Nit Picky…icky!

Do you know where the term ‘nit picky’ comes from? Recently I had some first hand experience picking nits and it is a challenging job! Most people with school age kids have heard about lice occurrences at school. In this case it was not my kids, but one of my friends who had the unfortunate experience of finding lice in her hair. When boys get lice they shave their heads. When girls get lice, they wish they were boys. I am just glad I didn’t have lice, because I probably would have shaved my head if knew what I now know about these divisive little characters.

Are you still trying to figure out what a ‘nit’ is? A nit is the egg that lice lay in your hair. They hang out there on your warm head until they mature and then lay new eggs. After a few weeks, there is a lot of lice and nits in there! Getting rid of the bugs is the easy part (they have a shampoo for that), but getting rid of the nits is painstaking work. The nits attach themselves to the hair follicle and have to be ‘picked’ off the hair. Actually ‘pried’ would be a better word.

To be a good nit picker you  need to get EVERY egg. Why? because if you miss one, it just starts the process again and you get more nits and more lice. Not what you want! Imagine picking 100’s of these off your head. Did I mention the nits are the size of a head of a pin? A special comb and some patience and you can get them, but it is VERY hard to get them all.  You thought being ‘nit picky’ was a bad thing, but in this case it is a good thing. You don’t want a bad nit-picker because you want to get rid of ALL the nits. Every last one. So next time you notice someone being nit picky, take note just in case you ever need someone to pick the nits for you.

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