No nit picking from me (Nitty Gritty Comb)

Member Name: rosebud2001

Product:	Nitty Gritty Comb
Date:	27/07/09 (184 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Effective and unique design, durable

Disadvantages: Initial outlay is higher than for traditional nit combs

There are several things you dread when you become a parent. Nappy rash, threadworm, and head lice are probably the three I feared the most, and whilst my daughter managed to escape threadworm and only got nappy rash when she was teething, sadly she has fallen victim to head lice.

I must have been a very fortunate child as I never encountered these parasites in childhood, possibly due to the fact my mother insisted I kept my hair short, something I bitterly resented after being mistaken several times for a boy. This resentment led to me being quite happy to let my daughter wear her hair long and whilst over the years we would get letters home from school informing us someone in her class was infested with head lice, she managed to avoid them.

Sadly this came to an end a couple of years ago when she started scratching her head regularly just after Christmas. I checked her head and couldn't see anything so assumed all was well. The Christmas holidays came to an end and still her head was itching like crazy so this time I looked more carefully and was appalled to see tiny insects crawling around.

She has very thick hair, which is probably why I missed them the first time I looked, coupled with the fact I had no experience of what I was actually looking for.

I tried a head lice shampoo with a small white plastic nit comb but given how thick my daughter's hair is, and how badly she was infested, it took nearly 2 hours of combing to make any inroads, and she screamed and complained the entire time.

I also had reservations about using chemicals to get rid of lice after reading how some have built up resistance to chemicals that have been used over the years. It seemed more sensible to me to try to a more natural solution to eradicate the problem.

I felt there had to be a better comb to use and upon googling, I came across a website for the Nitty Gritty comb. What caught my eye almost immediately was the fact this comb was completely different to standard nit combs - for starters it has far longer teeth - and given how long and thick my daughter's hair is, this made the comb very appealing.

At first I thought I was going to have order it online but I read a couple of reviews stating it could be bought in Boots or Sainsbury's, so I decided to look in my local Sainsbury's the next day. Sure enough, the comb was available for the price of £9.99, which I initally thought seemed a little steep - but given the glowing reports I had read of this comb and the fact it was quite clearly completely different to any other nit comb on the market, I decided to take the plunge and buy it.

~~The Comb~~

As mentioned, the Nitty Gritty comb has far longer teeth than standard nit combs, and unusually for most nit combs you get these days, it is made of stainless steel. It has a large rounded handle which has plastic grippers on it and you can choose from several colours for the grippers - I got red as it's my daughter's favourite colour and this alone made the comb slightly more appealing to her - although let's face it, nit combs are never going to be particularly appealing to kids.

The really innovative part of the comb's design is the grooves in the teeth however - these grooves are capable of picking up far more lice, nits and eggs than a traditional plastic comb.

The teeth are also much larger - instead of the standard less than half an inch on a plastic comb, the teeth on the Nitty Gritty comb are one and a half inches long.

~~My Thoughts~~

I used this comb on my daughter for the first time one day after having applied a lotion to her hair and used a standard nit comb to treat her hair. What amazed me was the fact I removed as many, if not more, lice and nits from her head as I had done the day before with the plastic comb - I had been fully expecting to find far less on the second day.

The grooves on the comb's teeth enable the comb to effectively "scrape" the hair closer and as a result means it is far better at removing the nits, eggs and lice from the hair.

I found it much easier to use than standard combs too - instead of using lice removal lotion, I just used lots of conditioner on my daughter's hair and then combed through. A job that had taken nearly 2 hours the day before was cut down in half as I combed repeatedly to remove as many nits as possible.

I repeated the process on her head every night for a week and then cut down to checking her hair every 3 days until I could be sure the infestation had gone - and peace returned to the house.

Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago it became apparent my daughter had been infested again - I later found out one of her friends had had lice just before school broke up for the holidays but my daughter was completely unaware of this. This time I didn't bother with lotions - I just got the Nitty Gritty comb back out, slathered on the conditioner and got to work.

My practice from the last time must have paid dividends as this time I was able to work her whole head in 30 minutes - which is pretty good considering how thick and long her hair is - although I must stress the infestation this time around wasn't anything like as bad as her first one.

Once again I really found the comb was brilliant at removing the tiny nits from her hair. We did have the occasional snagging on her hair - but I find with her thick hair this is sadly going to be inevitable from time to time. I did still find the occasional egg remaining which I had to try to pull out using my fingers but on this occasion the first time I used the comb was easily the time I removed the most debris from her hair - every night thereafter there was less, which proved to me that this comb really is the best at finding lice and nits.

It's hard for me to find much to criticise about this comb - I suppose you could say the price is a little steep but if you factor in the fact you really don't really need to go buying special shampoo or conditioner to use with this comb, it's actually a bargain.

It is very durable, rust proof and can quickly and easily be sanitised by popping it in boiling water for a few minutes meaning you only need one comb for the whole family.

I have had to use the comb on my own head to ensure my daughter hadn't passed any lice on to me and I found it easy to use and didn't suffer any particular discomfort using it - although I would recommend you thoroughly brush and comb your hair before washing and then comb again with a wide-tooth comb before attempting to use the Nitty Gritty comb.

The comb is also excellent if you just want to check to see if your child has head lice or not - on the first occasion my daughter had them I could see the lice quite clearly with the naked eye, whereas the second time I couldn't see anything at all and had to use the comb to find anything. Lesson learned - use the comb to check in future!

I note from the Nitty Gritty website that this comb has been approved to be prescribed on the NHS so if you need one for your child it's definitely a good idea to ask for it to be prescribed as you will then be able to get it for free.

While the Nitty Gritty comb claims to remove eggs from the hair, I remain unconvinced and tend to blast the hair with a hairdryer on hot for five minutes and then straighten the hair as heat kills the eggs and stops them hatching.

I heartily recommend you buy this "crème de la crème" of nit combs if head lice become a problem in your family - it really is the best one on the market and is worth every penny.

http://www.nittygritty.co.uk/site/home.asp

Summary: The best nit comb money can buy