A lice lady never knows when or where her services will be needed! I just always have to be ready. December was a relatively slow month but surprisingly Christmas Eve I had five calls! Never did get to finish up my last minute shopping - no cute pajamas for my daughter :-(. It was a good thing I made those calls, at least one child would've given the gift that keeps giving to her cousins for sure. You would never have known that her mother had used a lice shampoo on her just a few days before. So I made a prediction that January would be busy. It usually takes 1 - 2 weeks before people discover they have lice (the first generation usually hatches before you realize something is on your head. I know YUCK!). Well I was right! As soon as January began my phone was ringing multiple times every day! Things have quieted down again down. Having lice checks at the school after holidays is a great way to catch lice early and keep it under control.
Some people may be starting their "3rd battle" with the Christmas lice. It can be such a hard battle if you don't have a good lice comb like the Terminator Nit Free. I visited one family where the mother had done an outstanding job with the nitpicking. I didn't find one nit! Unfortunately before she got the nits out, a bunch had hatched and the child had about 15 teeny, tiny pencil dot sized babies wandering around, waiting to start the cycle again. If I hadn't come in, a week later they would of matured, mated and started to lay eggs again. They are really hard to beat without the right tools.
So lesson learned. Check your kids for lice after holidays! I'm even wondering if the snow day we just had may bring in some extra cases. Were your kids hanging out with children they don't usually see? Scratch, scratch, scratch. Its still out there!
Friday, February 4, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Can you really get rid of lice in an hour?
Yes! Yes I can! Today I got a call from a mother who was on her way to pick up her kids from school. Having found lice on my own head and on my daughters I was thinking the only thing worse then finding it yourself would be the school discovering it and calling! Yuck! I'm glad that the parent called me first and avoided all the frustration of using the toxic shampoos and the hours of nitpicking. I hate hearing that a parent has nitpicked for hours and hours, night after night and is still dealing with it. Often times the child is turned away from school because the parent didn't manage to find them all. When all you really need is a good 30-60 minutes comb out with the Terminator Nit comb. Preferably with a nice lice lady ;-)!
I get many calls from moms and they all seem to describe their childrens hair as super thick and curly. Well today was my first experience with really, really, really thick and curly hair. Gorgeous, princess, tight curls hair way down the back. And much to my delight the Terminator tamed those curls just as easily as straight hair! The initial detangling was a bit of trouble but luckily the mom was able to help tame those curls. And an hour later she was lice free and could've gone back to school. Thats one of the fun parts of my job. Sending a child back to school an hour or two after they've been sent home. The lice checker always says there is no way you could be lice free, you just left! But then they check and THERE IS NO SIGN OF LICE. Parents always tell me how amazed they are! Everyones happy. The child is back in school, the parent back to work and the school is one child closer to being a lice free environment!
I really do love my job. If you'd told me five years ago I'd be a lice lady I would've laughed and laughed. You never know where life is going to take you!
Hope you are all lice free!
I get many calls from moms and they all seem to describe their childrens hair as super thick and curly. Well today was my first experience with really, really, really thick and curly hair. Gorgeous, princess, tight curls hair way down the back. And much to my delight the Terminator tamed those curls just as easily as straight hair! The initial detangling was a bit of trouble but luckily the mom was able to help tame those curls. And an hour later she was lice free and could've gone back to school. Thats one of the fun parts of my job. Sending a child back to school an hour or two after they've been sent home. The lice checker always says there is no way you could be lice free, you just left! But then they check and THERE IS NO SIGN OF LICE. Parents always tell me how amazed they are! Everyones happy. The child is back in school, the parent back to work and the school is one child closer to being a lice free environment!
I really do love my job. If you'd told me five years ago I'd be a lice lady I would've laughed and laughed. You never know where life is going to take you!
Hope you are all lice free!
