This story is taken from a 45 minute phone conversation I had with a concerned parent today. Here goes:

“Yesterday the dreaded letter came home from the school nurse alerting us there were a “few” cases of head lice in the 6^th grade.  Yikes!!!  My daughter is supposed to go to a sleepover this Saturday night and I know one of the girls that will be there has been battling head lice.  Should I let her go?  What if one of the lice jumps onto my daughter‘s head?!  What if she comes home totally infected?!   My daughter will never forgive me if I don’t let her go but I CANNOT deal if she comes home with lice!!  I am freaking out right now…can you tell?!!!”

…I have to tell you, this is not an isolated phone call.  Head lice seem to bring out irrational fear in otherwise, sane individuals. I do know the anticipated fear of the dreaded louse is much worse than actually dealing with it head on (no pun intended).

First of all, lice cannot jump or fly, and they carry no disease – so there is no risk of infection.  They are transmitted via head-to-head contact, making sleepovers a common place for crossover due to prolonged exposure of hair-to-hair contact.

But fear not, you no longer have to worry whether your daughter’s hair provided the bridge a louse needed to crossover to your daughter and make a home on her head while she was peacefully sleeping.  Be proactive!  When she returns home the following morning, simply run a good metal nit comb (I am not afraid to say that our Nit Picker Pro is by far the best comb out there—trust me, we’ve tested them all) through her wet, conditioned hair and wipe it on a paper towel.  What crosses over are lice (nits do not go from head-to-head since they are firmly glued to the hair shaft) and you can easily see them on a paper towel.  If nothing comes off the comb, you’ve dodged the bullet.  If you want additional security, comb again a day or two later.  If you routinely do this following any sleepover, you will always know where you stand with the unwanted critters.

Be proactive and outsmart lice instead of letting lice outsmart you.  Stop them early before they create an extended family on your child’s head. And, as always, feel free to call Lice Happens if you need a little reassurance from us.   Check out our website for more information at www.licehappens.com.

By ALLISON BOURG, Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 16, 2011

When it comes to their business, M.J. Eckert and Nancy Fields can get pretty nitpicky.

The two Annapolis women earn their living removing lice from people’s heads – an unusual line of work that’s prone to raising a few eyebrows at cocktail parties.

But that doesn’t faze them a bit.

Nancy Fields, left, and M.J. Eckert, the owners of lice removal service Lice Happens, get ready to remove lice from 10-year-old Emma Fischer’s head. Fields and Eckert go into people’s homes and use “nit combs” and other tools to get lice out of people’s hair.

“We’ve come to love the louse,” said Eckert, a former school nurse who dealt with a lice-ridden student every few weeks. “We’re not afraid of them. In fact, we love a case where there are thousands.”

Next-door neighbors Eckert and Fields started Lice Happens, a mobile lice removal service, 2 1/2 years ago. Since then, the duo has expanded its business into about a half-dozen states along the East Coast. The women, along with their crew of 10 full- and part-time employees, see around three dozen customers each week.

“There’s a lot of work, as it turns out,” Fields said.

Their biggest months are usually September – not only is it National Head Lice Awareness Month, it’s also when children are back in school – and January. The holidays tend to bring families with children together, and if one child has lice, the others can easily get them, the women said.

A typical appointment starts out something like this: One of the women gets a call from a distressed parent of a child with head lice. The parent is often sobbing.

“They give us their lice story,” Fields said.

As Eckert put it, “we have to be their therapist, nurse, confidante, adviser. We have to wear a lot of different hats.”

Afterward, Lice Happens goes into the home of the infected child, armed with pesticide-free shampoo and a metal “nit comb” to scrape the bugs from the scalp and the hair. The business charges $100 an hour, and the entire process generally takes about an hour and a half for girls, depending on the length and thickness of their hair, and about 30 minutes for boys.

“Although now with Justin Bieber, boys are holding onto their hair, so it can take a lot longer,” Fields said with a chuckle.

Lice Happens also screens family members for lice by combing through all of their hair, and leaves them with tips and information on what to do if there’s a reinfestation of lice.

