Jill herself has experienced the frustrations familiar to so many parents – ‘Most of the products contain ingredients I do not want to use on my child. They are unpleasant to use but more importantly they were simply ineffective.  When I heard about The Hairforce through the “Embarrassing Bodies” programme, I thought “What a fantastic solution to the problem… very effective and no chemicals or pesticides are used!”

I am passionate about this business opportunity which has given me the chance to spread the word about a very real alternative, and deliver a much needed service to the community. I have heard of many people of all ages who have suffered from head lice for a long time and find it an overwhelming and isolating problem. I look forward very much to helping them.’

The LouseBuster machine not only delivers a kill rate of over 95%, it also does it in an entirely natural way – without a chemical or pesticide in sight.  Using simply controlled heated air it dehydrates both the head lice and the nits – the eggs – in a simple 30 minute appointment.

For information on Jill’s working hours and to book an appointment, please visit Jill’s contact page.

Start your own Rapid Response Unit

We are creating a national network of Rapid Response Units, delivering our unique service to desperate parents and children. Find out how you could buy and run your own part-time, flexible buisness, supported by one of the most innovative brands in the UK.

By Linda Whitney

For those who don’t have a huge amount of money or time, there are plenty of low-cost investment and part-time franchises that might suit.  The Hairforce, a chemical-free head lice removing service, is looking for people to start Rapid Response Units.  For £2,420 you can lease its LouseBuster machine and provide a mobile service, or work from home or leased rooms, with hours to suit yourself.

For more information phone The Hairforce on 020 7485 7351 or go to their website.

Recommending The Hairforce approach to clearing nits and head lice (Image: Gracia Lam)

The Telegraph Children’s Notebook

by Daisy Bridgewater

Last week a close friend was asked to leave the hairdresser, her head still dripping wet, as a nasty case of head lice had been discovered by the sharp teeth of the colourist’s comb. Another told me, when I commented on the wildness of her husband’s hairstyle, that he did not dare to get it cut as he was ravaged with lice, one of which had made it on to the projector during a PowerPoint presentation to potential clients. The nape of my neck is on fire as I write: the Easter holidays are coming, and during that brief respite from intense head-to-head classroom contact it is time that we all got on top of our nits.

If head lice were anywhere else but crawling about on the scalps of a third of all four- to 11-year-olds – and many of their parents – they would be applauded as a master race. The pediculus humanus capitis, a wingless parasite that spends its lifespan feeding on blood from the human scalp, is proving wholly resistant to a £33.5 million industry devoted to its eradication. It crawls between the heads of cosy, telly-watching siblings; it nips from parting to parting of group-working primary schoolchildren, travelling at up to 23cm per minute on its six claw-like legs. It cannot, as playground myth would have it, jump, fly or swim. Nor can it survive on car seats or pillows. But as anyone dealing with an infestation will tell you, it is notoriously difficult to control.

While chemists’ shelves groan with head lice treatments, none has been shown to be 100 per cent effective. Some (like Derbac M and Lyclear) use neurotoxins to immobilise and kill the lice, though studies show an 80 per cent rise in lice-resistance to these products since the 1970s. Newer products (including Hedrin) use a silicone-based ingredient called Dimeticone, which coats and suffocates the lice. All are expensive and largely ineffective: the only proven way to shut down an infestation is by systematic wet-combing, however much your child protests.

To do this efficiently, wet hair should be smothered in conditioner and section-combed with a fine, long-toothed comb – try either a LiceMeister ( £15.50, thehairforce.co.uk) or a Nitty Gritty Comb (£11.49, nittygritty.co.uk). Long hair should be bunched into six sections, each tackled individually by running the comb from root to tip, checking the comb after each stroke. This is a painstakingly slow process, and one that should be carried out daily for three days, the process repeated the following week if you have an infestation.

‘People need to be aware of the louse’s life cycle and timings in order to beat it,’ says Dee Wright, the founder of the Hair Force (thehairforce.co.uk), a head lice elimination service in London’s Primrose Hill, and the author of Comb to Kill, an upbeat instruction leaflet that accompanies the lice combs she sells. ‘An adult louse needs to mate only once, after which she can lay between three and 10 eggs per day for up to 30 days,’ Wright explains. ‘The eggs, laid close to the scalp and often invisible to the human eye, take seven to 11 days to hatch. Baby lice take 12 days to develop their sex organs and begin to reproduce again.’ Bearing in mind that 53 per cent of children do not start to scratch immediately, if you do not check them at least once a week you could be infested before you know it.

