Lice eggs, called nits, are tiny teardrop-shaped specks that attach firmly to individual hair strands close to the scalp. They can be white, yellow, beige, or pale brown depending on whether they’re alive, dead, or already hatched. You can see them with the naked eye, but they’re small enough to mistake for dandruff or hair product buildup if you don’t know what to look for.
Size, Shape, and Color
A nit is roughly the size of a pinhead, with a distinct teardrop or oval shape. That shape is one of the easiest ways to tell it apart from a flake of dandruff, which tends to be flat and irregular. Color varies with the egg’s stage of development: living nits that are still incubating range from white to yellow to pale brown, with darker nits being closer to hatching. Once a nit hatches and the baby louse crawls out, it leaves behind an empty casing that looks white, gray, or translucent.
Where Nits Attach on the Hair
Lice lay their eggs on the hair shaft about a quarter inch from the scalp, where body heat keeps the egg warm enough to develop. The most common spots are behind the ears and along the neckline at the back of the head. These areas stay warm and slightly humid, which is exactly what the eggs need.
The distance from the scalp tells you a lot. Nits found within a quarter inch of the scalp may still be viable. Nits farther out are almost always hatched or dead, because hair growth has carried the empty casing away from the scalp over time. If every nit you find is more than a quarter inch from the base of the hair, the infestation is likely old and no longer active.
That said, finding nits close to the scalp doesn’t automatically mean you have a current infestation. One study found that even among children with five or more nits within a quarter inch of the scalp, fewer than 32% went on to develop active lice. For children with fewer than five close nits, only 7% became actively infested.
Why Nits Are So Hard to Remove
When a louse lays an egg, it deposits a glue-like substance that hardens almost instantly around the hair shaft. This cement is made of tightly packed protein molecules that form a physical grip on the hair, locking the egg in place. The bond isn’t chemical. It’s mechanical, more like a tiny clamp than an adhesive. Once hardened, this material resists both biological and chemical breakdown, which is why the empty shell stays stuck to the hair long after the louse has hatched and crawled away.
This is the single most useful test when you’re unsure what you’re looking at. If you can flick or brush a white speck off the hair easily, it’s not a nit. Nits don’t slide or fall. You typically need to pinch them between your fingernails or drag them down the full length of the strand to remove them.
Nits vs. Dandruff and Other Lookalikes
Dandruff flakes can look similar at first glance because they’re also white or yellowish. But the differences become obvious once you know what to check:
- Attachment: Dandruff flakes sit loosely on the scalp or hair and brush away with a finger. Nits are cemented to the strand and won’t budge.
- Shape: Nits have a uniform teardrop shape. Dandruff flakes are flat, irregular, and often larger.
- Location: Dandruff flakes originate from the scalp itself and scatter across the head. Nits are glued to hair strands, concentrated behind the ears and at the nape of the neck.
- Texture: Dandruff flakes may feel greasy or dry and papery. Nits feel like a hard, tiny grain when you roll them between your fingers.
Hair product residue and hair casts (thin tubes of skin that slide along the shaft) can also mimic nits. The same rule applies: if it slides easily when you pinch it, it’s not a nit.
How to Check Effectively
Visual inspection alone is surprisingly unreliable. A study comparing methods found that combing with a fine-toothed detection comb was nearly four times more effective than looking through hair by eye. Visual checks found live lice in only about 6.5% of infested children, while combing with a detection comb caught them in 21%.
To do a thorough check, work under bright light (natural daylight or a strong lamp) and use a fine-toothed nit comb on wet, conditioned hair. The conditioner slows lice down and makes it easier to comb through. Section the hair and comb from the roots outward, wiping the comb on a white paper towel after each pass. Nits will show up as tiny brown or tan specks stuck to the comb’s teeth, and any live lice will be visible on the towel.
Focus your search behind the ears and along the hairline at the back of the neck first. These are the warmest zones and the places lice prefer to lay eggs.
What Nit Location Tells You About an Infestation
The most reliable sign of an active infestation is finding a live, crawling louse, not just nits. Nits alone can linger for weeks or months after an infestation has ended, because that protein cement holds the empty casings indefinitely.
If you find nits but no live lice, pay attention to where the nits sit. Nits glued within a quarter inch of the scalp could still contain developing eggs. Nits further from the scalp are old, either already hatched or no longer viable. A head full of distant, translucent casings with no live lice and no close nits typically means the infestation has run its course.