve got nits because I can’t see anything now?

Because I’m constantly scratching.

Let’s I think first stage is to check they are actually nits. That’s the obvious place to start, isn’t it? So, I think I should have a good look and see if we can actually see them.

Right, we’ve got one already and it’s on the hood of your top.

I’m going to put him there. Look, I think that’s a dead one, louse. The nits are the eggs.

Alright so let’s have a look through this and see what we can see.

Wow, you’ve got lots of eggs stuck to your hair, there haven’t you.

You have them round your ears, and you have another one of the little lice there.  Okay, well that’s answered that question for us – it’s definitely nits.

Head lice feed on sucking blood through the skin of the scalp which causes severe itching. They are not a sign of dirty hair and are extremely common, and over half of 11 to 14-year olds get them each year.  They can’t jump or fly, and they are caught from hair to hair contact.

One of the commonest reasons why people can’t get rid of nits is actually because they don’t do the treatments properly – and the treatments aren’t that easy, I’ll be honest with you, and the problem with them really is you can kill the bugs with the shampoos and the lotions but those eggs will stay and 7 days later, 10 days later they hatch out again and bang you’ve got another load of lice, and they’re regularly laying more eggs.  But I think because you’ve been having so much difficulty in getting rid of them I think what we’ll do with you is send you off to the nit experts, who will basically do that job in a very, very thorough way.

Would that make you happy.

Yeah.

It would, yeah.

Dr Christian has sent Tiffany to a private clinic in North London which specialises in assassinating nits.

Things at school just aren’t getting any better, erm, we’ve had a letter through to say that head lice are a problem yet again, erm, and we think we might be the root cause of it.

Right, do you want to jump up here for us?

Turn the other way like you’re riding a horse.

Tiffany’s hair is going to need 4 sessions of treatment to make it nit free starting by literally hoovering out all of the living lice.

Head lice only have a life span of around 30 days but in that time just one adult female louse can lay around 300 eggs that can result in over 1000 additional head lice in just one month.

The adults are the big dark ones, and in there are also tiny babies, they look like little specks.

But the hair hoovering is only stage one.  The stubborn eggs need to be removed by applying their chemical free conditioner and a good comb through to remove all the eggs on mass.

That’s all the eggs, a couple of hundred at least (on the comb).

And then finally the team pick out the stubborn eggs using (specialist) tweezers.

When I’m looking at the eggs some of them are quite far down the hair and they’ve grown out, because when they are laid, they are laid at the root – and they grown down (with the hair).

If that was me, she would be screaming and shouting and balling her head off by now, but because its somebody else she’s quite quiet as you can see, so I’m glad she is getting it out.

 Two hours later and Tiffany is given the final nit death count.

There is the score.

Lovely.

There were 11 adults in total and 96 babies and 950 eggs, most of which were old, however with these 11 adults in here they would have been laying, so she’ll have to come back for another appointment to get that stuff that’s coming through.

That’s fine.

Tiffany, welcome back.

So, Tiffany, are you now nit free?

Yes.

Have they all gone?

Yes.

Why do you think it took so long to get rid of them?

Don’t know.

How do you feel now? Better?

Yes.

Happy that they’re all gone?

Yes.

How many sessions did it take, until they were all gone?

Four.

Four full sessions until they were completely gone.

Why do you think you weren’t able to get rid of them yourself?

I’ve no idea really.  We sat there night after night trying to comb them out, and we could never, never get them out, but they used a technique where they hoovered the hair, they put them up in sections and brushed them all out.  It was fantastic.  Brilliant.

Good. And it wasn’t too uncomfortable or anything? You didn’t mind?

No!

It’s not that I don’t believe you, but I think we should have a quick check and make sure they really are completely gone and you’re not just humouring me and saying they are to make me feel better.

Can I have a look? Do you mind?

If you just swing your stool around and just take your hair band out.

Okay, here we go, let’s have a look.

Ha! Only joking!!

No nothing.  Not a sausage! Can’t see anything at all! Just nice clear hair now.  What a difference.  They’ve gone, definitely.  Success! So that was good. 

Certainly don’t feel bad that you weren’t able to get rid of them because a lot of parents are, and you have to be so, so meticulously thorough, and it’s not easy, and it’s why you need something as thorough as you went through, and several sessions of it to make absolutely sure that they are gone.

Do you feel Tiffany is a bit happier now that things have changed?

Oh, definitely. She had a lot more confidence, especially at school.  She’s doing really, really well now at school, she’s a different person.

Really?

Yes.

Just from this?

Yes.

So Tiffany, listen, thank you for coming back to see me and I’m glad they’ve gone, but you know if they ever happen again, which they might, they are very common things, you know exactly what to do next time, don’t you? So, you’re not going to worry, no?

It was nice to see you. Thank you for coming.

Thanks.

Thank you very much.