“We like to say that we’re putting ourselves out of business one family at a time,” Fields said. “They may not sound like it’s a good business model, but we think it’s the right business model. I can’t just treat – I have to train and educate, too.”

For one Annapolis mom, who did not want her name used, the educational portion of Lice Happens’ visit was the most important.

“Once a week, you’ve got to comb your children. It’s just got to be part of the whole hygiene package,” she said. “You don’t need the chemicals, you don’t need to deep clean your home.”

Having a child with head lice is emotionally distressing for parents, said Dr. Jim Kalliongis, a Stevensville pediatrician.

“They do a great job of hand-holding,” he said.

They’re not looking for repeat business, Eckert and Fields say. They’re looking for referral business.

It seems to be working.

“We started on Jan. 1, 2009, and our first quarter, our revenue was $2,000,” Fields said. “Now we’re in the six figures … not the high six figures, but we’ll get there.”

The neighbors came up with the idea for their business on New Year’s Eve 2008, when they started chatting about head lice at a party.

Fields’ twin sister, who at the time had a 10-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son, was dealing with persistent cases of lice in both of her children.

“When my sister called me, she epitomized the typical response of a parent,” Fields said. “She was doing loads and loads of laundry, everything was taken out of the closets, everything was in bags.”

All that would have been fine if it were working.

“But it wasn’t,” Fields said.

She and Eckert decided to team up and find something that would help her sister and other parents.

There are so many myths about lice, a six-legged insect that lives in human hair and is most often found in children ages 3 to 13.

The most common misconception, the pair say, is the perception that people who have it have poor personal hygiene, or that they get lice from being in a filthy home or school.

That is absolutely not true, Eckert and Fields emphasize. Lice actually love clean hair, because they can cling to it.

Another myth – that lice jump or fly from head to head. They do crawl, and they can be easily spread by sharing hairbrushes, hats or pillows.

And once you’ve got a pregnant female louse – who can lay up to five to 10 nits, or eggs, daily – you can have hundreds or even thousands of insects crawling through your hair.

Doctors have traditionally recommended over-the-counter treatments, like Rid or Nix, but over the years, the lice have become resistant, Eckert said. The Internet is filled with suggested home remedies to get rid of lice, including smothering the infected head in salad dressing, mayonnaise or olive oil.

That just makes a big mess, and it doesn’t even kill the bugs, Eckert and Fields said.

“It all boils down to combing,” Eckert said.

This is the second in a 2-part series of blog posts dedicated to some red flags that may save you time, money and headaches when choosing a lice treatment service.

In our last post, we brought to your attention three red flags that could mean a lice removal service is trying to take advantage of you—by charging more than the service is worth, or by locking you in to appointments, or by accepting cash only—the hallmark of a “fly-by-night” operation.

This post, we’ll tell you about FOUR SCAMS meant to increase the amount the lice treatment service can charge you, by adding unnecessary products or services to the bill.

1. The company tries to sell you expensive house cleaning services. One of the biggest scams in the lice remediation world is expensive house cleaning. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, “herculean” house cleaning efforts are unnecessary, because lice can’t thrive or reproduce anywhere but on a human head. Our advice? Vacuum rugs and upholstery, launder bedding and clothing, and put whatever can’t be laundered in the dryer for 30 minutes. But don’t pay inflated house cleaning prices for anyone to sprinkle baking soda “activated” by a secret spray formula on your couch. It’s a scam, engineered to take advantage of your vulnerability. There is no baking soda preparation on earth that’s been proven to kill lice. If there was, why wouldn’t it be available on store shelves?
2. The company wants you to purchase “insurance” against reinfestation. While no one can guarantee that your child won’t get re-infested, we don’t recommend that you pay in advance for services you may not need.  The lice removal company you hire should be able to teach you how to follow up effectively, protecting your initial investment in lice treatment services, and minimizing the threat of re-infestation.
3. The technician solicits tips. If you get superior service and you want to pay more than the asking price, by all means, tip your specialist.  But you should never feel obligated to do so, nor should any specialist make a play for your sympathy or ask you for a tip to supplement their wages.  Reputable lice treatment firms invest heavily in training their specialists, and pay them well for their time and expertise.
4. The company charges for “down time” while preparations are left on the hair. Some companies apply products they claim must sit for 30 minutes. This is a scam designed to add time to the service call. Make sure the service uses all-natural, pesticide-free enzyme formulas. These products work instantly, slowing down the movement of lice and loosening nit glue, making combing—the real hero of lice removal—much more efficient.

