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.

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.’

If anyone wishes to contact Melanie her details are melanie@thehairforce.co.uk or 07508 904012.

If you are interested in providing this service in your area do contact The Hairforce at opportunity@thehairforce.co.uk or call on 020 7485 7351.

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.

Clara Nunes’s heart sinks when she sees her three young children scratching their heads. She knows that head lice are, yet again, spreading through school like wildfire.

Over the past ten years the problem has become so widespread that head lice are a fact of life for many parents of primary school-aged children.
It’s now estimated more than a third (37 per cent) of all four to 11 year-olds will get them at least once a year, compared to just 1.5 per cent in 1977.

She is not alone. As the school year starts and parents prepare for the inevitable cycle of treating and retreating their children, some experts say products are often backed by poor evidence.

Furthermore, the most effective cure is vigorous combing with basic conditioner.

Head lice spread particularly rapidly among primary school-aged youngsters because they play and work closely enough together for their heads to touch, thus transferring the lice.

Because they breed so quickly — with an adult female head louse laying six to eight eggs a day — head lice are very difficult to eradicate.

Symptoms include constant itching, while in some cases an allergic reaction to the bite can lead to dermatitis and infections.

‘However, 53 per cent of children don’t scratch immediately, so by the time your child starts itching they’ve probably had lice for weeks or even months,’ says Dr Andrea Franks, consultant
There is no surprise, then, that the head lice industry, worth £33.5 million in the UK, is booming. Chemists’ shelves groan with ‘herbal’ shampoos and sprays, although no studies show that they work.

Other products contain insecticides such as Permethrin (Lyclear creme rinse) and Malathion (Derbac M liquid). These are all neurotoxins which act by irreversibly immobilising lice.

Newer to the market is the silicone-based ingredient Dimeticone (found in Hedrin, Hedrin Once and Nyda) which is said to kill lice and eggs by coating them and smothering them. All are available on NHS prescription. But the problem is that head lice are extremely adaptive and have eventually developed resistance to almost every product, which may explain the huge rise in cases.

In the Seventies, using Malathion to combat an infestation of head lice was more than 90 per cent likely to beat the problem.

But a study involving ten schools in Bath and Bristol in 1999 reported a 64  per cent failure rate for Malathion and a 87 per cent failure rate for Permethrin.

Research in 2006 involving Welsh school children suggested that 80 per cent of lice in that area were resistant to both Permethrin.

Because Dimeticone works by smothering the lice to kill them rather than poisoning them, it’s claimed the bugs are unlikely to become resistant to it.

A study published in the British Medical Journal in 2005 suggested a 65-70 per cent success rate. However. some experts question the validity of research into headlice products.

Professor Robert Vander Stichele, a Belgian GP, reviewed 28 studies of head lice treatments for a paper published in the British Medical Journal in 1995, and found much of the research deeply flawed.

He says his has been the only independent investigation in 15 years, claiming that research reflects the fact that it’s funded by drug companies.

‘Few entomologists with an interest in head lice control are completely independent,’ he claims.
‘It means there is a huge risk of bias.

‘Parents will go on buying the same lotion, hoping for a different result,’ he says, adding: ‘It’s an ideal market to sell expensive products which don’t quite work. All these products will kill some lice, but none kill all lice and eggs. After a couple of weeks, new lice hatch and you’re back where you started.’

In Australia last year, the advertising regulator for health products upheld complaints over an advert for Hedrin lotion which included the claim: ‘Kill rate 97 per cent clinically proven.’

The regulator was ‘by no means satisfied the study could support either the ‘kill rate’ or the claim that this kill rate was ‘clinically proven.’

The regulator also pointed out that several other studies suggested a significantly lower success rate for Dimeticone, Hedrin’s active ingredient. (In the UK TV campaign, the slogan is ‘Hedrin Once could kill head lice and their eggs’).

Meanwhile, there is also concern about the regulation of such products, suggests Dr Jose Figueroa, deputy director of public health for City and Hackney Primary Care Trust.

He says: ‘Some treatments are considered “liquid medical devices” which means there is far less regulation than there should be and studies don’t stand up to scrutiny, yet they should be as rigorous as those in any other area of medicine.’

One old-fashioned, yet apparently effective alternative is combing out the lice using normal conditioner on wet hair and a special fine-toothed comb.

A community scheme using this approach was pioneered on Teesside in the Seventies by the father of Sir Liam Donaldson, the former chief medical officer. It halved the level of infestation.

