Head lice have difficulty gripping onto coily hair. As a result, Black people with coily hair and others with this hair type may be less susceptible to head lice. Head lice are small insects that ...

The myth that Black people don’t get lice has some basis in reality. While about 6 to 12 million children ages 3 to 11 get head lice every year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ...

While anyone can get an infestation, Dr. Michelle Henry, a board-certified dermatologist, told Insider there is a common misconception that Black people with curly, kinky hair can't get lice.

Head Lice in the Hair of Black Children. According to the CDC, Black children in the United States are far less likely to wind up with a lice infestation than children of other ethnic groups.

There’s a mysterious twist, too. For unexplained reasons, lice very rarely attack the hair of black children in North America, said study co-author Dr. Bernard Cohen.

This all made sense to me for two reasons: One, I had very short hair back then; and two, the conventional wisdom among Black people was that Black people don’t get lice.. Unfortunately, that ...