Wright offers a lice-clearing service either at home or in her salon, which uses specially developed machines for vacuuming the hair and dehydrating the lice, followed by the manual removal of any remaining lice and eggs. Though 100 per cent effective (until the next time a nit makes camp), it does not come cheap: it costs £100 for the first visit, then £50 for every follow-up visit, with most clients needing two or three. But for those of us stuck with an army of head lice marching back on to our children every time they set foot in the classroom, she has some sterling words of advice: ‘As long as you know your enemy you can control it. Check your child’s hair every week whether they are itching or not, and the moment you find an adult louse start wet-combing before a new infestation takes hold.’ By my reckoning, if I start now, we might all be nit-free by the beginning of term.

Read this article on the Telegraph website.

The Hairforce killing nits and head lice in Leeds using our exclusive technology - the LouseBuster

Leeds Bug Buster tackles head lice exclusive

By Laura Bowyer

It’s a head-scratching problem for any parent.

But luckily Jess Martin and a crack team of louse busters are on the case to scratch that itch and blitz pesky head lice away.

It might look like something straight out of a Ghostbusters movie. But this hoover-like device is the Rapid Response Lice Assassin’s biggest trick of the trade. The aptly named LouseBuster blows out pulses of hot air to help obliterate nits.

Jess, 25, from Headingley, Leeds, and the rapid response team work their way across Leeds and West Yorkshire to help keep lice at bay.

She told the YEP: “We get lots of parents giggling at The LouseBuster because it looks like some sort of machine from Ghostbusters.

“We often joke about wearing it on our backs but at least it gets people actually talking about it. Head lice are such a taboo subject and people don’t want really to talk about them too much.

“Lots of people don’t really know what they are and there are lots of rumours about head lice. I can tell the sex of a louse and how old it is and people find that quite interesting. I think it also breaks down that image of a nit nurse too.”

Jess is a mature student at Leeds Metropolitan University studying contemporary arts processes. When not at uni she has her trusty white and purple uniform at hand and dishes out advice about how to avoid catching head lice.

Jess first started tackling head lice when she lived in London three years ago.

HairForce, the company she works for, appeared on Channel Four’s Embarrassing Bodies alongside Dr Christian Jessen.

Jess added: “As a child my mum spent about four years trying out chemicals and combs, lotions and even butter on me and my sister, so being able to help others win the battle is amazing satisfaction.”

To contact Jess, visit her page on this website or email her: jess@thehairforce.co.uk

Read this article on the Yorkshire Evening Post website

Meet our intern, Fluffy Louse.  A lighthearted exploration of life as a head louse.  Embarrassing Bodies follows this one.

Visit our Tumblr to keep up with Fluffy Louse:

http://thebestthingaboutbeingaheadlouse.tumblr.com/

By Niamh O’Connell

I was an au pair in France for a summer at the age of 18. One day I came into the living-room to see the mother sitting on the sofa, the cat on her lap, tweezers in hand, and a jam-jar of hot soapy water on the coffee table in front of her. She was picking out the fleas from the cat’s fur, and sending them to their death via the hot soapy water. This grossed me out. I felt a little sorry for the fleas (extreme animal rights reaction, I am well aware) and kept my distance from the moggy for the rest of my stay. A few years later in a hostel in southern Spain a flea jumped across my pillow, and my freak-out reaction got laughs from the more seasoned travellers in the dorm. Let’s just say I’m not relaxed around parasites of any description.

Headlice really freak me out. The thought of them on my head, or my children’s heads actually makes my skin crawl. When Charlie starts school they will be an issue though. It’s rare the family that gets through the school years without an infestation of sorts. I am sure I will deal with them if I have to, but I would certainly rather not, the thought of it really turns my stomach. I would much rather a fairy-godmother wave her magic wand and have them disappear.

Firstly, the harsh chemicals in the lice-treatment shampoos on the market would scare me off. I remember as a child being doused in the most foul-smelling concoction, my eyes watering, my nose burning and sitting there for what seemed like hours, dire warnings not to scratch my head. The problem is that the lice shampoos on the market don’t work, see any parenting forum online, they are full of frustrated (usually) mothers who don’t know where to turn. They’ve been promised results from the pharmaceutical industry, and there doesn’t seem to be any back-up plan when these do not deliver. I think the success rate of over-the-counter lice shampoos lies at less than 20%. What other industry would accept such a low success rate? Yet the products are still on the market, still making money for the huge multi-national companies.

With all the warnings that come with hair dyes, the scalp is capable of absorbing many chemicals, and I would be very wary of putting any chemical treatment on my own children’s heads. Even now at the age of 3 Charlie might get only a teaspoon of bubblebath, and I still don’t use shampoo on his head, only conditioner, as I am so careful to keep his body away from chemicals. He has never had any skin complaints, and I am sure this is partly to thank, as the sodium laureth sulfate in every shampoo/bath bubbles has a really drying effect on the skin.
I have heard of natural treatments for head lice, using nit-combing and essential oils to scrape out the animals as soon as they hatch, though you are left with the live eggs in between, combing out the lice every few weeks as they mature and hatch out of the eggs. That doesn’t appeal to me either. What if they start hatching one night, and have visited us all by morning?

