What Lice Look Like Video Tutorial
Discover exactly what lice look like including their color, size, and eggs in this video tutorial.
Let me introduce myself...
Hi there! I'm a lice expert, lice coach, Registered Nurse, and the creator of My Lice Advice. I help people with lice every day in my lice treatment center, in school districts, and in government work. But the thing I love the most is empowering parents to get rid of head lice in ONE DAY at home!
You can eliminate lice in one day using the same proven professional technique I use in my lice center on your child. Follow along with the Step-by-Step Video System, and when you're done with the videos you're done with lice. PERMANENTLY!
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Transcript of the Video:
It's Theresa with My Lice Advice, and today we are talking about what lice looks like. And by the end of this video, you're going to know for sure whether or not you're dealing with lice. Let's get to it.
Before getting started, so that you know who I am. My name's Theresa with MyLiceAdvice.com. And I'm a registered nurse, and I specialize in head lice. So, if in this video you discover lice, don't freak out. Just go to MyLiceAdvice.com. I have step-by-step videos, I'll walk you through how to get rid of it.
There aren't many bugs that live on humans, but as far as bugs and human hair, it's really just head lice. So if you're finding multiple bugs in the hair, then yeah, it's lice.
But there are a couple of critical things you need to know.
#1- Lice blend in really well with the hair.
So take a look at this picture. Do you see the head lice in this picture? Here it is right here.
You can see it's almost translucent. You can't really see it. And then look in this picture. Do you see the head lice here? Here it is right here. So I find that often headlights are going to blend in really well with the hair.
#2- Lice Size
So one of the big reasons why lice are so hard to see is because of their size. When they are adults they're about the size of a sesame seed.
However, when they're first hatched, they're teeny tiny. They're so small; they're almost invisible. And then obviously they get bigger as they grow up.
But a lot of times, people are looking for these bigger lice, the sesame seed size ones, and there are very few of those adults in there. Usually what you have a whole bunch of lice, eggs, and babies.
#3- The Color of Lice.
Like I said, lice are masters of disguise, and they usually blend in really well with the hair. So I find that people with darker hair and darker skin typically have darker head lice, whereas people with lighter hair and lighter skin will have lighter head lice.
I've seen head lice in all different colors. I've seen black head lice, brown, golden, and really commonly translucent head lice. When head lice are younger that's very common. The smaller they are, the more translucent they are. They're pretty see through. The only part of them that you can see clearly is their gut, which is this kind of black part.
Now, one other thing you can see is red head lice like blood red, and it's actually because they just fed. So if you see any of these blood red looking head lice, that just means that they just fed on your scalp. Yes, they drink your blood. So they're red like that because they're full of blood.
#4-Legs
Head lice hatch with six distinct legs, and they always keep their legs.
So if you find something in the hair that you're not sure if it's a bug or not, we'll look and see. Does it have six distinct legs? Even if it's teeny, teeny tiny you can see those little legs.
#5- Lice Eggs
So because lice blend in so well with the hair, they move fast, and they're teeny tiny, you might waste a lot of time looking for lice bugs in your child's hair. So the best way to check for head lice is not to look for lice bugs, but instead to look for these lice eggs.
You'll often hear lice eggs also referred to as nits. I use those two words interchangeably lice, eggs and nits. And what these are are little eggs that are laid in the hair that are glued on the hair strand.
So if you're looking around the hair and you don't find lice bugs crawling around, the next thing you would look for would be these lice eggs.
They're very small, but the telltale sign of something being a lice egg is that it's glued onto the hair strand, and you have to pull it out by squeezing it between two fingers and pulling it all the way down the hair strand.
So if you're finding little things like this that are glued into the hair, then yes, that is also a sign of head lice.
Lice eggs can be a variety of colors. It really depends on how close they are to hatching. But you're most likely to find lice eggs within a quarter-inch of the scalp glued onto the hair strand, and they're usually going to be darker. They're going to be like a golden color or a dark brown color.
Lice eggs can be white, but that is after they've already hatched. So you're more likely to find these darker lice eggs.
If you really want to know whether or not you have lice or not, you want to do a really thorough check of the hair for these lice eggs.
And I show you exactly how to do that in a video tutorial of mine called How to Check for Lice.
#6- Rashes and "lice bites"
This last one only shows up for some people. I mentioned that lice feed on your blood. And each time they feed on your blood, they put a little bit of their own saliva into your skin on your scalp.
Some people are really allergic to this lice saliva. And if they are, then they're going to itch like crazy. But the other thing is that they might develop rashes. They can develop rashes on their neck or behind their ears.
These rashes can look one of two ways: One way it can look like tiny little lice bites. This is not actually bites; it's just the way the rash shows up. Or it can look more just like a blotchy-looking rash at the nape of the neck or behind the ears.
Either one of these, if I see this, it's a red flag to me that this person has lice.
My Advice:
My number one piece of advice is to check for those little lice eggs in the hair if you think you may have head lice.
Remember lice bugs run really quickly and they blend in really well with the hair.
But the lice eggs are glued onto the hair strand. So if you want to know how to check for head lice, go to my free video tutorial that's called How to Check for Lice.
And if you do have lice and you'd like some help, check out that step-by-step video system.
I'll see you there.