Does Lice Shampoo work?

I wonder how often the shampoo works the way it says it should. I'm only seeing families that haven't had success (some have used the shampoos 4,5 even 6 times to no avail). It makes me mad when I visit a family and they have used the shampoo twice and done the combing with the horrible comb that comes with the shampoo and this is what I find:

That is a pretty good case of lice. Lots of adults. I never would of guessed that they had done anything. It also annoys me that there are some sites that say the reason the shampoos don't work is user error. Complete nonsense. I don't think I've ever met a parent who used the product for less than the time on the box. If anything parents leave it on LONGER than required (I did!) because we want to make sure its working! Anyway I have a skewed view because I only see people who are still fighting the battle. I always say I wouldn't have a job if the shampoo worked - most of my clients have used the shampoo before calling me. In my opinion the Super bugs of lice are alive and well and happily resistant to the shampoo. Best solution? Skip the shampoo and get a proper lice comb from a lice lady (not a cheap one from the drug store) and start combing! To buy a good lice comb come to my website www.torontolicelady.com

Psychological Components of Lice

The other day I had a call from a mother who was convinced her family had lice. I grabbed my stuff and headed over to one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in Toronto. I was greeted by a lovely lady and her two small children. A quick check and comb out revealed that the children were lice free. When the kids don't have it the parents won't have it either! But the mother said she could feel them crawling on her scalp and on her shoulders. Well when people report these symptoms I almost always know that it is psychological case of lice! So I checked the mother and she was all clear too. So I asked her to show me what she was finding that made her think she had lice. Upstairs to the bathroom we went and she pointed out a lot of dandruff! With people turning on their heating systems I think some peoples scalps are more dandruffy! While we were doing this she starting telling me about what was going on with school and I got a clear picture as to why she had a case of "lice on the brain". This mother had been volunteering in her childrens class on the day of the lice checks! She had helped the children undo their pigtails and then braided kids hair back up. Then she was talking to others about lice - her daughters class hadn't found any cases but every other class had at least one case. She was definitely on the alert at that point! Then her kids had attended birthday parties where lice had been present. All of sudden her head was started to feel itchy! And she became more aware of her children touching their heads. And then to see the white things in her hair and she was convinced that her family was crawling with the critters! I was glad to be there to combat her fears and let her know that her family was lice free! She also now has the greatest tool to detect lice - the Terminator Nit Free Comb! Which I think is great. If you ever get lice on the brain you can just comb your hair and have a quick diagnosis. If you have lice the comb will give you evidence if you don't the comb will be clear and you can take a deep breath and ask your brain to stop playing tricks on you! Hope you are enjoying a lice free day! Toronto Lice Lady

Its good to be friends with a lice lady!

Boy you sure can get busy with life. Its been a while since I blogged but there have been lots of stories that I need to tell! One evening I was reading to my kids and heard a knock at my front door. Who could that be at 9pm? Well I checked my door and there was one of my good friends with a terrified look on her face. She had just discovered lice on her daughters head! Well what could I do but invite them in and get to work! The funniest part was that I was at my friends house the day before for dinner. And its always my dream to spot someone with lice while I'm out and about. While waiting in line at grocery stores or amusement parks I run my gaze over everyones head. Never found anything but I look. So there I was at my friends house completely oblivious that there turned out to be FIVE cases of lice also at the party! As soon as I confirmed the lice case we had to call our other friend and soon my house was a lice party! Trying to keep my kids in bed while their friends were downstairs getting their hair combed. We were up til 1130pm taking care of everyone. I was glad that I could be there for my friends in their time of need. And next time a kid tells you their head is itchy don't tell then it must be mosquitoe bites! Come see the Toronto Lice Lady! LOL

Effectiveness of Lice Treatments

Good Morning out there! I thought I'd just write a little bit about my experiments with lice "killing" methods. I have to say that I am so disappointed with the results. When I clear out a very bad case of lice I often do some experiments to see what is effective at killing lice. I've always enjoyed science and experimenting. In University we did endless experiments to determine if things were "statistically significant". Well this is completely unscientific and I did not consult an ethics board on being cruel to lice :-). Anyway so I carefully wash and dry the lice and voila, as expected, they come back to life! Let the games begin.
Olive Oil for 3 hours - completely ineffective. Almost every louse revived!

Olive Oil for 8 hours - Knocked out 17/21 louses! Not bad. But why did 4 survive?

Conditioner for four hours - 15/20 not a bad kill ratio. Too bad that we need 100% effectiveness to beat lice.

Enzyme based shampoo - 10/20 Very disappointing. I love the theory behind the enzyme shampoo. It eats through the shell of the louse. I don't know maybe they can reproduce after the enzyme treatment? All I know is that they looked alive and well after treatment. One of the problems may be the temperature - I think enzymes are easily killed in a Canadian climate. Hot, cold,hot, cold. Anyway I was very excited about these products and thought yay we have a solution! So I was super disappointed.

Pesticides - I don't want to be anywhere near these! I just have client testimonials and well if they worked I wouldn't have a job! Most of my clients have used them at least once before coming to me. A client just the other day had used them the day before and there were 3 live bugs on Moms head, 2 on daughters and 1 on the sons. So in a week the cycle would've been been jumpstarted again and in 2 weeks a full on infestation would've been present.

So my conclusion? The best way to get rid of lice is calling the Toronto Lice Lady and getting a good comb out! I'm over 95% effective with one comb out and 100% with two. But I'll keep looking and experimenting to see what will kill 100% of bugs. Its a tough job but someones gotta do it!
Seasons Greetings!

Your Toronto Lice Lady

Oh, and just in case you are wondering, even with all my experimenting I have never caught lice since my first time over three years ago. Proving once again that head to head contact is how it is usually transmitted. I keep my long hair way out of the way whenever I "play" with lice. You should too!

Thinking about Head Lice Prevention

Well its been a busy week and I haven't blogged as much as I would like. This week one of the things I've been thinking about is lice preventation. When people ask me about how to prevent getting head lice I never know what to say. I went my whole life without getting them until my children came along. How did I avoid it? I remember the nurses using the wooden picks to check our heads and one of my friends was always teased about having the cooties. So it must've been going around! One of the parents this week told me that she religiously sprays her children with a tree oil combination before sending them to school. It must not have been working because one child definitely had head lice! I remember when my family got head lice I put tea tree oil in the shampoo and conditioner too. I stopped doing it a long time ago and have been lice free for two years. Catching lice is akin to having a friend with a cold. If you are in the area when they are contagious and they sneeze on you, you'll probably catch the cold. If your friend has lice and you put your head near them you'll likely catch it too.
I wish there was a way to prevent head lice. If there was maybe we could finally wipe out lice! Your best way to avoid getting lice is to keep your hair to yourself. Keep it in braids or a ponytail. Wear a hat. Most transmission is from head to head and not from objects. If you've had lice you know how hard it is to get them off your head. I was itching for at least a week until I actually caught one and discovered that I had head lice. They don't want to be in your coats and hats. They are very specialized creatures who want to be on your head and your friends heads.
The other way to reduce your chances of catching lice? Keep your hair dirty! Ooh I didn't think that would go over well. The theory is that when your hair is greasy the eggs have a harder time adhering to the hair shaft. I'm not sure that is true. Lice have been around as long as humans and goodness knows that our ancestors weren't bathing every day - so you'd think they would've died out with all that dirty hair! Lice don't discriminate but may prefer clean hair over dirty hair given a choice? Anyone want to be a guinea pig and do some lice experiments? Well I hope to blog again before to long. Hope you are lice free!