Nit-Picker Has Fun at Her Lousy Job

It’s a career niche that leaves many people scratching their heads.

But for Fran Marseille, doing battle with head lice is a vocation that has proved to be as rewarding as it is unusual. And she does not mind being called a nit-picker.

“It’s one of the highest compliments you could pay me,” said the effervescent 43-year-old.

Although some might find lice amusing or downright gross, the woman affectionately known as the “Lice Angel” of Northridge tackles it with empathy and verve. She throws a big hug around her subjects, often before she has inspected their hair for lice and the telltale white or almond-colored eggs--the nits.

“It’s sort of like all of a sudden she discovered her calling in life,” said Terri Meinking, a professor of dermatology at the University of Miami who knows Marseille from the tight-knit world of lice research and education. “She’s so bubbly and enthusiastic about it, which is rare, especially from her background.”

As many as 12 million Americans get lice--also known as pediculus capitis--each year, generating a profusion of myths about the minute but unnerving scalp dwellers.

With lice season peaking in August and September, as the new school year starts, Marseille will be on the road for a series of appearances from Florida to Oregon to share her wisdom and debunk myths about the pesky creatures.

A Hollywood publicist for 16 years, Marseille fell into the lice profession four years ago, almost by accident. While forming her own public relations firm, Marseille took on a client who was seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a nontoxic lice-killing spray.

She began promoting the product in schools and discovered the social stigmas tied to lice.

“I saw parents threaten nurses with injury or even death for saying their kids had head lice,” Marseille said. “They felt they were being labeled as dirty.”

People should instead treat the problem as an unpleasant but common occurrence, Marseille said. A full-grown louse is the size of a sesame seed, and a nit can be as tiny as a grain of salt.

Although many think that people who get them are poor and unclean, the opposite is often true, she said. Lice favor clean, healthy hair and scalps on which to feed and lay their eggs.

They do not jump or fly onto their subjects, but spread when people share infested objects such as helmets, barrettes, headphones or backpacks.

As she travels the country, meeting with parents and school and health officials, Marseille dispenses advice on everything from the benefits of mechanical nit-removing combs to the most effective nontoxic anti-lice shampoos.

Marseille gives children backpacks stuffed with coloring sheets, games and cartoons of lice in an effort to battle the stigma. But her playful methods have a serious point.

“Lice may be contagious and annoying, but some people view them as a cancer,” Marseille said. “That causes them to panic and in some cases resort to extreme measures.”

Parents have smeared their children’s heads with olive oil, Vaseline, mayonnaise, kerosene and even gasoline to rid them of lice, she said. None of that is helpful.

Marseille once flew to Scranton, Pa., after reading that officials had arrested the parents of six children who had missed too many school days because of lice.

“It was like these people were being shunned,” Marseille recalled. “People would literally cross the street to get away from them. At school, kids would move their desks to leave them in the middle of a circle. They would taunt them on the playground.”

Marseille went to the family’s home, then inspected each resident, the house and its furnishings, neighbors and friends for lice.

She also put bags around potentially infested stuffed animals and hair ribbons for two weeks, the time it takes for a louse to hatch from its egg. She examined the hot water heater and clothes dryer to make sure their temperatures were high enough to kill the lice, and washed all the clothes and linens.

Another problem was the vacuum cleaner, a low-suction, hand-held machine that did not use disposable bags and was not powerful enough to remove lice and nits from rugs and furniture.

The story ended happily when officials realized the family simply had not known how to get rid of the lice. The family--of modest means--later received donations of clothing, furniture and even a new home built by Habitat for Humanity, after stories about them appeared on local TV and in the papers, Marseille said.

Lice are equal-opportunity pests that can just as easily appear in middle-class and wealthy households, Marseille said.

“People of wealth will throw away very expensive towels, linens and other possessions,” Marseille said. “They have even resorted to blocking off whole sections of their homes, trying to control an infestation. That’s not the answer.”

The first step is not to panic, she said.

“I sit them down in a chair with good lighting and carefully look through small sections of their hair and scalp,” she said. The entire process can take as little as five minutes with the help of a mechanical lice comb.

She uses a nontoxic spray to remove any lice, followed by regular shampoo. She offers a host of other tips at her Web site https://www.liceangels.com.

Although she has screened hundreds of children, she has been infested only once. And she can spot the tiny critters from a few feet away.

Once on a flight from Los Angeles to Baltimore, Marseille saw a louse crawling on a man in a three-piece suit.

“I asked him if he would care to join me in the bathroom,” Marseille said, laughing as she recalled his stunned reaction. “We killed the louse right there, and he was extremely thankful. We managed to do it very discreetly.”