Beware the physician that makes a commission.

As a lice professional, I am happy to take your money. But I am also the first to tell you that while you may need my advice, you probably don't need my services.
I don't sell any products and I am happy to give you free advice through this blog and over the phone about how to deal with your head lice problem.
You may already know that I'm not the first professional nit picker in Canada. But I was the first to run her business as The Nice Lice Lady. Then, about a year after I was in business, another woman who runs a lice removal franchise in Ontario started calling herself the Nice Lice Lady. She's not from Edmonton, so I thought, gee, there's enough lice to go around for both of us.

Now she has started her own lice lady blog. Hey, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And she even refers to me on her blog. I am honoured, with the exception that she is claiming that I am mistaken about a product that she is selling. Her franchise sells and rents out The LouseBuster (Update: this device has been renamed the AirAlle). In other posts, I have referred to this device as a souped-up hairdryer. It was developed by biologists at The University of Utah. It works by drying out most of the nits and lice. And it works. Sounds good.

However, this other lice professional compares my advice about using regular blow dryers as another tool in the fight against head lice to quack remedies like using camel urine. My favourite part of her blog post says, "In Edmonton...a professional nit picker advises her clients to use a blow dryer on a low setting to kill lice eggs. She says it's proven. By who I wonder?"

I am overjoyed to tell you who has done the research on regular hair dryers. The research was done by the fine folks at The University of Utah. These are the very same folks that invented The LouseBuster (Update: This device has been renamed the AirAlle) and who then created a spin-off company to market it called Lareda Sciences. Here are their findings about using a regular hair dryer in their study as published in the November 2006 issue of Pediatrics:

"A handheld blow dryer was used to apply directed heating. Hair clips were used to divide each child's hair into 20 sections. The dryer was held still for 30 seconds to heat one side of each section, then held still another 30 seconds to heat the other side. This method killed 55 percent of lice and 98 percent of eggs."

Hey, don't just take my word for it. You can read about their study for yourself at www.unews.utah.edu/p/?r=101906-9. Or read the entire 11 page study as published in Pediatrics:http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/118/5/1962.

And how effective is the LouseBuster (AirAlle)? According to the same study, it kills 80% of the lice and 98% of the eggs. As you can see, it is somewhat more effective than a blow dryer when it comes to the bugs. With the eggs, it has the same effectiveness as a regular blow dryer (when directed heating is used). These are not my findings - I did not prove these things. THEY did, and if their findings are flawed, then I would also question the claims of their product. By looking at the bar graph from their study (below), you can see that all forms of heated air treatment that were studied had some effectiveness, primarily with nits:

I have nothing against this woman and I even promote other lice professionals. In Edmonton, I have met many people who have used the services of The Nitpickers with great success. I'm not trying to do anything that would put us out of business - like I said, there's more than enough lice to go around. What I am against is the perpetuation of the myth that you need expensive treatments or even "professionals" to deal with this problem. Lice advice and removal should be accessible. Yes, I charge for my services, but I first give people information they can use to deal with this problem themselves if they so wish.

The LouseBuster (AirAlle) is a very fine product, I'm sure. If it was the new cure in the head lice fight, then this franchise wouldn't need to offer any other products - but they still sell a ton of other things. Don't always go looking for a shiny new thing to deal with an age old problem. With sound information and diligence, you can beat head lice on your own.