MERCER ISLAND, Wash. - Nancy Gordon has managed to turn nit-picking into a full-time job.
"If you have a great attitude about it, it can be really fun," she said.
The one-time lawyer and full-time mom combs for head lice as the owner of one of the first companies of its kind in our area, "Lice Knowing You.'
"It's amazing when you really want to do something, how you can just figure things out and I'm just that way. I'm a go-getter. So here I am," she said.
It all started when her kids got lice.
"I freaked out, I completely freaked out. I joked that I went commando," she said.
She so thoroughly cleaned her kids and her home that her friends jokingly called her "the crazy lice lady."
Then she learned about a company that nit-picked for a living.
"And I read the article and said, I'm doing it," she said.
Related Content
Two weeks later she was up and running.
Now she has two employees and loads of satisfied customers, like Billy Poll, whose daughter had lice.
"We did a lot of laundry for one week. I mean, we were constantly doing laundry, but thankfully, we got through it. And now we look back and think, it's not nearly as big a deal as people think it is in the beginning," he said.
Nancy charges $95 an hour, and says it typically takes about $300 and a week to rid a home of lice. She brings the products, which are all organic, and does the initial comb-through. Then she gives the family a follow-up plan.
"There should not be a stigma with lice. Lice should be treated like chicken pox or getting the flu," said Gordon.
King County Health says lice is not a reportable disease so it doesn't track the number of cases here, but it's estimated there are anywhere from 12 to 22 million cases nationwide of head lice each year.
To add a comment, please register or login.