Struggling with Head Lice?
We are here to help. Without pesticides, without stress.
Our Services
Family Services
Our Family Services are provided in your home. Depending on your location, a service charge will apply. Please see Areas of Service section below to see the charge for your area. Our services are charged at $96 per hour. After the first hour, we will charge in 15 minute increments.
Time estimates are included in the service descriptions below.
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Our technician will take a thorough look through your family’s dry hair. Live lice are able to expertly move away from the screening area, but their nits are glued to the hair shaft and cannot escape the scrutiny of our high-magnification visors.
A dry screen takes about 10- 15 mins per person, depending on the density and condition of your hair (freshly detangled hair is much quicker to check!) If nits or live lice are seen on a dry screen, we will offer to switch from screening mode to removal mode.
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A wet screen is a more definitive screening technique than a dry screen because live lice cannot escape detection. We will saturate your hair in conditioner and comb through it in larger sections. The live lice are immobilized by the conditioner and the nits are no match for our comb. After combing each section we wipe the conditioner on a white cloth. The brown lice and nits are easily visible. After a clear wet screen and hearing your treatment history, our Educator can give you a very definitive all-clear
A wet screen takes 15 - 30 mins depending on the length and condition of your hair. As with a dry screen, freshly detangled hair will take less time. If lice or nits are found, we will immediately offer to switch from screening mode to removal mode.
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In cases where head lice is already known to be present, we will jump right into removal mode. We begin by saturating your dry hair and scalp in ordinary white conditioner, sectioning it into four main quadrants, then clearing each quadrant one small section at a time. We will add more conditioner to your hair and scalp as we go to ensure the live lice are immobilized. As we work, we are wiping our comb onto a white cloth. The lice and nits are shades of brown, and stand out from the white conditioner and cloth. This allows us to assess how established your case is and customize a follow-up schedule for you.
The average removal takes about one hour for a person with medium to long hair and a low infestation. This will vary depending on hair length, hair condition, and level of infestation. We will be able to give you an approximate quote upon looking at your hair.
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Follow up is always a necessary part of head lice treatment. This is because there are two stages in the life cycle of head lice when the items are too small to remove. When the nit is first laid on the hair shaft, it is too small to comb out, and when the baby nymph hatches out of its shell it is very tiny and stays directly on your scalp feeding. These two stages are all but impossible to remove during your first combout. The same would be true for a pesticide treatment. During your first combout we will remove almost all of what is present, but there will almost certainly be a number of those two tiny phases left behind.
The best strategy is to wait a few days for the tiny nits to plump up as they develop, and for the tiny nymphs to feed and grow a bit larger. The next combout will be more effective if the items are allowed to grow. This is good news - there is absolutely no need to exhaust yourself or your children by combing every day. Lice cannot reproduce until they are adults, so as long as you continue to comb regularly - every three to five days - you will comb out the developing nits and nymphs before they reach adulthood.
You can have us come back to do your follow up combouts, or do them yourself, as we will teach you how during your first appointment. We will leave you with a follow up schedule to follow until you get a first clear combout. Getting two combouts 7-10 days apart is the sure-fire way to know you are absolutely finished.
Community Services
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Useful as a preventative measure for schools, dance and gymnastics studios, summer camps etc. Two or more team members will come to your location to provide a mass screening of all children in your group over a one or two day period. This is helpful in identifying all unknown cases during an outbreak of head lice, or by preventing outbreaks from occurring in the first place. Adults working with the children are screened free of charge.
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Useful for PACs, Friendship Centres, and other community groups who want to be proactive against head lice outbreaks by educating their members about head lice prevention, identification and safe and effective removal. Information sessions can be tailored to suite the specific needs of your group.
Education Sessions typically cost $250 plus service fee, which varies depending on location. Zoom sessions do not require a service fee.
For pricing in community services, please contact us to discuss your needs and receive an estimate.
Areas of Service
Greater Vancouver, BC
Varies by region
Victoria, BC
Service charge - $50
Includes Esquimalt at the west, and follows Island Hwy to Helmcken, Wilkinson and Royal Oak, to Cordova Bay Road at the north edge of PKOLS.
Contact: victoria@liceoutservices.com
About us
Our Head Lice Educators have a combined decade of experience working with families who have head lice. They are passionate about stepping in to reassure stressed families that their struggle will soon be over - without the use of pesticides. Our Educators are caring, compassionate and calm, are mothers who have been in this situation themselves, and work with children extensively in their other careers. Our Educators have regularly updated Criminal Record checks.
