The holiday season is one of the peak times for head lice as family’s travel, stay in close quarters, and kids spend more time with each other. There are also more occasions for hugs and hair-to-hair/head-to-head contact—the primary ways that head lice spread.
If you want to keep lice out of your life this holiday season, Lice Clinics of America® has some great tips along with products and services you might want to consider:
- Get checked before the holidays. Check your children’s heads for lice and check again before they go back to school. Symptoms like itching can take a week or more to develop, so don’t assume that because a child isn’t scratching his or her head that there are no lice present. If you want extra peace of mind, consider paying for a professional head check.
- Keep hair pulled back in a ponytail or braid. One way to avoid hair-to-hair contact is to keep kids’ hair pulled back to reduce the amount of hair that is loose when near others.
- Use preventative products. Lice Clinics of America offers prevention products—sprays, shampoos, and conditioners—which use a non-toxic solution that acts as a lice repellant. Each emits an odor that is undetectable to humans but repels head lice.
- Discourage sharing. While a bit of a contradiction of the holiday spirit, discourage children from sharing items that are prone to detach and hold loose strands of hair which may have a louse or a nit. It’s rare for lice to spread through objects because lice can’t survive for long on anything but human heads. However, sharing hats, earmuffs, scarves, or jackets that have been recently worn and may have loose hair strands from someone else should be avoided.
- Get OneCureTM. OneCure is a home version of the Lice Clinics of America’s FDA-cleared AirAllé® medical device clinically shown to kill live lice and more than 99 percent of eggs (nits) in a single hour-long treatment. This is especially valuable if you don’t live near a clinic. With OneCure, you can always be ready to be lice-free in an hour. OneCure comes in a kit with everything you need to treat two cases of head lice: the device, a lice comb, and a non-toxic gel with an applicator to facilitate combing out dead bugs. Visit onecurelice.com to learn more about this product.
- Don’t use traditional lice products. They may not work. Medical researchers have found that 98 percent of head lice in most states are now genetically resistant to the pesticides used in the most popular lice products. (Source: Journal of Medical Entomology). The keyword is pesticides—the same pesticides used in traditional lice products have been linked to health problems in children.
If you do find lice in your life over the holidays and live near a Lice Clinics of America, help is at hand. You can be lice-free in an hour with treatment from a certified AirAllé technician.
Here’s to a lice-free holiday season.
To learn more about Lice Clinics of America or to locate a clinic, visit www.liceclinicsofamerica.com.
