*** Comp now closed, winners contacted soon ***

Vosene have recently launched a new Afterswim Hair & Body Wash in their Vosene Families range of products. And they’re giving 50 full-size bottles away to our PlayPennies parents! The Vosene Afterswim hair and body wash is specially developed to wash chlorine, salt and other impurities clean away. If it smells as good as any of the other Vosene products, I can’t wait to try it out at the swimming pool.

The 200ml Vosene Afterswim Hair and Body Wash has an RRP of £2.54, and 50 PlayPennies winners will be getting a full-size bottle.

How to enter:

• Leave a comment below stating what you love / hate most about swimming
• Subscribe to the PlayPennies email updates for a bonus entry
• Tweet about this competition and leave your twitter link or username in a comment below for another competition entry

We’ll choose 50 random winners from the relevant comments.

Rules:

• 1 entry per household
• Ends 1^st September 2011
• UK entrants only
• Admin’s decisions are final in all cases

P.S. There’s also a giveaway on the Vosene website just now, they’re offering family theme park tickets. Or a competition to win a back to school treat worth £150. You might want to enter those too. :)

*** Expired - winners announced here soon ***

The folks at Vosene have given us 20 hair care kits to give away to the PlayPennies parents! Tamsin has written a Vosene review in the past, where she was very pleased with the results.

Here's what is in each Vosene kit:

• 100ml Conditioning Shampoo
• 50ml Mega Hold Styling Gel
• 50ml Extra Shine Detangler Spray

To put your name into the hat to win one of the kits, just leave a comment in the thread below. We'll choose 20 random winners from the relevant comments.

Rules:

• 1 entry per household
• Ends 16th June 2011
• UK entrants only
• Admin's decisions are final in all cases

P.S. There's a competition on their website to give away a family holiday worth up to £10,000, you might be interested in entering that too.

This is one freebie that I reckon you’ll all be wanting – a sample of Vosene Kids 3 in 1 shampoo to protect your entire family from the horrors that are nits. All you need to do is answer some questions and you’ll be sent your sample as a thank-you.

• Click here to get started with Vosene

I really like the idea behind this freebie actually. You see, Nitwatch.info is the best place to go if you want to find out about nits in your area. If you hover over the map you can see the current levels of concern shown by families in your town. How awesome is that?

You can help raise awareness of head lice in your area by filling in the info. They will then use this information to update the site for other parents. If people do this, it can be one brilliant resource in my opinion. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that you’re getting a free sample of their anti-nit shampoo either!

So, get filling in, help other families, and nab a free sample. Wahey!

Thanks to mikep72 at HUKD!

I don't think there is a word in the modern family lexicon that is more likely to strike terror into the heart of a parent than this: HEADLICE.

Shudder.

I literally shivered with horror when the now familiar WARNING! note appeared at the doorway to my kids' classrooms. I had nits once as a child and I can still smell that pungent chemical shampoo that we had to be de-loused with. Grim. But there's only one thing worse than having headlice, and that's being the adult responsible for delousing the heads of your children.

As mothers we seem to have a particular thing about our babies' bonces. All being well, they're the first part of a person to enter the world, and most parents will freely confess to being totally intoxicated by the sweet scent of their baby's head. So the thought of your little one's crowning glory being infested with creepy crawlies is enough to make you contemplate shaving their heads altogether and leaving the little blighters homeless. The nits, that is, not the children, obviously.

So imagine my delight upon discovering that Vosene have brought out a new range for kids, with magic headlice-repellant properties. According to independent consumer research conducted by Vosene, 8 out of 10 children were protected against head lice while using Vosene Kids Shampoo and 9 out of 10 parents would recommend Vosene Kids to another parent.

Specially formulated with natural head lice repellents (Tea Tree Oil and Lemon Eucalyptus), Vosene's new 3 in 1 Conditioning Shampoo gently cleanses and conditions your kids' hair and scalp for naturally healthy, headlice-free hair.

The theory is that replacing your kids' usual shampoo with Vosene's 3 in 1 Conditioning Shampoo can help keep headlice at bay. Of course, if the dreaded creatures do attack, you'll need to invest in a suitable treatment, and I must stress that these products are not intended to treat nits or headlice, but to help as a preventative measure. It also goes without saying that kids should continue to have their hair checked on a regular basis to ensure that any unwanted visitors are caught early.

And because headlice warfare is worth waging properly, Vosene have also come up with a headlice-repellant 3-in-1 leave-in conditioning spray. It also contains natural ingredients that are known to deter headlice. By spraying it liberally on to washed hair while it's still damp, and massaging it into the scalp you should ensure that your child's hair is way too slippery for a lousy louse to want to call it home. Simply leave the spray on the hair and dry gently. You can use it at least once a day and even on dry hair between washes for added protection.

If you do suspect lice may be present, you can use this spray along with a suitable fine-toothed nit comb to remove any lice and eggs. Leave on hair and dry gently.

So do these products really work, or are they just a clever gimmick marketed to mums like me who will do almost anything to avoid being confronted by the sight of something with legs and eyes crawling in her childrens' hair?

Well, after more than three months of use, and despite those horror-inducing posters being up at school throughout that time, I am happy to report that we've seen no evidence of nits or lice. It's impossible to say whether that's down to these products or not but since both my beach boys fancy themselves as surf dudes and so have longish hair, I'm willing to wager that this range has played a part in keeping their locks intruder-free. I'll definitely be stocking up when our sample runs out.

I have to admit that my boys are less keen on these products than some of the other, milder shampoo products for children but I suspect that's more to do with the fact that the teatree tingles on their scalp and if the shampoo drips in their eyes it is a little bit stingy. I still reckon the occasional watery eye is a small price to pay for a bug-free head, so this range is set to become a permanent fixture in our bathroom.

Vosene Kids Head Lice Repellant range is available from  selected Boots, Tesco, Asda and independent chemists. Vosene Kids 3 in 1 Conditioning Shampoo 250ml is RRP £2.49 and Vosene Kids 3 in 1 Leave-in Spray Detangler 150ml is RRP £2.49. For stockist information please visit www.vosenekids.co.uk or call 01276 674 000.