itch after the lice treatment

Why Do I Still Itch After the Lice Treatment?

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Customers sometimes call us in a panic a few days after visiting us.  They still itch after the lice treatment!  Itching is so common that we tell customers that they can itch for up to 6 weeks post-treatment.  Why?  Did we remove the lice or are they still infested?

You are not still infested.

Itching is Normal and Expected.

Itching is normal after our treatments because of three things.

  • Lice bite like mosquitos!  We remove the lice, but we can not remove the bites.

    • This itching usually resolves in a few days.
    • If your itching is because of the bug bites, then applying a bug bite medicine such as hydrocortisone or Benedryl Spray can help a lot.
    • You can also take an antihistamine, but we have found locally applied bug bite products to work as well or better.

  • We (and you) have dried out your scalp!

    • This might take a little while to resolve, usually a couple weeks.
    • We use Slippery Nit Saline Spray during our comb-outs.  Saline means salt and salt tends to dehydrate your skin.
    • Although our Treatment Goop does not dry you out, the removal of the treatment goop involves a very deep cleaning that can remove some more natural oils.
    • Our Clarifying Shampoo is easier on your scalp than Dawn Dish Detergent, but it’s still a deep cleanser.
    • Our Nutrient Conditioner works great for healing the scalp and getting you back to normal as quickly as possible!
    • You can also use a scalp recovery serum such as Scalpicin or Nioxin.

  • You and we have scratched your scalp and now the micro-scabs are healing!

    • This takes the longest to resolve, usually within 4-6 weeks.
    • You’ve been bitten by an insect and might have been itching and scratching more than usual.
    • You may not even be aware that you have been scratching because you may be scratching in your sleep.  Lice are more active at night.
    • We have combed very close to every inch of your scalp with our metal Terminator Comb.  This will further irritate already irritated skin.
    • You may have used drugstore or prescription pesticide-based treatments before coming to see us.  Whoa, does that mess up a scalp!  The burning you feel with these treatments are chemically injuring your scalp.
    • These micro-scabs heal, but it takes time.  The scabs are caught on your hair and as your hair grows, it slowly peels them away as they heal.  Welcome to Itch City!
    • The best way to heal a scratched scalp is with our Nutrient conditioner or with a scalp pampering product such as Nioxin.

If you itch after the lice treatment, it’s ok!  It does not mean you still have lice.  In fact we promise you won’t and offer our guarantee to give you peace of mind.  It is possible to catch lice again post-treatment, however, so take preventive measures and get every family member checked and treated as necessary so that you qualify for our guarantee and won’t swap lice back and forth with each other.

Got Lice? Here’s how to treat it!

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Head lice can be an intimidating thing to deal with. We offer two treatment methods that will ensure that your family is lice free! Our first treatment is a saline comb out performed by our trained clinicians in our clinic. We use a saline solution to comb through every strand of hair in order to remove as many nits as possible. We finish with our dimethicone “goop” that kills any crawling bug on the head within 10 minutes. In 7 to 10 days, we do another saline comb out in order to ensure you are completely lice free. Lice can lay eggs so close to the scalp that even our combs cannot get them. This is why we require a second treatment within 7 to 10 days following the first treatment. This allows the hair to grow enough for our combs to get the rest of the nits left behind. 

Our second method of treatment is a lower cost option: our at-home treatment. With this treatment, the dimethicone goop is used on days 0, 10, and 20. In between these days, you must comb out the hair each day in order to remove the nits. By using the goop every 10 days and removing the nits, there eventually will not be any louse left to lay new eggs. A louse takes approximately 30 days to develop from an egg to an adult louse. However, a female louse that is over 10 days old is able to lay eggs. This is why it is important to comb the hair every day in between the goop treatments. The less eggs there are left to hatch, the less bugs there will be to lay more eggs. 

 

School kids in masks

Head Lice During Quarantine

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While a lot of people are social distancing lately, having social groups, jobs, and schools closed does not inhibit head lice from spreading! Head lice is being shared between family members and quarantine groups. Now as things open up and families start having vacations, meeting extended family members again, or beginning their sports clubs, head lice will begin to spread again.

Here are a few things to remember about head lice during social distancing!

