Nov. 12--Amy Graff has a louse-y job, but somebody's got to do it.
For four years now, she has hurried to homes at a moment's notice to stand over the bent heads of kids and their parents.
Then she picks out their lice, hair strand by hair strand.
Yeah, it sounds gross. And it takes hours. But Graff says she is doing the community a service.
There's quite a demand for her unusual kind of help, thanks -- or no thanks -- to the fact that lice have built up a resistance to some over-the-counter killers. And many schools have become more strict about enforcing rules that say kids can't come back to class even if they've got empty eggs in their hair.
That means if the removal isn't perfect, students will be sent home again and again.
Graff's small company in Boca Raton, dubbed LouseCalls, clears the heads of eight to 30 people a day. It has grown from a one-woman office that served three South Florida counties in 2005 to a seven-member team that drives up and down Florida's east coast, answering the calls of frustrated, tearful families in need.
In May, she expanded to Orlando, Deltona and other parts of Central Florida.
"Thank goodness it's just bugs and we can fix it," said Graff, 41, a mother of three who plucks lice from children's locks as nonchalantly as she would pick lint off a sweater.
Armed with a tiny comb with itty-bitty teeth, some special shampoo and a pair of magnifying glasses, she removes the insects and their numerous eggs.
Graff became an expert after her own family's run-in with the sesame seed-size bloodsuckers. Her daughter's whole kindergarten class became infested in 2005. Graff researched all she could, and soon other moms and dads were turning to her for advice.
That's how she realized how traumatizing it can be for a family when the school nurse sends the children home with -- gasp! -- lice. It can take weeks to months to banish the creatures, a process that can be humiliating and expensive.
Kids not only miss a lot of class work, they endure frequent combings and sleeping with their heads soaked in mayonnaise, peanut butter, petroleum jelly and other home remedies that often don't work.
Yet parents hesitate to ask for help. The subject is still taboo -- even though it's so common.
Every year, an estimated 6 million to 12 million infestations occur among children 3 to 11 years old in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the critters are increasingly difficult to kill, says the American Academy of Pediatrics, because they've built up a resistance to some of the more common products sold in stores.
Parents' frustrations have spurred a niche market: a small but growing group of businesses that specialize in lice removal.
Two South Florida women who battled head lice with their own children opened Licebeaters last year. A nurse in Texas started The Texas Lice Squad. A family-run agency called Headhunters serves communities near Atlanta.
Hair Fairies, a chain of lice-removal salons, operates in large cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York and is opening this year in Seattle.
Barb Ogg, a pest expert and extension educator at University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Office, said the surge in lice-removal businesses indicates two things: Over-the-counter products aren't working and families are busy.
"Head-lice removal is pretty time-consuming," she said. "I think people are willing to pay someone else to do it."
Orlando mom Myrna Baehr knows how hard it is to battle lice. It took her 72 days, she said, to free her 11-year-old daughter's hair of the bugs a year and a half ago.
The insects eventually found their way to her little sister's noggin. It was so tough to treat the wriggling 3-year-old that Baehr ended up shaving the preschooler's head.
"I put mayonnaise in their hair. I put oil in their hair. I put gel in their hair," Baehr said, adding that she tried several over-the-counter products too. "I combed through their hair every day. Gosh, I was just like repeating everything."
After finally banishing the parasites, Baehr forced her kids to bathe their heads in Listerine once a month to keep them away.
You can imagine her disappointment last week when the two girls were sent home from school with lice.
Baehr came across Graff's Web site while frantically searching for solutions on the Internet. The service is kind of pricey -- Graff charges $100 to $155 a person. But the day after the LouseCalls technician treated the kids, they were back in class.
"It's the best money I've ever spent," Baehr said.
So many Orlando-area parents have requested Graff's services that she's looking to hire someone to work here full time. One of the busiest times of year is coming up: the winter holidays, when children travel from other parts of the country to visit loved ones in the Sunshine State.
Even grandparents, aunts and uncles get the bugs after all the hugging, posing for photos and shared sleeping arrangements.
Graff says the job has its perks. For one, she feels appreciated. When she runs into former clients in the grocery store, for example, they are quick to express their gratitude.
And friends who once wrinkled their nose at her unconventional career now see her as an asset.
"Now, they're saying 'Oh, we're so glad we know you,' " she said.
Denise-Marie Balona can be reached at dbalona@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5928.
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