As with any service, check references, visit the lice treatment service website to judge the quality of the testimonials, and consult reviews such as YELP or your local mom’s blogs. The best way to prevent a lice removal service scam is to do a little homework up front. It won’t take long but could make the difference between a quick and painless process and a regrettable saga.

The founders and specialists of Lice Happens have treated thousands of clients battling head lice over the past several years.  Our lice treatment business is based on trust, which we’ve earned by focusing on educating our clients, calming their anxieties, and teaching them how to deal with the crisis.

Lately, we’ve seen the lice removal industry grow, with individuals and companies entering the market hoping to start a “recession proof” lice treatment business.  They also find a client base that is primarily made up of people who are in various states of emotional distress, who are looking for the quickest solution to an “icky” problem.

Unfortunately, this situation lends itself to scammers, and to a proliferation of undereducated lice removal providers who, out of ignorance or even malice, spread misinformation and strengthen myths rather than educating and empowering their clients.

This is the first in a 2-part series of blog posts dedicated to some red flags that may save you time, money and headaches when choosing a lice treatment service.

We recommend that anyone considering hiring a lice removal service be aware of these three PAYMENT red flags when choosing a lice treatment provider:

1. The company gives you a total price over the phone before assessing the extent of the infestation on site. Ask for an hourly rate instead: a moderate infestation typically takes 1-1½ hours to treat, while those with very short hair can be treated in ½ hour. Severe infestations can add ½ hour to these times.
2. The company requires a credit card and nonrefundable deposit to reserve an appointment. This limits your ability to cancel.  You should be able to change your mind at any time, for any reason, without a financial sacrifice.
3. Payment must be made in cash only. Most legitimate businesses are set up to accept whatever form of payment is most convenient for the client—cash, check or charge.  A cash-only business leaves you little recourse for unsatisfactory work, while making it easy for the business to disappear.

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.

The worst part is that the “service” served no one by getting the administration so upset about the outbreak that they closed the school and postponed the school play scheduled for that evening. The disruption was unnecessary as was the emotional toll. The aforementioned parent called Lice Happens to ask for a re-screening, as they were uncomfortable with the initial experience, and because the treatment for head lice offered by the school’s service came with a three-hour minimum, cash only.

(It’s exceptionally rare for us to see individual cases that take three hours to resolve.  The average time to clear a head is about an hour and a half.)

The vacuuming was a good idea, but generally speaking, most schools have that part of it under control, as they already use professional cleaning services. The disturbing part is that there are “professional” head lice removal services that employ people without any background or real expertise in head lice treatment, but are good at housecleaning and marketing, and collecting cash. Since head lice removal services need not be licensed, anyone can start head lice treatment services and charge high rates for what amounts to housecleaning, which is the least important part of breaking the cycle of head lice, according to a study reported by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Because lice that are no longer on a human head are basically doomed, they say, “Herculean cleaning measures are not beneficial.”* The most important part is removing all lice, nymphs, and nits from the head of the infested person(s), and doing it thoroughly.

*See the full article here: http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/110/3/638

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:

Ask if anyone on staff has medical training. Is there an RN or MD on staff?  Find out how the specialists who will treat your family have been trained, what their treatment protocols are, and how they keep up with the latest in treatments.

Ask about their screening process. If they don’t wet comb the hair for screening, call someone who does.

Ask them to describe their protocol and why they do things that way.  If they can’t give you a detailed description of thorough and repetitive combing process with proven results, find someone who can.

