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I have used the Robi comb on my three kids for over 15 years and have been very happy with it. We just combed out their hair every day if there was a lice outbreak at school to make sure they didn't have anything. Both of my girls had hair to their waist, one curly, one straight, both thick. The comb worked fine after an initial combing out with a wide toothed comb. My son always had short hair so he was easy.

They are all grown now but I still had the Robi comb when my son's girlfriend's kids got lice. I let her borrow it and never got it back. I'll be investing in a new one, though, for grandchildren. I am happy to have a way to remove them without using chemicals.

Jana, it's very likely you will dodge this. After detangling her hair, take the nit comb and start at her scalp and sweep all the way through every strand of her hair. They tend to congregate at the back of the neck, and on top of the head. What you're looking for is any residue in the comb. It won't look like a bug, it'll look more like, IDK, tiny bits of dried hair gel.

We just went through it, and learned a TON from a professional. DD 7 (blonde) was scratching, and I looked, and was horrified to see a couple tiny bugs crawling on her scalp. After trying an OTC treatment, we took her to a pro.

What I learned was fascinating. Most of what we believe about lice is inaccurate.

- Lice generally only pass from extended head-to-head contact. We think DD got it from a sports teammate with whom she shared a chair, playing an iPad for hours, weeks in row. DD and DS hug and wrestle all the time, and he was fine.

- Sharing a brush, comb, hat, or jacket rarely infects anyone! DD and I used the same brushes and combs daily, and frequently share hats, and I was fine.

- It takes 6 weeks, or more, for itching to start. If you're lucky. The unlucky ones don't itch, and end up having 100 adult nits before anyone notices. Even then, family members who share hairbrushes are usually fine.

Pro advised (as OPs noted) as a deterrent to style DD's hair in a braid or french pony, and to use a plant-based repellant. She said the beginning of the school year is the worst.

Baby banana got it twice in the last two years and it sucked (she's blonde too). I tried everything the first time she came home with it and couldn't get those suckers to go.

What finally did it was the first thing that was recommended to me by a banana friend... dye her hair. I wasn't thrilled by the idea but when I finally broke down and tried it because I was desperate... boom. GONE. When she had it the second time, I just did that first thing and that was that.

PS: She wanted to dye her hair something exotic and fun. I said too bad and matched her hair color best I could. I'm so mean.

Well, she HAS indicated that she'd love to have pink hair

Lice are pretty easy to treat in the first world if your school has a good policy so it's not much more then an inconvenience!

I think the real tragedy here is the assumption or assertion that it was the new girl. Kids can be so cruel so I hope that the parents who have assigned blame to her have kept their opinions very far from their children to avoid bullying.

It's not an assumption it was the new girl - it WAS the new girl. I feel awful for her because it is terrible to be new and then to have this happen at the same time. She was back in school today - with a new short haircut.

I've already talked to my daughter about being nice to her. She told me she doesn't like how the new girl follows her around - I told her she's lonely and doesn't have any friends yet, and asked her how she would feel if she were new.

That said, at this point I'm glad they hadn't been interacting previously.

When they started kindergarten, I used to spray my kids' hair every morning before school with a tea tree oil/water/conditioner combo because I was so terrified of lice. When they entered middle school I figured it was safe to allow them to take care of their own hair needs. My daughter got lice in seventh grade, from a friend's house.

The doctor said that he prescribed scabies cream because lice had gotten so out of hand, the lice shampoos did not work. I really didn't want to use the strong chemicals on my family, so I just combined olive oil and tea tree oil, slathered all of our heads, and slept in a shower cap. The next day, I took off the cap and combed my daughter's hair with a nit comb. Tons of lice corpses came off on the comb . Then she washed her hair. We did this for one week and I only ever found a few eggs.

No one else in the family got it and my daughter's scalp was very healthy to boot!

Thanks for that tip Tushnurse. We have lived intermittently with headlice for the last ten years ever since nursery. The school used to alert us to the latest outbreak with notes home that said in mock-horror font "they're back! (Or did they never leave?!?) "

The lice are so resistant now to chemical treatments there is a worldwide epidemic with something like 70% of the world's children having lice at any one time. So we're in good company, it is not something to be stigmatised. (Damn nuisance though.)

Been through the lice thing a couple times and the thing that worked for us was the OTC treatment but we ditched the combs that came with it. DD has thin hair but a lot of it and the comb was useless. An online search gave us the LiceMaster nit comb. Rounded metal teeth that are real close together (like paper thin close) and they work with any thickness of hair. Strips the nits right off the hair shaft. Now days I think you can get them at CVS. As for follow up/preventative treatment, a doctor told us that Suave shampoo has an ingredient that will prevent reinfestation (the shampoo only, not the two-in-one).

Hopefully you dodged the bullet on this but just in case, I hope you get rid of them quick.