SCHOOLGATE

National Bug Busting Day, head lice and a new way to get rid of them

By Sarah Ebner

The outstanding journalist Sarah Ebner writing about us on her School Gate blog:

It’s National Bug Busting Day today, so what better time to remind you all about the best ways to deal with nits and headlice.

Please read my headlice 101 post for advice on how to deal with the little blighters – and read the comments too for more tips. You can also bemoan the disappearance of the nit nurse in my post on headlice and schools…

But since writing that piece, I have come upon a new way of eliminating lice, getting others to do it for you! The Hairforce is a headlice “spa” which treats children (and, if needs be, their unfortunately infested parents) to a thorough check, vacuum, comb and total destruction of any unwelcome visitors (without chemicals). You need to visit three times at four day intervals (it’s £40 a session), or the headlice “assassins” can do a housecall instead. It’s not cheap, but in its own way, it’s genius (er, that means for parents who have the money, but don’t want to put in the time). Also, you’ve got to remember that thorough combing is the only way to get rid of lice, this is certainly thorough and yet the children seem to enjoy it…

At the moment the Hairforce is based in London (in Primrose Hill dahlings), but more salons are planned. Keen to find out what such a place could be like, I took my daughter, Jessica, who’s seven (you can see her having her hair vacuumed above). She’s had nits before and hates her hair being sprayed and combed. Or she did when I did it at home. The Hairforce was another experience entirely. Here’s what she had to say:

“if your Mum or your Dad is checking your hair for nits and lice, I advise you do something interesting like watching the TV or reading a book. It takes your mind off that nasty nit come coming though your hair.
But I just went to the nit place and it was really good. When I went there the people that work there vacuumed my hair and they sprayed it. They did other things too like comb it, but I didn’t mind. It wasn’t like when I had it done at home, because I had other things to do. There are lots of things to do at the nit place. You can watch DVDs and play on the Nintendo - I went on Mario Karts.
I like the nit place because there is so much to do while people check your hair and get rid of your nits. All you have to do is go there and enjoy yourself. It was so much fun. I wish I could go there again!”

Schoolgate Blog

FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE

The Great Indoors

Clear heads courtesy of the ‘Lice Assassins’

By Sophie Hanscombe

The FT Weekend Pursuits section featured the full experience.

Hairforce lice assassination in progress

If anyone had suggested to me, in my child-free years, that one day I would spend a happy afternoon in Primrose Hill having my scalp hoovered for lice, of course, have scratched my head in disbelief. But here I am alongside my daughter Anna having a 90-minute “head clear” at The Hairforce – a company promising “total lice elimination” for those, like me, who’ve tried all potions known to chemist. The military language is appropriate, given the efficiency of the process. Two smiling but focused “Lice Assassins,” sporting white Barbarella-inspired uniforms, settle us into purple massage chairs, switch on their dazzling dental lights, adjust surgical magnifying goggles and get down to business.

Crucially, no chemicals are used: “Eighty percent of them simply don’t work,” says Dee Wright, the company’s founder. Instead, after the hair sectioning and hoovering, comes extensive combing for nits (the lice eggs) and, finally, individual “nit-picking” with tweezers. Three consecutive clears, four days apart and the nit-lice life cycle is broken.

Little surprise then that Wright, a former advertising executive and mother of two, also has that intractable problem sorted. “Of course children think they’ll get bored,” she says. Thus, a mountain of DVDs, computer games and the relevant portable players await the kids, while mothers can enjoy a welcome magazine catch-up.

“Mums work really hard at this,” says Wright as she waves us off (frankly, I want to hug her). “It’s just a very difficult problem. This delivers.” Of course lice elimination won’t ever top lunching or shopping – but who would have thought it could be both fun and relaxing?

The Details

£40 for a head clear (three clears are usually required),
07720 838 271;
www.thehairforce.co.uk

Financial Times June 09

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