SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 21, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Days of Shampooing your own child's hair to stop a head lice infestation are disappearing and in its place is a rising industry of service providers offering to remove lice and their eggs for a fee.
"It used to be that you would cut your hair at home, but now you go to a barber. The same thing is happening with the Lice Removal Industry," says Larry Rigby, CEO of Larada Sciences in Salt Lake City.
Larada Sciences is a medical device company who has capitalized on the Rise of the Lice Removal Industry by offering the FDA-cleared LouseBuster medical device. Clinical studies show that the LouseBuster kills all stages of head lice, including the eggs, through rapid dehydration in a 30 minute treatment.
"There are no chemicals. It's simply heated air, so it's very different than self-treat medications," explains Rigby.
The device is used by trained professionals, and throughout the world people are signing up to become certified operators.
"We have people with lice treatment centers in the majority of the United States, as well as in 20 countries. Seven more countries are gearing up to start a LouseBuster business in the coming months," Rigby says.
When Carrie Madej, owner of Nit Free Noggins in Chicago, decided to start her business, because of the current economy she was hesitant. But a year later her company has grown leaps and bounds. She's opened her first center, and has three more in the works.
"It's unbelievable", says Madej. "I really had no idea how this would just take off."
Dr. Dale Clayton, professor at the University of Utah, explains that a major reason for the rise in Lice treatment companies is the resistance that head lice are evolving to some over-the-counter and prescription medications.
"These chemicals that once killed lice are no longer doing the job. Parents can't find a solution, and they're forced to find a professional," says Clayton.
Clayton is an evolutionary parasitologist and inventor of the LouseBuster. He said he knew parents were dealing with the issue, but had no idea that lice treatment salons were popping up all over the map.
"Many were specializing in combing since the medications weren't working," Clayton explains.
Now many of these same companies have implemented the LouseBuster treatment while others start a business once they learn about the LouseBuster.
Ray Ruiz, owner of Lice Control in Oakland, California had been using a combing technique for over a decade. When he learned about the LouseBuster research conducted by Clayton he knew that he wanted to become a certified operator once the device was FDA-cleared.
"We had just one salon for 5 years. Now we're opening two more this year—in February and March. We now have a device that is backed by science, and a treatment that takes a half hour."
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