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Kids & Family

New Business Takes Nit-Picking to a Whole New Level

Nitless Noggins is ridding kids of lice in a unique way.

On the routinely busy Scotts Valley Drive hidden in an office complex containing other varying small businesses sits Nitless Noggins. Located inside a small beauty salon, the enterprise may seem like a carbon copy of the offices next to it, with its clean glass windows, pristine white blinds and the simple sign hanging from its entry door. However, once visitors take their first step through the door of Nitless Noggins, it becomes apparent that the place is unlike any other workspace beside it. With walls painted in a vivid bright blue and lime green, its fun waiting station under a large overhanging leaf with a miniature table where children can draw, and the display of gift baskets filled with bottles and combs, the environment of Nitless Noggins does not suggest that it functions as a medical clinic created to treat head lice.

Founded in 2010 by entrepreneur Marcy McQuillian, the idea for the nit-picking company came to McQuillian after watching a segment on a morning show featuring a foreign, almost futuristic machine called the Lousebuster that killed lice with heat. Having already experienced her own
horror stories with lice when her children had attracted the parasite in their
younger years—with one even being forced to see a physician to treat the
condition—and realizing that if the machine had been around when she had to deal with lice outbreaks, she would have paid money to use it.

“I thought if I could bring it to the community and help people out, it would be an awesome business,” McQuillian said.

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After taking classes on how to use the machine in Southern California, McQuillian set up shop. She originally acted as a traveling service for clients to call to be visited and treated within the privacy of their own homes or for schools to call to do head-checks. Although with the rising prices of gas and the issue of distance and time, McQuillian began to set her sights on opening up a stationary treatment center, and earlier this
year was able to achieve her goal.

Presently, the clinic receives patients from all over the Bay Area, and the responses from visitors have included relief, gratitude and awe. And with a success rate of the Lousebuster at eliminating 99.2 percent of eggs and 98 percent of living louse and nymphs, it isn’t hard to see why people flock to the business at the first signs of an outbreak.

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Nitless Noggins currently offers the following services: in-home head checks, the Lousebuster removal treatment, lice CureTreatment for children under the age of 4 and school head screenings. For more information, visit www.nitlessnoggins.com or to schedule an appointment
call 831-566-6978.

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