Head Lice and Dandruff

Dandruff is a common enough problem that about 50 percent of people everywhere will suffer from the ailment in some form at least once during their lifetimes.  In spite of the condition’s prevalence, however, one must be aware that there quite a number of other ailments or afflictions out there that can approximate the symptoms of dandruff, when you may be looking at something completely different.  The itching and flaking that are commonly associated with dandruff are not exclusive to the condition, and have been known to arise in several other situations, one of which being when the individual is contending with a louse infestation.  Some of the things that head lice do to a person’s scalp may lead him to believe that he is undergoing a pretty severe case of the dandruff irritation.  It thus becomes helpful for one to notice the signs straight off the bat, so that one can take a more effective therapeutic route than slather on some anti-dandruff shampoo where it really isn’t necessary.

There are several symptoms of a hair lice infestation approximating dandruff which can mislead the sufferer, which include skin flaking caused by lice activity, and the common itching that only intensifies as the infestation progresses.  You may notice some reddish bite marks travelling down a person’s neck, especially if the person has long hair, when that person pulls his or her hair back.  The best way to determine whether an infestation is occurring is to have someone take a magnifying glass to the scalp, and detect the bite marks on the surface of the skin, if not traces of the offending parasites themselves, who are most likely busy using your head as a reproduction center.  Take note, however, that sometimes the infestation has been extinguished naturally, and there may not actually be an active infestation happening even with the positive identification of head louse elements, such as egg sacs or lice bodies. 

Head lice most often occurs on children, particularly those between the ages of 3 and 10, and can be spread through the sharing of beds and closets or through other forms of contact.  Dandruff also occurs on children of this age, so care should be taken to determine what it is that is causing the distress of the child before advancing a form of treatment. 

While dealing with dandruff is mostly a case of selecting the proper anti-dandruff shampoo and applying it regularly according to prescribed instructions, treating head lice is a rather different matter.  The first prescribed method is through the use of hot air blowing onto the scalp, as when one uses a hair dryer and blasts it onto a person’s head to kill lice and eggs.  Another method, more common and perhaps the simplest and cheapest method, is to use a fine-toothed louse comb whose teeth are extremely close together, to catch and scrape away any lice found in one’s hair.  A metal comb would be superior over a plastic one for multiple uses.  Lastly, there are a number of chemical treatments that can be splashed onto the head to kill lice, from silicone-based lotions to enzyme-based products, with varying levels of potency and types of treatment effects.

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