 

Head lice are mostly spread through head to head contact, so make sure when you hang out with people again, stay apart! Six feet apart helps you stay safe from head lice, too. For your children’s sport groups, the best way is to prevent head lice during quarantine is to keep your hair tied up and don’t borrow other people’s helmets.

The best hairstyles for head lice prevention is to keep your hair back as close to your head as possible. Because head lice move from loose hair to loose hair, keeping your hair in tight braids or buns is the best way to keep yourself lice free. Ponytails don’t work if you have long hair, because a lot of it will still swing loose and attract head lice.

Another good tip is scents from the mint family! Anything from the mint family will help you keep head lice off your head, but peppermint and spearmint are the best. Check out our preventive line in the store! We do curbside or we can ship with USPS right to your door.

Head lice during quarantine is a very real problem. Because everyone is spending extra time with family, when one family member has head lice, its more likely that everyone has head lice. Our head checks are done by combing our your head until we either identify lice, or until we have combed your entire head and can tell you that you are clear. They are only $25 per person (or included with in-clinic services), or you can order enough Treatment Goop to proactively treat the whole family.

 

Whichever way you choose to get rid of head lice during quarantine, we have got your back!

Lice Terms!

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Confused about the difference between a nit and an egg? Wondering what products we use at the clinic? Well, here’s a comprehensive list of lice terms!

  • Louse (pl. lice) – the little bug that’s running havoc in your hair (fun fact: only about 50% of people with head lice will ever itch!)
  • Nit – another word for a louse egg (fun fact: nits are literally stuck to the hair strand with a glue made by a momma louse)
  • Nymph – a baby louse that is not yet old enough to lay its own eggs
  • Headwinds – our own in-house head lice treatment that uses technology to dehydrate nits on the head
  • Comb-out – the process of separating and combing through the hair with a special comb to remove any nits
  • Nit comb – a specialized comb used to remove nits from the hair (our Terminator-brand combs are the most effective type out there!)
  • Dimethicone – (aka “Treatment Goop”) a clear silicone polymer that kills any hatched lice in 10 minutes and is a part of both our in-house and at-home lice treatments.
  • Slippery Nit Saline Spray – a lemongrass-scented spray that we use to help with comb-outs
  • Comb-out Mousse – a foamy mousse that makes nit-removal less painful in cases where someone has a lot of nits or a tender scalp
  • Clarifying shampoo – a shampoo that targets product buildup and is super helpful in removing Treatment Goop from the hair
  • “Freshly Minted” Preventative products – our own line of mint products that aim to prevent you from catching lice in the future (our most popular preventative product is the Peppermint Spritz!)

We hope these lice terms help you when you come into the clinic! Once here, our clinicians can answer any questions you might have during your head check or treatment. They are highly trained in all things lice, and can help you learn the difference between a myth and fact!

If you want more information, check out our Lice FAQs and our Tutorial Videos for at-home treatments!

What to Expect During a Treatment at Knoxville Lice Clinic

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So, you’ve tried all the home remedies and over-the-counter treatments, yet you still can’t get rid of those little bugs plaguing your child’s hair. Now you’ve got an appointment at Knoxville Lice Clinic which specializes in getting rid of lice. You’re relieved that the end of the itching is near, but anxious of what crazy treatment they’ll use on you. You’re not sure your 3-year-old can sit through another round of combing…

Does this sound familiar at all? Well, worry no more, for here’s exactly what to expect during treatment!

First, you’ll pull up to the clinic and chuckle to yourself at the bright green door and the poofy hats we wear (we don’t want to get lice either!). Fast-forward through the paperwork, and we take you back to one of our three treatment rooms. Then the “dreaded” treatment starts!

Huh, it’s not so bad! We always start by checking everyone’s head to make sure they have lice. We use a special comb and start searching the spots lice love the most. If nothing comes up at first, we’ll separate your hair into sections and comb through it all to make sure we don’t miss anything. If we find something, we make sure to look at it under a microscope to see if it’s lice. If we find nothing, then you’re in the clear! However, we’ll still ask you to sit and wait for your whole family to be checked before we let you leave.

If you do have lice, then we proceed with one of our three treatments. Our most popular is the full-service treatment that consists of the heat treatment, another combing, and an application of our Treatment Goop. We also offer a quicker, short-form version that skips the second hair combing. 

