New Sacramento Center Treats Head Lice With Heat

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Many schools are coming back in session, which means parents could be getting a call that their son or daughter has head lice.

Head lice statistics continue to rise every year, which inspired two dads to start the only facility in Sacramento that removes lice using heated air.

It's not a blow dryer and Larry Shields isn't a hair stylist at a salon. He's using what he calls a revolutionary device to kill lice and their eggs.

"They can't be resistant to heat and they can't hide from the heat, so this is 100 percent," he said.

Shields and another local father opened the lice treatment facility that uses an FDA-approved Airalle machine after their kids kept coming home from school with lice.

According to a University of Nebraska study, lice cases are becoming more prevalent, especially in children every year. Shields says the itchy pests have become immune to many traditional methods of removal.

"A lot of it has to do with crossbreeding," he said. There are 61 major types of head lice and some of them are more resistant to different things. So when they cross breed they become kind of a superbug."

They spread through human contact.

"When people reach over and hug each other..when people share combs, when they share hats, when they share towels," he said.

A mom who wasn't comfortable showing her face on camera says she may have contracted lice after her daughter brought it home from daycare. It's an embarrassing nuisance she hopes won't be back after a treatment.

"It seems like such a dirty thing, but I know we are very clean people," he said.

A treatment runs around $150.

The facility opened a couple of weeks ago, but the owners are already looking to open a second location because they've received so many calls.