Ask them how they break the life cycle of lice to prevent recurrence. If they can’t tell you specifically how long it takes for a nit to hatch, mature, mate and lay its own eggs, call someone who has expertise with head lice.

Ask them about currently available head lice treatments. If they can’t describe at least four different categories of over-the-counter and prescription treatments, and give you the pros and cons of each, get in touch with someone familiar with all of the options.

Sadly, misinformation about head lice is still rampant in the 21st Century. When lice happens to your family, make sure they get the best possible advice from real professionals.

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.

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.

Alas, there are days when perfection fails, and though my mind tells me, “You are professional and strong and compassionate (not to mention hot) like Michelle Pfeiffer in ‘I am Sam,’” my body says, “How about Steve Martin in ‘A Wild and Crazy Guy?’” Nothing like a reality check from The Voices That Live in My Head to keep a nitpicker humble.

Picture one such day, when I visited the exquisite home of a Philadelphia-area client. I, too, have certain expectations about what a treatment call will be like, and based on the zip code, have developed a reasonably good sense for what it might look like from my own perspective when the door opens.

I am sometimes very wrong.

Picture another Steve Martin movie, Parenthood—the associated chaos of multiple kids (six, in this case) with the wild energy of lab puppies who have in fact just returned from a raucous sledding outing, bantering adults (two sisters and a husband) in full-on head lice freak-out mode, and now, one professional nitpicker at the door gazing, stunned, into the madness, my expectation of a certain level of decorum shattered.

Unchecked Pandemonium

It might have been the unchecked pandemonium that led to the distraction that led to the enormous knot on my head that is the actual subject of this post, but I prefer to think that it was my singular focus on the job at hand. Supporting this contention, I followed the Lice Happens protocol that dictates creating an atmosphere of gentle calmness and light humor before beginning the tedious work of picking lice and nits from a fidgety child. (This isn’t an insult; try getting any child to sit still for an hour while a stranger combs her hair repeatedly.) The adults set the tone, and getting them to release their anxiety is an art which we can talk about in detail some other time, but it sometimes involves encouraging said adults to have a cocktail in another room.

After a while, my efforts to set the stage for a successful head lice removal treatment paid off, and the ornate dining room where I was to work now exuded the serenity of a yoga studio. A few minutes into the treatment, I turned, my head still bent over from nitpicking, to clear the comb of its ghastly bounty onto a paper towel laid out on the dining room table. As I straightened my back to stand upright, I felt the sledgehammer connect with the back of my head. Wham! I had whacked my head on the huge, heavy, yet somehow invisible metal chandelier that graced the dining room. The magnifying goggles I wear had turned from indispensible tool to evil prankster, blocking my view of the metallic behemoth. I felt the top of my head for what I was sure would be a gusher of blood, based on what I read in the stars that now flickered before my eyes. Nothing but a goose egg, and a bruise to the “professional” component of my job description. “Oh!” exclaimed the wife, “my husband does that all the time!” which should have been my first clue that more peril loomed ahead.

The Peril That Loomed Ahead

Twenty minutes later, the comb again brought forth a treasure trove of lice, nymphs, and nits. Once again, I cleared the comb onto the paper towel and to my horror, stood up and slammed my head into the chandelier, this time hard enough to send it into a jaunty dance, like a 200-pound skeleton at a Halloween party. Certainly, there would be blood this time!

Happy me, just an ostrich egg adorning the goose egg. My eyes stung with tears and my magnifying goggles began to fog. But, being the professional that I am, I continued my work, confident that the righteousness of my nit removal mission would stand me in good stead at the Pearly Gates, should I drop dead any moment from internal swelling. So engrossed was I in the performance of our 100% quality guarantee, that twenty minutes later, I triumphantly cleared the last of the beastly abundance from the nit comb and stood up to declare victory.

The chandelier rocked as if an earthquake had hit, and I hit the deck. From my graceless position, prone on my client’s handsome tapestry rug, I asked, in a small voice, “Do you think we could move the table over a bit?”

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 others 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 others 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.