Help! I Have Head Lice by Shannon Hartup 

I appreciate Reader’s Magnet for giving me this opportunity to present my book, Help! I Have Head Lice. Help! I Have Head Lice is my first book of non-fiction. My first two are novels and I’m finishing up my third novel, hopefully in the next few months.

Help! I Have Head Lice though, is special to me. For almost eight years I supplemented my income by starting a small business called Lice Recovery. I became aware of the need for this service upon meeting a beautiful 14-year-old year girl with thick, curly hair who had suffered with the bane of head lice for four years. I was shocked. Four years?! I was later to find out this was not as uncommon as I assumed it would be. A number of my clients have struggled for years to get rid of this pesky insect.

But back to my story with my new friend. In the few minutes I had while visiting with her, she confided in me that she was not allowed into any of her friend’s homes, nor had she ever experienced the fun of a “sleep-over”, a sort of rite of passage for young girls.  My heart broke. I asked her what she had done to get rid of head lice. Surely there was something out there to help. She told me her father had tried everything to get rid of them. They bought all the products at their local big box store; they tried every home remedy imaginable, but the bugs always returned. I met her father and little brother. I was not surprised to find they both had shaved heads.  

Later, while searching for a part time job online, I came across an add for a “Head Lice Technician”. The job was located in Maine. I was in Kansas, but it piqued my interest. I thought long and hard. Could I be a head lice technician? I would definitely be at risk with my long, thick hair. But I was not squeamish around bugs and I survived a case of bed bugs from a Super 8 Hotel I had stayed in with my daughter. Surely head lice couldn’t be as bad as that!

I did a little more searching and found a company that would train me. I signed up.  I devoured everything I could about head lice online, and In a few short months, I was the proud owner of my own head lice business.

I loved it. I loved my customers. I loved helping people. I got calls all hours of the day and night, sometimes working into the wee hours of the morning. I learned so much about head lice in those years. Horrifying things like the CDC reporting 6 to 12 million infestations occur each year in the United States among children 3 to 11 years of age. That statistic didn’t include moms, dads, and caregivers who absolutely get head lice along with the children. The truth is no one knows how many people are afflicted with this pesky critter each year.

My experience tells me the number is much larger than 6-12 million. The majority of my clients were aged 3-11 but not by much. I treated every age. Grandparents get head lice, teenagers get head lice, pre-teens get head lice, nurses get head lice, doctors get head lice, teachers get head lice and on and on. I treated people in mansions, in the slums and in between. I treated kinky hair, straight hair, coiled hair, curly hair, long hair and natural hair. No one is immune, including authors from Reader’s Magnet forum. 😊 My new book, Help!  I have Head Lice will help everyone!

What I did find out while treating clients, is how expensive it is to get rid of this pest. By the time someone called me for help, they had already tried every treatment in their local store, often multiple times. I couldn’t believe the amount of money my clients were telling me they had spent to get rid of head lice, and they still had it. Multiply that by every member in the family and the number was astronomical. My services were competitive, but not inexpensive either.

This led me to think of the scores of people who simply were not getting the help they needed because they couldn’t afford it. What were they doing? One client confided in me he used kerosene on his head. My mouth dropped open. I heard story after story like this. My conclusion?  No one deserves to live this way!

Out of that conviction was birthed my book. Everyone can get rid of head lice. Everyone. It’s not hard. All you need is the proper formula and the grit to tackle this bug head on. I have both, thus my book: Help! I Have Head Lice Everything You Want to Know About Head Lice and How to Get Rid of It.

No one warrants head lice but if you do catch them (they actually catch you) I offer   a proven method to get rid of them at a family friendly cost. I like getting good news and I like giving good news. Help! I Have Head Lice is good news and I’m grateful for Readers Magnet for giving me the opportunity to share it!