Big Pharma bloodsuckers get rich from nit merry-go-round

Whenever I drop into a local pharmacy in Notting Hill, the staff look at me with huge sympathy. “Not again?”

- CHARLOTTE CRIPPS

Yes, nits are doing the rounds again at my children's primary school. I'm spending around £60 every other month on de-nit treatments - sometimes more - because we can't shake them off.

I find myself staring at a whole world of head lice shampoos, lotions, gels, sprays, and mousse and I'm wondering which one to pick next.

When will this end? I'm being sucked dry not only by the nits but the corporate bloodsuckers at the Big Pharma who get me to buy more than a £5 nit comb.

There are head lice shampoos that are 15 minutes, eight hours, or five minutes - and it just doesn't make any sense. Why the time lag?

When you read on some bottles “treats up to 10 heads”, do they mean if your children have small tufts of hair or short bob style?

I need a whole bottle costing around £18 to cover each of my children's thick or long hair - then I have to do my own hair as a precaution.

The treatments sell out so fast that I end up going to about three different chemists to try and get enough of the same brand for one de-nit session so we all follow the plan.

Most of them come included with a nit comb but they are pathetic and rip all the hair out - so you end up buying the Mumsnet-rated Nitty Gritty NitFree & Lice Comb, £13.65, designed famously by a group of mums who no longer wanted to use chemicals to remove head lice from their kids' hair.