As Americans, we live in a culture of quick-fixes and instant gratification, and we’re willing to pay dearly for it.  Not only do we pay with cash, and sometimes our health, but we sacrifice opportunities to learn something about the way we live.  You’re already thinking, “Are they going to tell me how to get rid of head lice, or not??”  The answer is yes, here’s the answer, and you may not like it.

 Simply put, head lice can only be permanently banned from your family’s heads when you learn how to vigilantly check for their appearance, when you can recognize the symptoms before a full-on infestation is underway, and when you’re willing to do a bit of work to banish them once they’ve attached themselves to your world with their specialized little claws.

This takes a little time and attention, but will reward you with a sense of empowerment and will bring you a little closer, literally, to your family.

 The work part is up to you.  The bottom line is that no matter which of the “quick-fix” options you choose, there’s no getting around a thorough combing with a high-quality metal nit comb.  You can go straight to the combing, using non-toxic, pesticide free products that are widely available (full disclosure: we sell a lot of those types of products), which will require an upfront investment in time and a nit comb, but I promise will save you time and money and the inevitable frustration of other methods. 

 Or you can complicate things by trying drugstore preparations, which invariably require you to purchase a second application (imagine that!) and may pose health risks, or by filling a prescription, which also may pose health risks, and still requires combing in order to be fully effective.  You can also go for the pantry cure: mayonnaise, vinegar, olive oil, petroleum jelly—all bad choices for various reasons, the most significant being that you can’t reliably suffocate lice or kill nits with any of these products.  Be prepared to get on your knees and pray for help getting some of these things out of your child’s hair—some of this stuff is NOT water soluble.

Or you can call a professional service (here comes the pitch!) like Lice Happens (now that wasn’t so painful, was it?) who will come in and teach you how to take care of head lice, once they’ve removed every last visible critter from your family members’ heads.  Just be sure the professionals are there to make your life easier, know how to deal with the life cycle of head lice, and don’t want to make money doing laundry for you.

 Check the Harvard School of Public Health’s paper on the truth about head lice, or the gold-standard of research on head lice, the Frankowski et al article in the American Academy of Pediatrics Journal, both of which are free and accessible to anyone.

Posted in: Head Lice Facts & Fiction, Head Lice Prevention, Head Lice Treatment

The last weeks of school are here, and many parents are beginning to create the checklists that will enable them to send their kids to camp with everything they need to create lasting memories of a healthy, happy summer of activities and friendship… and head lice.

 Oops, did I say that out loud?

 I guess I did.  But only because I care about you.

 The truth is that summer camps are a perfect place for head lice to achieve their evolutionary purpose: making more head lice so the species can continue to thrive.  When I went to camp, which I did EVERY summer (possibly because my parents found this foolproof annual break from parenting me to be extremely worthwhile), the friendships I forged were closer in a lot of ways than the ones I had at home—and the keyword here is “closer.”  We lived in close contact at camp—a lot of lying around on each other’s bunk beds, head-to-head on the same pillow as we giggled, wrote letters home (yes, with paper and envelopes), played games, and engaged in the highly head-lice-relevant activity of mutual hair styling (which usually meant, “let’s see how many bows and clips and bands we can put on each other’s heads to make the most ridiculous-looking head we can!”).  You’re envisioning the nightmare, aren’t you?

 What can parents do to prevent the gift-that-keeps-on-giving?  Two things.  First, add a head lice screening to your camp departure checklist.  Screen your child before s/he boards the bus or gets in the car for the trip to camp.  If you aren’t confident in your ability to do it, find a nurse or a professional service (full disclosure: Lice Happens does camp screenings) that will screen your child.  Second, ask your camp director what they’re doing to make sure kids are screened upon arrival.  Some camps have screening procedures set up, with qualified camp nurses or professional services doing the screening, but many still have high hopes that it just won’t happen at their camps, so they wait until there’s a problem affecting more than one camper before taking action.  And sometimes that action includes sending children home for treatment. 

If your camp falls into the latter camp, gently suggest that they might reconsider that tactic and put an arrival screening procedure in place. (More disclosure: Lice Happens sells inexpensive screening kits for camp nurses).  It could save your child, and many others, from a summer camp memory they’d rather forget.  Summer camps who don’t screen are risking a lousy summer, and nobody wants to pony up for that.

Posted in: Gently Humorous Head Lice Stories, Head Lice Prevention

How to get real head lice expertise

The lesson from our last post is that a little research goes a long way to making sure you get subject matter experts, rather than technicians, when you invite a professional head lice removal service into your home or school. Here are a few questions you can use when interviewing head lice treatment services to quickly determine their level of expertise: More…

Posted in: Head Lice Facts & Fiction

Based on a True Story, and This Time No Embellishment

Not everything that happens in the major Metropolitan areas where Lice Happens™ works is funny. This is unfortunate, considering our predilection for light, good humor. Some of what we encounter out there is a little strange, if not downright disturbing. For example: we recently got a call from a distraught parent of a private school student in the Metropolitan Washington area. The school had discovered a case of head lice and called in a local removal service. The service arrived, screened the students and teachers, recommended that dozens of students and faculty be sent home, then proceeded to sprinkle baking soda like fairy dust throughout the school.

Great tactic for removing pet accident odor, but 100% useless in breaking the cycle of head lice. More…

Posted in: Head Lice Facts & Fiction, Head Lice Treatment

Based on a True Story, Shamelessly Embellished

At Lice Happens™, our image and our brand is differentiated by our highly professional manner, and I’m all for it. After all, I pick nits for a living, so I’m going to grab any straw that helps bolster my self-image, and hold on to it–tight. I know it’s true that clients make a quick judgment about us when they open the door—after all, what kind of person actually CHOOSES to be in this business, doing work that sends sane people into fits of face-scrunching and head-scratching? Some luckless soul who is otherwise unemployable? No wonder they are always visibly relieved to see an appropriately attired adult arriving at their home. Recently, a client threw open her door, took one look at me, and in a perfect Linda Richman “Cawfee Tawk” accent blurted out, “Oh! You’re perfect!” I took it as a compliment. It is nice to know that I’m the embodiment of nitpicking perfection. I realize that it’s equally likely she was just relieved that I didn’t show up in a pickup with “Lice Happens” emblazoned on the doors, or a giant head louse riding atop the cab, but I prefer to think the former is true. More…

Posted in: Gently Humorous Head Lice Stories