Nit-Busters
Headlcleaners is a franchise which is just opening its sixth branch in Lisbon. Sophie Sadler shares her experience as to why this could be a lifeline for parents.
Last summer before the world could even imagine what a pandemic would feel like, I was suffering from a socially isolating experience which made me feel alone, frustrated and on the edge. This affliction was not called COVID-19 but head lice!
It doesn't matter how many times you are told that nits only like clean hair the feelings of guilt and shame when you are pulled aside by a teacher to tell you the parasites have once more been found in your child's locks, are overwhelming.
My daughters are blessed with thick wavy hair, but on many occasions, I dreamt of taking hair cutters to their tendrils and giving them a grade 1. The dream of brushing my daughter’s glorious ringlets turned into a nightmare as their scalps became a mecca for head lice.
I have been told many things about head lice in the year it took me to rid them of this affliction. One theory is that in the same way some people seem to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes while others are eaten alive, it is a fact that these pesky mites are more attracted to some head than others. This may be the texture, thickness of hair or blood group but our family appeared to be the manna of head lice.
It became my raison d´etre to rid my family of this affliction, but I had a very cunning adversary that was thwarting my efforts at every corner. That adversary was my youngest daughter. Having her hair brushed was to her akin to torture, hair washing was a form of endurance course which was greeted with a melt-down of epic proportions and no grooming implement other than the most gentle tangle teaser had even been considered.
Now imagine the proposed solution to rid our selves of our blood-sucking head dwellers was to pour a shampoo onto the head, thoroughly massage it into the scalp, comb the hair with a fine-toothed metal comb. Leave the solution in for an hour then rinse it out, before applying more shampoo and rinsing again.
I made this my Sunday evening job, so any school inspections on Monday would come back negative. In the end, I could only achieve this mission after having drunk at least half a bottle of wine. On many occasions, I had to rugby tackle her and pin her to the ground, which I poured the solution onto her head. After another glass of wine, I then attempted the comb, which proved fruitless as getting a fine-toothed comb through the head of a struggling infant is unachievable. I went through this routine every week for six months, and still, the parasites were happily nesting in her hair.
I tried every brand on the market in Portugal; then I tried asking friends to send them from England. Then I came to the terrifying conclusion that, in my considerable experience, they don´t work. If you were growing up in the eighties like me you will probably remember the foul-smelling smelling lotion that rid us all of the affliction in one go. Well, guess what, it contained ingredients now considered unsafe so it banned.
I also tried tea tree oil and various other natural remedies that are on the market, which I also doused on her pillow after finding a few of our co-inhabitants enjoying a snooze on her pillow after she went to school. Head lice can live for up to three days off the host.
The sad truth is that the friendly headlice of the eighties have mutated into all-powerful super-lice, that are immune to all repellants on the market and can live happily in our children´s heads without much being able to get rid of them.
I was at my wit’s end and so was the girl’s headmistress when she suggested a company called Head Cleaners in Lisbon. Such was my despair that I undertook to take the kids the five-hour round journey to rid ourselves of this affliction. There is no real magic formula to what they do; they just know what they are doing.
This elite core of nit-busting technicians handled the children brilliantly and literally went through their head with a fine-tooth comb. The environment felt very tranquil and relaxed and not a proton pack in sight!
They use the Nitty Gritty comb which I found to be the best on the market and divide the hair into small sections and go through it meticulously with high powered lamps and magnifying glasses. They used no chemicals or products, they even used tweezers to shift the ones that were really stuck on.
The company explained that the complete elimination of lice and nits is a complex process due to the life cycle of this parasite that lasts between 30 and 40 days. The louse goes through three states, nit or egg, nymph and adult louse. Each female lays between four and eight eggs a day, which will be born in a week, ten days later, in adult lice.
From the time you lay the egg, (called nits) until adulthood, 17 days elapse, when they start to reproduce again. Therefore, in order to guarantee the success of treatment, the process takes three weeks. In this way, they ensure that there is no nit or fertile female capable of restarting the infestation. A single egg allows the infestation to continue, unless you get rid of every single little egg they will come back so it was no wonder I had been unsuccessful. Of course, the children sat still for the professionals in a way they had never done for me, entertained by ipads that were provided. They even have a hoover that sucks the lice off the scalp.
Head Cleaners method guarantees 100% the elimination of lice and nits. Rita Ferro Rodrigues is communications manager of Headcleaners and with ½ million followers on Facebook and Instagram, it gives me hope that I am not alone! “Lice are very ´democratic´. They choose all kind of hair types, long, short, boys, girls, young and older. That’s why we should be able to treat and talk about lice naturally with no prejudices. The treatment we do at Head Cleaners is very successful and it's done by staff with specialized techniques, that child caretakers would not be able to do as successfully and peacefully at home. We also give parents important guidelines to manage and control contagion at home and school.”
After the treatment which in my long-haired elder daughter’s case took three hours, they give the kids a beautiful french plait and they advise to wash everything, bedding, car seats, teddies. For lazy people like me, there is also the option of putting it all into bin bags for three days!
Seven days after treatment, they review the entire scalp to confirm the absence of nits or lice. In the 15 days following the review, we will do a second review completely free of charge, to make sure that the problem has been fully resolved.
From that moment on, there is a one month warranty. If in this period there is any doubt or suspicion of a new infestation, there will be another assessment at no additional cost.
I can now confirm publicly that the only parasites in our house are now the kids and the nit comb has gone rusty in the bathroom. One word of advice if you suffer a similar affliction go straight to the professionals!