Oh no! What if your child is younger than 4 or can’t receive the heat treatment? No fear, because we also offer a no-heat saline treatment for little kiddos and those who can’t have the full-service or short-form treatment. *If you choose the saline treatment, we will spray your hair with some salty, lemony spray and go onto the combing.

If you choose to proceed with the full-service or short-form treatment, we’ll turn on our heat machines and use their elephant nose attachment to dry up any lice eggs on your head. This part takes about 30 minutes, but our kids’ tablets make it seem like a snap. Many people actually like this step, they say it feels like a warm head massage! And don’t worry, if it ever gets too warm, just tell us and we can take a short break.

After your hair has been thoroughly blown around or sprayed with saline spray, we repeat the combing step. If you choose the short-form treatment, we skip this step. But don’t worry, either way you will leave lice-free (any bugs or nits remaining will be dead, the combing is just cosmetic!). 

Now we’re almost there! Our last step is a clear, oily dimethicone goop that makes sure any remaining adult lice will get killed. Everyone will receive this goop, even if they didn’t have lice. However, if you came alone and don’t live with anyone else with lice, you can skip the goop if you had a clear head check!

Once everyone has been gooped and shower-capped, we’re all done! You did it! You are now lice-free. Just make sure to follow the at-home cleaning and prevention tips and you’ll be good to go. ☺

* Due to COVID-19 precautions, we will be offering only the Saline Treatment for the time being.

Lice Warriors!

Working at the Clinic

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Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a lice removal clinician? Here are our answers to our most commonly asked questions from clients (and their kids!) about our job.

What made you want to work here?

Well, our reasons are many. Intrigue, a desire to help others or to do something a bit different, flexible hours…the answers keep going. Also, a majority of our staff are pre-med or pre-health college students at UT. And what’s a better way of gaining clinical experience outside the hospital than working at a lice clinic!

Why do you wear those silly hats?

Our colorful hats do a really important job; they keep us from catching lice ourselves! We make sure all our hair is under our hats so that no little bugs can make their way onto our heads. Our clinic owner, Jen, sews all our hats and makes sure we keep safe and fashionable!

Have you ever gotten lice from working at clinic?

You’d think working at a lice clinic would mean we all regularly get lice, but some of us actually go through our whole time here without ever getting them! It’s really a combination of good protective practice and just sheer luck. But if we do get lice from treating a client, we get treated for free! Most of the time the lice don’t even make it to our homes before we notice. Plus, we often check each other’s heads and do the Treatment Goop treatment at home every 10 days. This means we have a lot lower chance of getting lice!

Are you scared of lice?

Lice seem like a scary thing when you first find out that you have them. But after you work with them for a while, you get used to it. Of course, seeing them under a microscope or finding one in your pocket after treatment still give us the heebie jeebies sometimes.


What’s the worst case of lice you’ve ever seen?

Honestly, however bad you think your lice are, we’ve probably seen worse. Some clients don’t realize they have lice because they don’t itch. And some can go more than a year without noticing! In the worse cases, we have to send the person home with goopy hair to return the next day for treatment. It can get pretty bad!

Do y’all keep pretty busy?

Yes! Lice like people no matter the time of year, although we do see more clients when school starts up again. We see about 81 people a month on average.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the clinic?

Like all other non-essential businesses, we closed for the month of April, 2020. However, we’re re-opening on Monday, May 4th! At this time, we’ll only be able to perform Saline Treatments until the pandemic is under control, mostly because our heat treatments blow a great quantity of air around. For everyone’s safety, we will also require all people in the building to wear a face mask and have their temperature taken prior to treatment. This way, we’ll be able to help you with your pesky lice problem while still keeping everyone safe!

Being Open During Covid-19

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A Message about Covid-19 and Our Clinic

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Edit March 23, 2020

We have temporarily suspended in person services due to the Safer at Home edict put out by our mayor. In-person contact without social distancing, especially around a machine that blows air and germs, is currently not in the best interest of your family or our staff. We ask that you bear with us during this time.

We have created an online shop so you can still buy products and treat your families at home. As always, we are available to answer questions via phone, email, or Facebook message. Thank you for understanding!