Saturday, December 11, 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Lice and Fleas
Well Hello out there its been awhile! Its nice when a client says that they enjoyed my blog1 And it means I should blog more! I really, really, really love my job. I think that lice only like really interesting people. I learn new things every day from the kids and their families.
Today I met a great family who love dogs. Members of their family foster dogs and their obsession is beating fleas! I was very interested because when I went to a male (I'm biased against males - they just don't seem to see lice) pharmacist he said he would look at my hair and said he didn't see anything and thought the problem was fleas. Ugh. Anyway I now realize that the reason that are so worried about nits is because of fleas! Head lice are much more specialized creatures than fleas. Their eggs need to have the right heat and moisture to hatch. Thats why they like laying their eggs behind the ears and nape of the neck. These conditions are so important to them that developed a super glue to keep them there! Once a nit is off the hair it is basically not viable. I have been using the analogy of if you left a chicken egg on your couch it wouldn't hatch! Well fleas have a completely different strategy! They lay their eggs on the animal and they are supposed to fall off and then they can wait til the proper conditions occur and then hatch! So I'm thinking somewhere along the line people got them mixed up? Harvard did a study about bagging things for two weeks and found that nothing hatched. Once a nit is off the head its done. The best part of the visit was when I combed out a louse the Auntie would grab it quick and snap it! Apparently cuz fleas jump you have to snap them in two before they jump away! Thank goodness lice don't jump and only crawl. It was weird seeing someone wanting to touch the louse!
That reminds me if your kid is scratching their head uncontrollably they have LICE! We all make excuses why they are scratching (climate was my excuse) The poor Mom had been driven to distraction by her child's head scratching! She was thinking it was ezcema. Its also amzing the power of the brain. The Mom had said she hadn't last night because of the horrible itching. She had found one bug on her head and it must've been a boy there were no nits or bugs when I got there. She just had empathy itching! Well I'll have to blog again soon - maybe tomorrow cuz just writing this one is reminding me of a few other antedotes.
Today I met a great family who love dogs. Members of their family foster dogs and their obsession is beating fleas! I was very interested because when I went to a male (I'm biased against males - they just don't seem to see lice) pharmacist he said he would look at my hair and said he didn't see anything and thought the problem was fleas. Ugh. Anyway I now realize that the reason that are so worried about nits is because of fleas! Head lice are much more specialized creatures than fleas. Their eggs need to have the right heat and moisture to hatch. Thats why they like laying their eggs behind the ears and nape of the neck. These conditions are so important to them that developed a super glue to keep them there! Once a nit is off the hair it is basically not viable. I have been using the analogy of if you left a chicken egg on your couch it wouldn't hatch! Well fleas have a completely different strategy! They lay their eggs on the animal and they are supposed to fall off and then they can wait til the proper conditions occur and then hatch! So I'm thinking somewhere along the line people got them mixed up? Harvard did a study about bagging things for two weeks and found that nothing hatched. Once a nit is off the head its done. The best part of the visit was when I combed out a louse the Auntie would grab it quick and snap it! Apparently cuz fleas jump you have to snap them in two before they jump away! Thank goodness lice don't jump and only crawl. It was weird seeing someone wanting to touch the louse!
That reminds me if your kid is scratching their head uncontrollably they have LICE! We all make excuses why they are scratching (climate was my excuse) The poor Mom had been driven to distraction by her child's head scratching! She was thinking it was ezcema. Its also amzing the power of the brain. The Mom had said she hadn't last night because of the horrible itching. She had found one bug on her head and it must've been a boy there were no nits or bugs when I got there. She just had empathy itching! Well I'll have to blog again soon - maybe tomorrow cuz just writing this one is reminding me of a few other antedotes.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Follow your passion!
I feel so lucky. Motivational Speakers are always saying follow your passion and the money will come. I always thought what are my passions? If you had told me I'd be a lice lady 5 years ago I would of laughed and laughed. Getting head lice was one of my worst fears. I always swore I'd shave my head (and when I got it I seriously contemplated it) and throw everything out. L
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