How did my child get head lice?

Contact with an already infested person is the most common way to get head lice. Head-to-head contact is common during play at school and at home (sports activities, on a playground, slumber parties, at camp).

Less commonly,

• Wearing clothing, such as hats, scarves, coats, sports uniforms, or hair ribbons, recently worn by an infested person.
• Using infested combs, brushes, or towels.
  
• Lying on a bed, couch, pillow, carpet, or stuffed animal that has recently been in contact with an infested person.

Head lice do not hop, jump or fly. They migrate through direct contact with an infested person and their belongings.

Pets do not transmit head lice, and poor personal hygiene does not cause an infestation. In fact, head lice prefer clean, healthy heads.

Head lice do not live in, nor spontaneously generate from, the dirt, trees or the air. They live on the human head!