A fairy godmother has arrived on the scene though, looking after the lice problem for you, it’s called The Hairforce– Lice Assassins, a nit and head lice clearing service. Their revolutionary technology – the LouseBuster™ machine – uses just controlled heated air to simply dehydrate over 95% of both the nits and head lice in one 30 minute session. The dead nits and lice are then simply combed out. They want to bring their genius business opportunity to Ireland so women over here can get their hands on the LouseBuster™ machine. Their Rapid Response Unit is a package that enables you to run your own part-time, flexible business, and earn a good income whilst bringing much needed help to families in the community. The story is a powerful one – expensive lice products deliver over 80% failure for the consumer; the LouseBuster™ delivers over 95% success.

The Lousebuster machine, operated by a trained professional essentially extracts the water out of both the head lice and their eggs, so they are dehydrated and therefore dead. This is a 30 minute process, easily executed and highly effective, killing over 95% of the infestation in this one go. You then simply comb out the dehydrated head lice and nits, and The Hairforce have a Clearing System they can furnish you with so you can comb them out like you’ve never done before. The treatment is available in the UK at present, but are looking to expand into Ireland.

The company was set up by Dee Wright, a UK-based mother who was looking for a business opportunity, and has created a great brand, with a cool image, and none of the embarrassment or “hiding in the closet” that having headlice usually entails. Much like a hair appointment, you would arrange your Lousebusting appointment, sit back, and let them take care of your problem.
Their website is thankfully free of gratuitous photos of “the enemy” (i.e. the lice) and is easy to navigate. Their imagery is slick and cool, creating a superhero / Charlie’s Angels image for their Lice Assassins. I can imagine having a child who’s freaking out at the thought of their headlice feeling very empowered about the treatment “Let’s call in the Hairforce!” and confident in the thought that these Lousebusters will solve the problem professionally and quickly.

The Hairforce have been enjoying a great media profile of late, featuring on the series “Embarrassing Bodies” and many newspaper and radio slots, as their website attests. Dee is involved in the day-to-day running of the business, it is still “her baby” and you can be confident that this is a professional outfit.

I know the days of the “nit nurse” in school are over, but there is still a stigma attached to having headlice. Victoria White recently wrote a column in the Herald about “nits” being a feminist issue, as it is usually the mother’s responsibility to detect and destroy the infestation. I know in the years to come if headlice are an issue in our family my first port of call will be to these professionals, letting someone else do the dirty work for me. Call me a lazyass, but this is one area where I’d rather not get my hands dirty.

If you are in Ireland and looking to make some extra money, you may consider buying a Rapid Response Unit and run your own small business dehydrating nits and head lice. If you are interested please contact dee@thehairforce.co.uk

Visit The Hairforce – Lice Assassins on Facebook

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Inspired by the approach she has joined The Hairforce’s swelling ranks to deliver a much needed service to parents and children alike.  She is passionate about delivering this significant alternative approach to the problem:

“Parents are sick of the products not delivering what they say they will time and time again. Parents need an alternative, and they are desperate for something that actually works.

The LouseBuster machine not only delivers a kill rate of over 95%, it also does it in an entirely natural way. No chemical or pesticides are necessary. It simply uses controlled heated air to dehydrate not only the head lice but significantly also the nits (the eggs).

It is the nits that defeat the products, and certainly the parents. Parents waste a lot of money on products. They buy them knowing that they won’t really work.  Delivering this service I know I am delivering something that is the very opposite to that – value for money and effectiveness. I am so excited to be able to offer this to parents in Sutton and the Sutton area.”

For information on Melanie’s working hours and to book an appointment, please visit Melanie’s contact page.

Start your own Rapid Response Unit

We are creating a national network of Rapid Response Units, delivering our unique service to desperate parents and their children. Find out how you could buy and run your own part-time, flexible business, supported by one of the most innovative brands in the UK.

Build a Rapid Response Unit business with the LouseBuster

RAPID RESPONSE UNITS – THE NEW BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITY THAT DELIVERS
FLEXIBLE PART-TIME WORK
WITH A GOOD INCOME

Women need business opportunities like never before as they come under increasing pressure to earn. As opportunities diminish in traditional companies, more entrepreneurial ideas fill the gap. Add to this the requirement for many women to find something that satisfies the need for work to be flexible and/or part-time, and those ideas need to be innovative if they aren’t going to fall into the usual crowded market of cleaning and jewelry parties. The Hairforce have responded by creating a highly accessible package – their Rapid Response Units.
The Rapid Response Unit business opportunity gives women instant access to their exclusive technology – the LouseBuster™ machine – and therefore the ability to execute 30 minute appointments that kill over 95% of the nits and head lice in an infestation. The client then simply combs out the dead nits and head lice. Totally chemical free, the LouseBuster™ uses controlled heated air to dehydrate both the head lice and their eggs (the nits).

