They have turned the experience into a rapidly expanding franchise business where lice-laden noggins are enthusiastically received, not cause for shrieks and stampedes to the exits.
"Lice is all about movies and snacks," Steinberg said of the philosophy at Lice Lifters, a rare treatment center and retail store in Lafayette Hill. It is headquarters for a chain of nine outposts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut, with more on the way.
In each, movies and snacks are used to distract/entertain young boys and girls and their anxious parents while the tedious (some say gross) process of looking for and eliminating nits (lice eggs) and hatched lice proceeds. The work is done in rooms resembling hair salons, right down to the swivel chairs and mirrors.
Lice Lifters' method of attack is to suffocate louse with the company's own non-pesticide solution and a heated-air device - LouseBuster by Larada Sciences Inc. of Salt Lake City.
Steinberg and Barrack, Lice Lifters' chief executive officer and president, respectively, had been independently functioning as lice busters for hire - Steinberg, as The Nit Nanny serving the Main Line, and Barrack, as Lice Lifters around her Lafayette Hill home.
Their transition into bug battlers started in 2007 for Steinberg and in 2008 for Barrack when each experienced a lice outbreak. For Steinberg, it was at a camp where she was a supervisor; for Barrack, at home, where she has two girls ages 9 and 6. Both women began making house calls to help other afflicted families, and were amazed at the growing demand for their services. There seemed to be a new outbreak each week at area schools, they said.
"Finally I said, 'This is war. This is now my mission,' " said Steinberg, a mother of four children ages 6 to 14.
