How Petaluma mom Shawn Williams became lice’s worst nightmare

Nit Flix owner treats kids’ heads with calm, discretion, peppermint oil and a fine toothed comb|

FACTS OF LICE

1. Head lice can fall, but they cannot jump or fly. They live only on human heads, and die within two days if somehow removed.

2. A female louse can lay up to 10 eggs (nits) a day, and basically glues them to a shaft of hair, near the base of the scalp, where they generally hatch 7-10 days later.

3. A newly hatched “nymph” takes about 14 days to reach maturity, at which point they can begin to breed. The full life span of a louse is about 30 days

4. Head lice eat and drink only one thing: human blood.

5. Since lice do not leap into the air, and cannot survive alone or in groups off of the human head, the most common way they move from human to human is by head to head contact.

6. Though a single louse could conceivably fall from someone’s head, since they immediately begin to starve, they cannot infest your home or car - just your head.

7. Lice will not just die off or go away. Once a head has become their home, they will continue to multiply until properly killed and all nits have been thoroughly removed.

(Adapted from a handout distributed by Shawn Williams of Nit Flix)

There are dozens (and dozens) of eye-catching drawings taped here and there on the waiting room walls of Nit Flix, a small, somewhat unusual hair salon in downtown Petaluma. The pictures were created by kids and teens who’ve recently visited the place, each one based on a similar theme.

Head lice.

“I HATE lice!” proclaims one such drawing, alongside a vivid sketch of a sad, frowning face.

“No More Lice!” shouts another, with the classic Ghostbusters-style circle-and-slash through a depiction of a blood-thirsty louse.

Many, it appears, are self-portraits, some depicting the artist with lice, others imagining themselves after their lice have been successfully treated. To that point, one drawing near the door bears the lively caption, “Lice Killer at Work!”

“That’s me, the Lice Killer,” laughs Shawn Williams, owner and founder of Nit Flix. “Five years ago, you never could have convinced me that someday I’d be getting rid of lice for a living, but here I am. And I actually like it. It’s important work, because lice are making a lot of kids, and a lot of parents, absolutely miserable.”

Nit Flix was named by Williams’ daughter, as an alternative to her first idea, Louse Mom. Nits, of course, are the tiny eggs that head lice lay, gluing them to the shafts of hair near the scalp, where they hatch within seven to ten days. Eschewing the use of over-the-counter chemical products such as Rid or Nix, Williams uses a combination of essential oils to stun and kill the lice, loosening up the nits attached to the hair. The treatment is followed by meticulous combing with a very fine-toothed instrument.

“I do a lot of combing,” Williams says, “until their hair is completely bug and nit free. It takes between 45 and 90 minutes to do it right, and kids tend to get squirmy, so I let them watch videos on a little handheld device, or I let them color.”

Nit Flix is one of two dedicated lice removal services currently operating in Petaluma. The other, Marin Lice Remedies (on Lynch Creek Way), owned by Darlene Kittrell, is an offshoot of Marin Lice Remedies in San Rafael. Kittrell employs a method called the AirAllé device, which blows heated air along the scalp, dehydrating the lice and killing their eggs. Marin Lice Removal is affiliated with Lice Clinics of America.

There was a time, not too long ago, when a parent’s only option - once their kids were sent home from school with head lice - was to spend hours of their own time, dousing their children’s hair with chemicals, desperately attempting to catch the critters and remove unhatched nits by the hundreds.

“My youngest daughter - she’s now a freshman in high school - she got lice when she was in the fourth grade,” Williams recalls. “I was in the insurance business then, and where I was working, a co-worker said, ‘Oh, don’t even bother with that chemical stuff in the stores. Just go get her treated.’ At that time, the only place to get treated was in Mill Valley. My husband said, ‘Oh what can they do that we can’t do for a lot cheaper?’ So we bought the Rid, two bottles of it, and I stayed home for three days, picking her hair. And finally, after I was sure I’d gotten them all, on the third day, I was combing, and there were bugs again. So we ended up going to Mill Valley anyway, and that was the end of her lice. I kept joking, saying, ‘Oh, maybe I should start doing this in Petaluma!’”

A couple of months later, Williams’ husband discovered information about a place in L.A. that trained people interested in the lice killing business. Williams’ went to Southern California, took the training, returned to Petaluma, opened Nit Flix, and soon after resigned from her insurance job.

“It’s fairly easy work, really,” she says, “but it’s keeping me busy, that’s for sure. I’m on call 24/7, but I try to take Sundays off, if I can.”

Acknowledging the “Lice Killer” drawing on the wall, Williams laughs, saying, “I’ve probably killed millions and millions of those little guys by now.”

(To contact Williams or learn more about Nit Flix, visit PetalumaNitFlix.com. To find out about Marin Lice Remedies, visit LCANorthBay.com.)

FACTS OF LICE

1. Head lice can fall, but they cannot jump or fly. They live only on human heads, and die within two days if somehow removed.

2. A female louse can lay up to 10 eggs (nits) a day, and basically glues them to a shaft of hair, near the base of the scalp, where they generally hatch 7-10 days later.

3. A newly hatched “nymph” takes about 14 days to reach maturity, at which point they can begin to breed. The full life span of a louse is about 30 days

4. Head lice eat and drink only one thing: human blood.

5. Since lice do not leap into the air, and cannot survive alone or in groups off of the human head, the most common way they move from human to human is by head to head contact.

6. Though a single louse could conceivably fall from someone’s head, since they immediately begin to starve, they cannot infest your home or car - just your head.

7. Lice will not just die off or go away. Once a head has become their home, they will continue to multiply until properly killed and all nits have been thoroughly removed.

(Adapted from a handout distributed by Shawn Williams of Nit Flix)

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