LICENCE TO KILL

Nit Assassin Dee up for business award

By Sarah Harvey

Our local paper covers Dee’s nomination for Inspirational Business Mum of the Year.

‘Mother of two Dee Wright has a licence to kill – to kill nits, that is – and her company of trained ‘nit assassins’ has scooped her a nomination for Inspirational Business Mum of the Year.’

Dee’s ‘Hairforce’ business was only launched 21 months ago. Run from her home in St Mark’s Crescent, Primrose Hill, it offers a nit and head lice elimination service.
The unique service goes out of its way to make kids blighted by nits – or even their parents and grandparents – feel comfortable and enjoy the experience as much as possible.
They are seated in special massage chairs and offered a choice of computer games, magazines or DVDs to look at while they are treated. The treatment is all carried out by hand by the ‘lice assassins’ – so no chemicals are used.

The business has earned Dee a nomination in the 2008 Prowess Awards.

Dee, 48, a former strategic planner in the advertising industry, said: ‘Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, was my mentor before she died.
‘She said, Run your business from home – I made my soaps in my kitchen – you’ve got to use what you’ve got.’

The business has proved so popular that the Hairforce is usually busy six days a week. Dee employs 12 local mums part-time who fit the work around their own domestic responsibilities. They see around 40 to 60 customers a week, with the majority arriving after school hours.

Dee said: ‘It’s an epidemic and there is no help out there. You end up spending vast amounts of money when 80 per cent of the products don’t work anyway.’
‘There’s enormous pressure on parents to be good parents but also enormous social pressure on them to clear it. At school the kids will be bullied and hairdressers won’t go near them.’

‘We have a very practical approach and it restores their self-confidence. We witness lots of stories about children being bullied and excluded from games because of their nits, and a lots of self-exclusion too because they don’t want anyone seeing their hair.’

‘Their personalities change quite significantly between the first and second appointments. They can’t wait to come back. We’ve had people write us letters or hug us because they are so happy to have gotten rid of their problem.’

‘We use a range of equipment and it’s a combination of skill and experience. The children’s hair is split into sections and we hoover it to remove the lice, put on an organic spray and go through the hair with a nit comb until nothing more comes out. They use magnifiers and lights like dentists have so they can spot the tiniest baby at 20 paces.’

The standard course of three treatments cost £30 each.
For more information visit www.thehairforce.co.uk

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Dee Wright has been appointed an official ambassador for the national Girls! Make Your Mark campaign.

This Government backed campaign is all about encouraging young women to come up with new business ideas and make them happen. The Girls! Make Your Mark campaign has taken a number of female entrepreneurs who they see as inspiring to take their message into the community via events, school visits and the media.

The network is managed by Make your Mark and delivered by the Regional Development Agencies on behalf of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. It will inspire women to go out and grab opportunities and connect them to like-minded others to make their dreams become a reality.

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