Mentored by Dr Donaldson, Joanna Ibarra, a mother of two set up the charity Community Hygiene Concern and developed the Bug Buster kit (four specially designed combs and a rigorous set of instructions) 30 years ago when she and her own children were constantly infested.

In the only long-term trial to compare the results of treating head lice with an insecticide product with those of wet combing, scientists from the London School of Tropical Medicine found that regular Bug Busting was four times more effective than chemical treatments.

The study observed 133 children over a year, and found wet combing to be 57 per cent effective compared with 13 per cent for Malathion. Wet combing is also recommended by the Department of Health’s NHS choices website.

However, while the technique is cheap (the kit costs £6.10) it is also time-consuming, needing around 15 minutes to thoroughly comb each head — and effective only if instructions are followed closely.

Wet combing must be repeated four times, leaving four days between sessions.

Indeed a report by the Public Health Medicine Environmental Group three years ago ruled out Bug Busting as an effective method of lice control since the skill level needed ‘does not exist amongst the general public’.

Some health authorities have since abandoned their Bug Busting campaigns in favour of Dimeticone-based treatments — to the consternation of Dr Franks.

‘We know that regularly combing conditioner through wet hair is the cheapest and most effective way of keeping on top of the problem,’ she says.

Caroline Wheeler, marketing director for Hedrin says: ‘The support package for Hedrin Once has come from an extensive programme of work both in the laboratory (in-vitro) and clinical studies.

‘Competitors have been keen to challenge our advertising claims but, having conducted a thorough review of the data file, the ASA ruled against a competitor challenge earlier this year.’

Read the article on the Daily Mail website

Romance and brutal lice assassination went hand in hand when our Brighton branch opened on the 14th February.  It has already attracted the attention of The Argus’ Business Editor, John Keenan who was fascinated by our highly effective approach to the treatment of head lice.  A new take on beside the sea…

Lice to see you, to see you lice…

Daisy Campbell is trained in the theatre but these days she makes a living by not making drama out of a crisis. Ms Campbell’s new role is as a Lice Assassin. From her Hairforce Lounge in Eaton Place, Kemp Town, Brighton, she has declared war on nits.

Ms Campbell said, “I started to take a serious interest in the subject when my first daughter was three. She got head lice and it was a really stressful experience. I trawled the internet looking for anything that would help. We were giving lice to all our friends and nothing would shift it.”

Using the new LouseBuster technology, she stamps out the infestations that can make life a misery for children and cause their parents to tear their hair out. The LouseBuster, she says, is the answer to her prayers. She says the device works by sucking the water out of the lice, therefore drying them out. The controlled heated air is delivered at a temperature cooler than most hair dryers and at a much higher flow rate. A specific timed treatment pattern ensures all areas of the head are treated. The device was tried out in the United States before being introduced into the UK.

Ms Campbell said, “When lice are exposed to the right amount of heated air at the right temperature, and for the right length of time, they dry out and die. It is the nits – or eggs – that consistently defeat most people, creating the vicious cycle of treatment and hatching that is all too familiar.”

“I don’t think people really appreciate how miserable it can make kids. They get really embarrassed about it.”

Ms Campbell says she has gone to great lengths to make sure the atmosphere in her studio is not clinical.

She said: “I want the children to be relaxed. The decoration is really soft and the kids can play Nintendo and other games.”

“I find the work therapeutic and it makes me proud to send the children away happy. Plus the job is perfect because it allows me to be flexible as a working mum.”

For more information go to www.thehairforce.co.uk or call Daisy Campbell on 01273 682865.

The fabulous Fay Ripley popped in to have a quick check for lice and nits, in between producing recipes, and got busy on Twitter at the same time.

@FayRipley 22 Feb
In thehairforce.co.uk nit checking chair. They r hoovering my head.Amazing.Might get’em to m.o.t my coil whilst I’m here.Results to follow

Hooray I’m clear but apparently my coil is rusty …..

Apparently the male louse has penis….

Did you know that that her book, “Fay’s Family Food” was the winner of Mumsnet Cookbook of the year award 2011? Follow her Twitter for more of her delicious recipes!

Taken from Tanith’s book, “How to be an Amazing Mum When You Just Don’t Have the Time: The Ultimate Handbook for Hassled Mothers”, she says,

“GET RID OF NITS Blitz nits with a visit to The Hairforce – Lice Assassins who will vacuum your child’s hair and get rid of the eggs and lice once and for all – this is how to get rid of nits the best way.  The company is soon going nationwide.”

