Don’t Let Lice Ruin Your Thanksgiving
Although many consider Halloween to be the kickoff to the holiday season, Thanksgiving is the holiday that really gets everything started. It’s the first fall/winter holiday where school is let out for several days, and families and friends gather together. Seeing relatives and loved ones you haven’t seen for some time means that there might be an influx of hugging and cuddling, which is a ripe opportunity for head lice to be spread. Head lice don’t care what time of the year it is, they just want a warm head to feed on and lay their eggs and they will happily infest a new host if they get the chance!
Even if it’s never happened before, it’s entirely possible for a family member to bring a case of head lice to a family gathering without anyone knowing it, others may not want anyone to know. Too many people deal with head lice in silence because they’re self-conscious, thinking that head lice are a symptom of poor hygiene or a dirty home. However, this is completely untrue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that “Personal hygiene or cleanliness in the home or school has nothing to do with getting head lice.”
“When we don’t talk about head lice and how to prevent and treat it, we actually increase the odds of being infested,” says Mark Meyer owner of Lice Clinics of America – Northwest serving Oregon and Southwest Washington. “It may be an uncomfortable topic to talk about, but it’s important to do so in order to help prevent the spread of lice. Lice can be silent attendees at your holiday dinner.”
When a case of lice isn’t spoken about to anyone, the spread of it can go unchecked. Even if you or your child are treated for head lice, you won’t know who else has it unless someone speaks up. The main reason why people don’t talk about head lice is out of fear: fear of being unfairly judged for being infested, or fear of the nature of head lice itself. Well-known lice treatments often require multiple applications, and, during those treatments, only live bugs are killed. This means in order to be successful hours and hours of treatments and combing have to take place before all forms of head lice are gone.
“At Lice Clinics of America – Northwest, we eliminate the need for days and days of combing through hair at home,” said Mark. We use the FDA-cleared Class I medical device the AirAllé, which is clinically proven to kill live lice and 99.2 percent of nits. It uses heated air to dehydrate lice and lice eggs, or nits.”
The AirAllé treatment takes about an hour and is incredibly effective because it not only kills the lice – but, it kills the eggs, so they never hatch, which means no “nit-picking” is required. As part of our service, we do offer a comb-out to remove any of the dead debris from the hair. The best part is customers go home lice-free. In turn, it also makes their holidays worry-free and that much more enjoyable!
Lice Clinics of America has over 300 clinics in 35 countries, making it the world’s largest network of professional lice treatment centers. Lice Clinics of America – Northwest operates clinics in Portland, Clackamas, Salem and Bend, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington and is open seven days a week, 365 days a year by appointment. Call 503-404-0475 or visit liceclinicsnorthwest.com for more information or to schedule an appointment.
