CIVIL SERVANTS without ties and the House of Commons cloakrooms without hairbrushes. Traditional Britain is being eroded. One aspect of British life that won’t be regretted is that soon headlice will no longer plague children of all classes and types. Mothers waiting at the school gates will have to find another topic of conversation.

Even as the Commons was debating the possibility of headlice being transmitted by the cloakroom brushes, a group of scientists led by Dr Gerald Coles, at Bristol University, was preparing research papers that show how a shampoo may rid children, and sometimes their parents, of these parasites.

The clichéd description of the House of Commons as the best club in London has become increasingly less appropriate over the past 25 years. The loss of hairbrushes, found in every other historic West End club, is trivial compared with other changes. Parliamentary authorities were worried lest the sharp teeth of the combs transmit HIV from the bleeding scalp of one MP to another, or if the brushes could transfer nits — lice eggs — caught from children and grandchildren so that in time the MPs would all be scratching as they filed through the lobby stiles.

Had it not been for the discovery of a possible remedy, nits and headlice could have been of increasing concern to House of Commons members as more women are elected. Women are more prone to headlice than men because of their longer, cleaner, hair, and less testosterone. In schools the prevalence of lice is greater among girls than boys, and this gender difference increases after puberty, when boys’ testosterone levels surge.

Headlice among small children has also become a greater problem now that they no longer sit in neat rows of well-separated desks, but huddle together around tables as they play, hug one another and work on projects, making it easy for wandering louse looking for a new home. This is because the cleaner the hair the more likely a nit is to stick to a hair root — the stickiness of a well-oiled and rarely washed hair makes it difficult for a nit to hang on.

Testosterone is necessary for the production of sebum, the natural oil of the hair, so ambitious, aggressive and testosterone-rich male MPs have just the sleek and shiny hair that is inhospitable to lice.

Dr Coles, of Bristol’s Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, and Dr Anthony Downs, consultant dermatologist at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, together with their teams, have been testing Lice Attack. This shampoo should rid communities of headlice without resort to increasingly inefficient but toxic chemicals.

The story of Lice Attack started when Lynn James-Meyer, an American voluntary worker in Brazil, noticed that local children did not suffer from headlice. They attributed this to a special coconut oil-based shampoo. James-Meyer tried to interest American scientists in projects to investigate its properties — but they all demanded horrendous fees. She then approached UK doctors, who said that there was no greater expert on parasites, including headlice, than Gerald Coles.

Dr Coles was astounded by the effect of the shampoo on headlice. They keeled over moments after contact. The scientists started clinical trials — in one school, 20 minutes after the worst-affected child was shampooed (with a head massage after 15 minutes), 4,000 dead lice were counted on the towel used to dry her hair. This toll took no account of the lice washed down the sink.

Parents reported that Lice Attack rid children of lice they had had for ten years. After the shampoo, the only sign of them was a sludge of dead lice on the bottom of the bath. The children’s general demeanour also improved once the lice had been conquered. The shampoo treatment needs to be repeated three times over a two-week period. Reinfection can take place, so whole schools, families and communities need simultaneous treatment.

The shampoo has no side-effects. Dr Coles’s theory about how it works is that the small drops of the highly emulsified coconut oil block the spiracal — the orifice that leads to the trachea and breathing mechanism of the louse — and so suffocates it. Unless evolution equips headlice with a spiracal that can withstand the droplets of Lice Attack, there is no reason to suppose that resistance will occur.

Lice Attack (£12.49) is available at Boots, Lloyds and other chemists.

• E-mail Dr Thomas Stuttaford your questions here