Nits and head lice are a very big market in the UK. Mums and Dads buy £33 million worth of product every year well aware that it delivers seriously low rates of effectiveness – in fact frequently it will not work as over 80% of the time lice are simply immune to the ingredients. Where the products deliver over 80% failure for the consumer, the LouseBuster™ delivers over 95% success, making this service a great story to sell.

The Rapid Response Unit opportunity is a very female focused business opportunity – it provides flexible part-time working, is child orientated and encourages not only independence, but also the use of the parenting networks women are so very good at creating and working. This business is an opportunity for mothers to access an approach to clearing nits and head lice that actually works – and there is nothing more powerful than women supporting other women.

The Rapid Response Unit opportunity is deliberately pitched at a low cost in order to get women up and running – and importantly earning – quickly. The entry cost of £2420 plus VAT includes a full day’s intense training and a uniform. The training covers a full certification course in using the LouseBuster™ machine and all the elements required in running a Rapid Response Unit business.
Rapid Response Units have already sprung up in West Yorkshire and Surrey, with more on the way in other parts of the UK.

‘This service is an exciting challenge to the products, and a powerful way to break the troubled cycle so many parents and children find themselves in – I’m thrilled to be a Rapid Response Unit here in Yorkshire and I’m seeing a great response to the service’.

Jess Martin, Rapid Response Unit owner, Headingley, Leeds.

It was a healthy break from the usual narrative around head lice because it gave further in-depth explanation as to why this problem just simply won’t go away. Scott writes about Clara who has, ‘tried every product on the market without success ranging, from tea-tree and herbal shampoos to some really nasty chemicals’. At The Hairforce – Lice Assassins, a unique nit and head lice clearing service based in London we see this same experience repeated amongst our substantial client base.

One of the accusations levied at mums is that somewhere in every class there is a mum that doesn’t care about head lice, and because she doesn’t tackle it everyone else’s efforts are undermined. What we see, and what Scott’s article verifies, is that mums try very hard to do something about head lice but the products they are using on the back of expert advice are letting them down. If as the article lays bare, products are often backed by poor evidence; deeply flawed research (investigate the base sizes of much of the research and you will be shocked how low they are); and more worryingly research – and therefore the ‘impartial’ experts behind that research – is funded by the drug companies themselves, you see an equivalent to a Ponzi scheme with concerned parents as the losers.  As Scott concludes, ‘It’s an ideal market to sell expensive products that don’t quite work.’

We see the really unacceptable face of this when we clear heavy infestations. The worst case we have ever seen is of a 6 year old girl whose very serious infestation had been tackled by her GP with repeated prescriptions of dimeticone over a long period of time. What we found was a child whose hair was brittle, whose scalp was scarred, and most distressingly whose hair was simply coming away in places when you attempted to nit comb – and who was still riddled with head lice. Repeated uses of dimeticone hadn’t solved anything and had literally siliconed the nits so firmly onto the hair that you couldn’t get all of them off. You may criticise the mother in your head when you read this, but she made repeated trips to her GP for help and with his help put her faith in a product.

Some would say our service is also an expensive option. However, ‘we do exactly what we say on the tin’ – we guarantee to shut it all down and end the infestation. In just 2 appointments, 7 days apart – 2.5 hours of intense, forensic work – we remove everything, cutting off the development process. In contrast a parent can be many weeks, often months, and sometimes years struggling to keep it under control themselves. That invariably involves a lot of product – and at the price of the products, that can add up to well in excess of our prices. Others who use our service would say it is the best money they have ever spent after having lived the months or years scenario. And really that’s the point of what we do – to deliver something that is honest, transparent and effective because mums need proper support and positive results not empty promises.

We use unique controlled, heated air technology with the LouseBuster™ to dehydrate the nits in order to speed up the whole process, but we also do what Scott advocates – we remove all the nits (the eggs), because at the heart of shutting down an infestation you need to get those nits out of the hair. The products would have you believe that isn’t necessary because they want you to keep using them, time and time again.

We aren’t advocating everyone should use us, because we know that isn’t possible or feasible, but what we would advocate is that mums consider the seriousness of Scott’s article. At the end of the day Hedrin Once have used the following line in their TV campaign for a reason – ‘Hedrin Once could kill head lice and their eggs’ – because the advertising regulators who caution against unsubstantiated promises would have made them.