Our approach
Good news - there is no need to use potentially harmful pesticides on your family. Lice Out Educators use a manual approach to head lice removal. We simply trap the live lice in ordinary hair conditioner. Then we comb them out, along with their nits, using an excellent lice comb. As we comb, we’ll teach you our technique so that you can break up the life cycle yourself.
Our Team
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Dana Warburton
Head Lice Educator
Greater Vancouver, BC
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Marlow Sturgeon
Head Lice Educator
Victoria, BC
Contact Us
Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Greater Vancouver (Dana) phone or text: 604 771 4467
Victoria (Marlow) phone or text: 778 321 0796
FAQs
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We feel there are several reasons to completely avoid pesticides:
There is absolutely no point to them. By immobilizing the live lice with conditioner, and combing them out along with the nits, you simply do not need a pesticide.
Pesticides are not proven to be safe, especially for multiple uses. But multiple uses are almost always necessary to be effective. Across our decade of experience we have worked with countless families who have used multiple pesticides, multiple times, and they still have lice. They may think they are being re-infested by their homes (they are not!) or by classmates, but in fact they are simply not breaking up the life cycle.
Pesticides make you itchy. They are intensely drying for your scalp, and the itchiness they cause just confuses the issue even further.
Pesticides are rinsed out of our hair into our sewers and eventually our waterways, causing unknown potential harm to the environment.
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That may be true, but if it claims to kill a pest, then it is a pesticide, naturally derived or otherwise. And the other four reasons cited above still apply!
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Some studies have been conducted that show head lice are becoming resistant to more and more types of pesticide. But that is of no importance to us as they are utterly helpless against manual removal!
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No. Live lice breathe through vents in the sides of their body that they can close when water is present, and they can go a long time without breathing - that’s why washing your hair has no effect on them. But when we apply the thick conditioner to them, it blocks up the breathing vents and they are temporarily trapped in it, so that we can comb them out, along with their nits (eggs).
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No. Head lice are a human parasite and as such, live directly on our scalps. They need the constant warmth of our heads and a constant blood supply to survive. They do not wander into our environment like bedbugs or fleas do. That means washing your bedding the same day you discover you have lice and do your first combout is as prudent as you need to be. A healthy well-fed adult louse can live a maximum of 48 hours off its human host, and is very visible (as large as a fruit fly). It will not leave your head willingly unless it’s onto someone else’s. But if it does by some terrible accident find itself in your bedding, hat, or elsewhere, it will dehydrate and die quite quickly.
Nits (lice eggs) do not ever enter our surroundings as they are glued to our hairshaft and need the warmth of our heads to incubate. If a shed hair happened to have a nit on it, the nymph inside would not survive.
If it makes you feel better to wash recently worn clothing and give your couch a light vacuum - go ahead, it doesn’t hurt. Items such as stuffies that have been in close recent contact can be set aside for 48 hours or put in the dryer. But do not exhaust yourself cleaning every item in your home.
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Head lice is almost always spread through head-to-head contact. This is why it is so common for children to catch it. Children are very prone to touching their heads together while they play or read with their friends, cousins and classmates, whereas adults rarely do this. It also explains why parents and teachers are susceptible!
It is very rare to catch head lice from an object such as a hat or cinema seat. This is because head lice are a human parasite and as such, live directly on our scalps. They need the constant warmth of our heads and a constant blood supply to survive. They do not wander into our environment like bedbugs or fleas do.
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Follow up is always a necessary part of head lice treatment. This is because there are two stages in the life cycle of head lice when the items are too small to remove. When the nit is first laid on the hair shaft, it is too small to comb out, and when the baby nymph hatches out of its shell it is very tiny and stays directly on your scalp feeding. These two stages are all but impossible to remove during your first combout. The same would be true for a pesticide treatment. During your first combout we will remove almost all of what is present, but there will almost certainly be a number of those two tiny phases left behind.
The best strategy is to wait a few days for the tiny nits to plump up as they develop, and for the tiny nymphs to feed and grow a bit larger. The next combout will be more effective if the items are allowed to grow. This is good news - there is absolutely no need to exhaust yourself or your children by combing every day.
You can have us come back to do your follow up combouts, or do them yourself, as we will teach you how during your first appointment. We will leave you with a follow up schedule to follow until you get a first clear combout. Getting two combouts 7-10 days apart is the sure-fire way to know you are absolutely finished.
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No. Luckily, head lice are human parasites and are not attracted to other animals. They will not be able to establish themselves on your pet. Dogs do have their own dog lice, but they catch it from other dogs. Happily, it’s much easier to comb out that human lice because dog lice move very slowly within the fur - unlike human lice!