The country’s in need of our services!

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, today warned journalists visiting Downing Street to watch out for nits! It seems that his daughter Nancy, seven, and son Arthur, four came home from school with head lice.

When asked about the infestation his spokesman said, “I think it’s contained”. But two of our patriotic ladies, having heard about the infestation of head lice and nits, headed straight to No.10 volunteering to save the Prime Minister and his family.

Dr Christian Jessen sent Tiffany to be cleared by The Hairforce - Lice Assassins in the April 2010 show

Friday 24th September 2010

9.00 pm Channel 4 Embarrassing Bodies Series

BACK TO THE CLINIC

This award winning medical show revisited the child we cleared for them last year.  The programme looked back at the mission to kill lice and annihilate nits. It revisited the severe infestation she had, looked at how we had cleared her, and her transformation following that.  They found her happy and thriving, and significantly no longer teased and bullied at school.

Link to the show: http://www.channel4embarrassingillnesses.com/episodes/doctors/dr-jessen/

When nits happen…

By Editor Catherine O’Dolan

Posted on the Junior website 21st September 2010

They’re the bane of primary school, so how do you get rid of them? Read our essential facts of lice:

What are head lice? Lice are small, wingless, greyish-white insects with flattened, elongated bodies and oval heads. They are about 1/16 to 1/8 inch long.

Where can they be found? Head lice spend their entire lifespan in our hair, clinging tightly onto it as soon as they emerge from their eggs. They tend to stay close to our scalps so they can feed directly from our blood; they cannot survive for long once they have been removed from the head.

How do you get headlice? Head lice are very good at moving from one host to another during head-to-head contact. When your hair is touching someone else’s, even for a few moments, there is an opportunity for head lice to migrate. This is why they are so prevalent amongst primary school children.

How can you detect it? Often there is no sign of infestation until nits – hatched empty egg cases – start to become visible as they grow out in the hair. Not everyone itches. It’s best to use a fine-tooth nit comb, like the Nitty Gritty nit comb, to do a careful visual check for nits, eggs and head lice once or twice a week. The best time to do this wet-combing is when you wash and condition the hair, as in dry hair they will move rapidly away from the area being examined. Detection will be easiest with conditioner on the hair, as this will immobilise the lice. Section the hair and comb from the scalp downwards. After each stroke, check the teeth of the nit comb for live lice. Fully grown head lice are about the size of a small ant, but newly hatched eggs can be as small as a pinhead. If you inspect on dry hair make sure you do so in good light – by a window or under a desk lamp is ideal. Also look for eggs glued to the roots of the hair very close to the scalp. If you find any eggs or nits attached to the hair, then check all family members and use a nit comb to treat everyone who has lice, nits or eggs in their hair.

What is the difference between nits and eggs? ‘Live’ head louse eggs are each glued to an individual hair strand as soon as they are laid. Nits are the empty egg cases, which remain glued in place on the hair as it grows out after the nymph lice have hatched. Nits are often the first visible sign of a head lice infestation.

Where are the eggs found? Female head lice attach each egg to the root of an individual hair strand, very close to the scalp, so that when they hatch out, they are very close to their food source. Any eggs found more than about 1/2” from the scalp will be the nits, which remain glued to the hairshaft and grow out as our hair grows.

What do the eggs look like? They are about the size of a pin head, white to cream in colour and they look like a tiny, tiny teardrop securely fastened to the hair shaft.

All that wet-combing sounds like hard work. Are there any other alternative? You could visit The Hairforce, a swanky salon-style affair in London’s Regents Park. Here, the atmosphere is definitely more pampering hair salon than headlice removal service. Young clients are treated to bright mauve leather massage chairs, plus a choice of portable DVD player, magazines, children’s books and Nintendo DSs to distract and entertain while the serious business of combing with a nit comb and nit-picking is taking place.

Do they prefer clean or dirty hair? They’re not fussy, but it is easier for them to move freely around clean hair. They are tough, resourceful little creatures. You can’t wash them out, and there is no scientific evidence to indicate that either washing or not washing the hair will do anything to prevent an infestation.

Do they prefer boys or girls? As mothers, we feel that girls often spend more time than boys in head-to-head contact. Also they often have longer hair than boys, which can make it easier for head lice to move from one head to another. They don’t like testosterone, however, which is why is rare for fathers to have them.

Link to the article on Junior’s website: http://www.juniormagazine.co.uk/back-to-school/when-nits-happen/3664.html