how do you catch lice?

Sorry doctors are wrong..A child can get it just sitting next to another child and not rubbing heads and even can get it sometimes where a child with lice set..especially if the lice crawled off their heads onto the furniture. They can be on kids clothes and in passing jump from one to the next, They are hard to get rid of if not taken care of right away with the proper products. It isn't a sin to get them, just hard to get rid of. You have to wash everything in the house, buy tons of sprays that kills them and their eggs and spray everything down and help you if you have carpet. My sister got them from school and they were hard to get out of her long long hair.

I was always getting lice when i was younger. It was so embarassing. What upset me the most is people finding out that i had lice and thinking i was dirty and didnt wash or something. Which in honestly is backwards..if i had greasy hair and what not it would be harder for lice to stick to it. Anyways i did not go around rubbing heads with people, just hugging them can transfer it. Using combs and brushes from someone with lice can transfer it. Lice can also live on surfaces for a certain amount of time befor dying. There are serval ways to get lice, getting rid of it is the problem. Plus my hair being so dark and thick...its like heaven for lice...but luckily its been years since i have had it.

im not sure, but when my kids were in school, i had my daughter get it from a friend at school. the dr. told us to make sure to put the stuff that kills them on everyone in the houses heads and tell everyone that came in contact. plus wash and sterilize all bedding, couches, chairs, towels. etc, its easy to get them i've heard and you have to do a lot to get rid of them.

I use to work at a doctors office and we had a mom and daughter that came in with head lice. They knew how fast it spread and they didn't even come all the way up to the counter to check in. I actually saw, with my own eyes, her head moving. Her and her daughter both had it so bad and you could see them jumping all over there head. After I got them checked in, they stood in the center of the room and the nurse came and got them. They didn't even sit in the chairs and after they left we had to disinfect the room before letting anyone else in. They had it so bad that the doctor didn't know if they would ever get rid of it. They sent someone out to there home and they were in all of there furniture and even in the car. I can't remember exactly how far lice can jump but it is far and NO you don't have to rub on them. Using someone elses brush is an excellent way to get it. My son loaned out one of his hats and didn't wash it when he got it back and he ended up getting it. I put his pillow in a plastic bag and left it outside (it was winter time) and it killed them on his pillow and we also blow dried his hair. They don't seem to like heat. I even used a curling iron on as much of his hair as possible plus used the special shampoo and small comb. It took me over a week to get rid of it and I was so glad I never got it. A hair stylist told me that they don't like hair gel or thinks like hair spray but I don't know if that is true or not.

One way to prevent lice from inhabitating your noggin' is to blow dry your hair everyday and apply a ahir spray. Lice do not like heat and hair spray leaves a film on the shaft on your hair that they have a hard time dealing with. I got that tip from my hair dresser!!! Also if you have long hair. Keep it up!! in a pony tail or a clip.

I think to some extent the doctors make sense. Although your heads dont have to come in contact, i think you have to come in contact with something. I know a lot of people who have gotten it from the movie theater. A person with lice will sit in a seat, with their head against the back. One of the bugs will get onto the seat. They leave. The next movie showing comes along. You sit in that same seat. The bug then gets onto your head. All of a sudden you have lice. I know that it is also a problem in elementary schools especially. I think this might have to do with piling coats together or sharing toys. I could imagine it would be a huge problem in day cares because young children will often be close together. I hope that helps explain how lice spreads!

I always thought you could get it from just close contact. Like if you scratched your head and had lice, then shook my hand, then I scratched my head or if we shared a comb or a hat.

Head lice can live up to two days off the scalp. I once got them from sitting on a sofa that had become infected. They are terribly uncomfortable. i don't know to this day how they got on the sofa. No one had been any where to get them such as school or movies.

I've always thought you had to share brushes or sit on the same furniture or sheets etc... but what i wanted to say after I read your title is..with a very tiny net hehe

the kids in school when i was little used to pass it from one to the other by sharing hats and such.i don't know if they can jump or not,but i didn't stick around long enough to find out. i have heard they can get into bedding and furniture as well.