 

– KLC staff

 

 

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Knoxville Lice Clinic is committed to helping families in need of lice removal amidst the challenges related to COVID-19.  We are open and available to support the health and well-being of our community.  We have made several changes to our practices in order to keep our customers and our employees safe.

Any employee who is sick is staying home and away from the clinic until completely healthy.  Some employees will continue to work from home by answering phone calls, emails and messages, scheduling appointments, and providing the world-class lice advice for which we are known.  If you talk to an employee who sounds a little under the weather, you can rest assured that they are not physically present at the clinic.  It is our way of being able to provide work hours to employees who must stay home.

We are screening every client on the phone and not taking appointments for anyone who is exhibiting any symptoms of illness.  We know this is frustrating to some who need our service, so we are offering product purchases to anyone in need of help.  We will take payment over the phone and bring the products to you in your car.  We also still ship products via priority mail.  All shipment orders are shipped within 24 hours.

We are letting clients know that they cannot bring in anyone without an appointment, other than a single caregiver with a client under 18 years old.  We are limiting our appointments to 4 people or less per family group appointment.

We are asking that clients all wear masks and wash their hands immediately upon entering the clinic.

We are spacing appointments out by a minimum of 30 minutes. This is so that we have one family in the clinic at a time, and also gives us time to completely sanitize all surfaces (high touch or not!) between every family.  If you are elderly or have any high risk medical condition, you can let us know when you make your appointment and we will make sure you have the first appointment of the day and you will have the clinic 100% to yourself and your clinician for the duration of your time with us.

Your clinician will wear a mask.  Your clinician will also be touching you with gloves only.

We have hand sanitizer dispensers on the walls for anyone to use.  We are washing our hands well and very often.  

We still offer snacks and drinks, but we are keeping those things sanitized, covered, and in the office, available by request.  We have put away the coloring books and crayon station for the kids and have out sanitizable toys only.  If your child likes to draw, we can provide paper and a couple crayons that have not been used by anyone for 5 days.

We run HEPA air filters and (weather-permitting), are opening windows to increase air circulation.

The situation surrounding the coronavirus/COVID-19 concerns is evolving rapidly, so we are treating this statement as a “living document” and will be updating our practices and precautions as necessary.  We are open to community suggestions for anything we may have missed!  We love our community and want to keep everyone safe.  We got into this business because we care.

Sincerely,  Knoxville Lice Clinic 

What’s Effective, Visual Head Lice Checks or Combing?

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Recently, we’ve had customers ask why we don’t do visual head lice checks in addition to our comb-out checking. The reason? Visual checks can miss a lot of things. The nits and lice are the same color if your hair is dyed and  It can be hard to spot the few eggs/nits that are laid so close to the scalp.  This is especially true if you have a light infestation.

In fact, a 2001 study showed that, “The average time until detection of the first louse was 57.0 seconds with the comb as compared to 116.4 seconds by direct visual examination. Diagnosis of louse infestation using a louse comb is four times more efficient than direct visual examination and twice as fast.”

While visual head lice checks are still better than no check at all, a lice infestation would have to be fairly advanced in order for it to be easily seen with the naked eye. Many summer camps, school programs, or day cares will use pencils or chopsticks to  inspect the scalp. This is still good! Any check is better than no check at all.

However, we go right to combing to see what the comb finds. This is a better use of both our time and your time. It helps us find lice and nits twice as fast! Then we can get you lice free and back to your day.

We sell our Terminator brand professional combs, so you can use what we use on your children at home! We have a tutorial video on how to do thorough comb outs, and we have an instruction sheet posted as well. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call (865) 245-5353!

Head lice and Halloween!

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Head lice is a huge concern during Halloween! Trying on costumes at the store, all the masks and wigs, sharing funny hats, these are all great ways to pass head lice around.

We recommend a few simple ways to prevent lice this spooky season:

  • Don’t try on head gear or costumes at the store. You never know who had that on right before you!
  • Keep costumes in a plastic bag for 48 hours or in the freezer for 8 hours before you try them on. That still gives you time to return them if they don’t fit, but you can kill any head lice that might be on them before you put it on yourself.
  • Don’t share costumes between people. Keep your costume on your child, with no switching back and forth.

Hopefully these tips will help you stay lice free! Let the scariest thing this fall be your costume, not the head lice on it.