<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article does not cite any sources . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article does not cite any sources . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Nitpicking is the act of removing nits (the eggs of lice, generally head lice) from the host's hair . As the nits are cemented to individual hairs, they cannot be removed with most lice combs and, before modern chemical methods were invented, the only options were to shave all the host's hair or to pick them free one by one . </P> <P> This is a slow and laborious process, as the root of each individual hair must be examined for infestation . It was largely abandoned as modern chemical methods became available; however, as lice populations can and do develop resistance, manual nitpicking is still often necessary . </P>

Where did the term nit picking come from