I’m a head lice expert… these are the common misconceptions

A certified lice expert has shared common misconceptions about head lice and outlined what people don’t understand about the insects.

Cailin works with her sister at a lice clinic, a professional service that treats head lice.

In a recent TikTok video, Cailin shared the myths surrounding head lice, including the home remedies that don’t help get rid of the pesky insects.

The first was that not everyone can get lice, with Cailin tackling a common misconception that black people can’t get head lice.

“If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say that,” complained dental hygienist student Cailin.

She continued by warning people that their ethnicity or hair type doesn’t matter.

“If you have hair on your head, there are bugs – they don’t discriminate,” she said.

The next myth was that mayonnaise would treat a lice infestation – which Cailin decried as potentially traumatizing for children.

“You have to stop,” she urged the parents. “All it does is traumatize them and make them smell like a devil’s egg.”

In a response, Cailin responded to a comment claiming that mayonnaise has worked against their lice infestations before, warning that it will sometimes kill the bugs, but it won’t do anything to the eggs.

‘It was the combing [the mayonnaise through the hair] it did,” she explained.

Cailin then dispelled the myth that living insects can jump or fly.

“It’s anatomically impossible,” she explained.

Cailin added that lice also cannot infest houses, but only heads.

“Hence the name head lice,” she joked. “So when the people in the comments try to tell me they’ve seen lice laying eggs in their bed, I’ll tell you you have a different problem.”

The doctor explained that while it is possible to get lice from sharing a brush, a hat or from a seat on an airplane or movie theater, there is only a two percent chance that this will happen.

Another myth was that mayonnaise would treat a lice infestation – which Cailin dismissed as potentially traumatizing for children (stock image)

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, head lice are most common among preschool and elementary school-age children and their family members and caregivers

“98 percent of the time you get lice it’s from personal contact with someone else who has lice,” she added.

She also bought into the myth that lice are more attracted to clean hair.

“A bit of a myth,” she confirmed. “They may technically move more easily in clean hair, but clean versus dirty hair won’t make a difference when it comes to getting or getting rid of them.”

Cailin’s video, which has been viewed more than 1.9 million times to date, was flooded with comments from curious viewers, some of whom shared their own stories.

“I really feel like HAIR BRUSHES have a much higher percentage than TWO PERCENT for transmission to another person,” one shocked user commented.

“The ONLY time I got lice was from a movie theater,” another argued.

“I remember getting head lice in kindergarten and my mom making me go to school with mayonnaise on my head because I couldn’t miss days anymore,” said another.

‘When I had lice, my parents took all my stuffed animals with them to ‘suffocate the lice’. I had to wash everything in the house, my brother ended up catching it and he was homeschooled and I got it at school,” someone else chimed in.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Head lice are most common in preschool and primary school children and their family members and caregivers.

It is estimated that between six and twelve million infections occur annually in the United States among children aged three to eleven years old. Some research suggests that girls get head lice more often than boys, probably due to more frequent head-to-head contact.