Ok this one i can answer lol... The school went to had regular issues with head lice. They dont fly or jump They can be gotten through sharing hairbrushes, hair ties, clothing, bedding, toys. Anything that comes in contact with your hair - hats hair bands...lice can get on and be moved to someone else. As well direct hair to hair contact. From what the school letters say kids are more prone to them because they share their personal things (hair brushes, hats hair ties)more and they tend to get in more close contact while they play Head lice people get cant survive on dogs cats and such so you cant get them from them either. One of My sisters (i have three) had them once and she did our hair in tea tree shampoo and the medicated shampoo (stinky nasty expensive stuff) and ever ynight til they were gone she checked ALL of us for nits and eggs and stuff. She threw all the bedding, pillows etc into the big deep freeze for a few days...the bed were sprayed with bleach spray (she freaked) and she boiled the hair brushes, ties and such and she washed every item of clothing we owned in hot water several times. Needless to say it made quite an impression and we all were VERY careful about sharing stuff that we could get it from with others at school because she freaked so bad that time...and she said the next time any of us came home with them we were moving to calgary to live with grandma. My youngest sister is still in school - theres a family in her class that gets them regularly and as a prevention my mom has her wash her hair once a week with tea tree shampoo. So far she hasnt gotten them but im sure mom has told her the "rules"

I do not believe that rubbing heads will make the catching of lice easier. You have to purposely catch lice by checking the head of the person who has it. I believe that lice transfers from one head to another if you sleep beside a person who has it but not necessarily rub your head against him or her. Lice can move from one head to another. There are shampoos especially made to kill lice and other organisms in the head. So that makes the cleaning and killing easier.

One of the biggest ways to catch lice is by sharing the same comb or hat. But my children never did this and caught lice from their elementary school from other children. It is a pain in the rear and an even bigger pain to be rid of.

i'm a mother of 4 and no you don't have to rub ur head on someones to get head lice, anyone that has it and you stand next to them chances are your gonna get it. they are so hard to get rid of once you get them. seems they do like certain types of hair more than others, but they are not picky. always use a hair dryer they can't live in the heat. i use a hair dryer every day even if my hair is dry i use it, cause of the heat. hats and combs are they best way to catch it.

Pesky little critters that they are, lice can't actually live off a person's head. Generally they are transferred via hair touching - or through using the same combs etc as an infected person (but once off a head they have a very short lifespan) so contrary to what someone said you won't actually catch them at the movies :-) Children generally get them as they often have their heads together while at school and from then can pass them on to family members etc. Of course like someone else mentioned the cleaner the hair the more they like it - so that's another myth gone (I was spoken to rather rudely on this site one day when I was talking about head lice - someone telling me how dirty I and my kids must be etc if there were head lice around)

One of my kids got them when they were in elementary school...from using someone else's brush. She had long hair and the only way to get rid of them was to cut her hair after we did the treatment...I don't know about them jumping....I think fleas do that.

My kids have had them but I never got any. Even with hugs and kisses. You would think someone would have to be pretty dirty to get them but the fact is the cleaner you keep your hair the better the lice like it. Keeping a bit of oil on the hair helps prevent lice because they can't attach their nits.

hmmm from what my mom told me before you catch lies when you share combs, caps/hats or if you sleep together, i used to have a cousin when i was a kid and we used to sleep together and little did i know she had lies and the next thing i knew i had it too!!! my mom would often look in my head and catch it patiently...lol and there is a shampoo that is used to remove/ kill lies...

You get lice if you share combs with an infected person. During my childhood years I also a victim of this lice my mother always remove the eggs and the lice to my head manually and sometimes it end up cutting our hair short. We always got it from our classmates. My mother always shampoo our hair with oil to remove lice back then the lice shampoo is not yet affordable. I think to avoid having lice cleanliness is important and avoid sharing combs to other people.

Hello, You can catch lice, by simply being in contact with someone that has it. Lice can jump from one head to another, you don't have to nessasairly rub heads to catch lice. I'am a former retail pharmacy technician, and there where a few patients that came in to get a prescription filled due to having lice, it was a special formula shampoo that was giving to rid the lice. Happy My Lotting!