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When Alina Barukzai, 8, came home from school with head lice last summer, her parents Cindy and Masoud tried everything they could find to get rid of them.
“We tried conventional, over-the-counter techniques and homeopathic techniques,” recalled Masoud Barukzai. “But we missed a nit here and there. My son (Zayd, 7) got it, my wife got it, I got it.”
They finally heard about an FDA-approved method called AirAllé and found a clinic in the Bay Area where they could go for treatment. Not only were the Barukzai family members finally rid of their head lice, they became advocates of the system.
“The method uses heated air,” Barukzai explained. “It essentially dehydrates all of the nits — lice eggs — as well as kills the actual lice. It’s healthy, it’s green, it’s eco-friendly technology, completely pesticide- and toxin-free. And it’s a guaranteed treatment in one visit.”
“We started researching and decided, our community is very busy, it needs this type of service,” Barukzai remembered.
He and Cindy traveled to Boston to become trained and certified in AirAllé, and returned to open their Lice Clinics of America offices on Main Street across from the Pleasanton Hotel in October.
Cindy, who is retired from teaching in Dublin, runs the operation along with three certified staff members. Masoud, who is a firefighter in Sacramento, works there on the days he is off duty.
“Cindy is the main person running the lice removal downtown,” Barukzai said. “She has always loved working with kids, and we make sure these kids don’t miss school. Cindy is able to, within an hour or an hour-and-a-half, deem kids lice-free.”
“We are open seven days a week, before school, after school and on weekends,” he added.
After the treatments, children get to choose something out of a gift basket.
“We have had kids as young as 5 and as old as grandma although they are typically between 5 and 12,” Barukzai said. “We provide iPads for every child in the clinic and offer organic juices and water.”
Barukzai said he would like to get rid of the stigma attached to head lice.
“It doesn’t matter if you are poor, if you’re rich, you’re fat or you’re skinny, a man or a woman,” he said. “Lice like a healthy head to live on.”
People become desperate when their family is infested with head lice, he also noted.
“They will do anything — I have seen traumatized kids doused in mayonnaise, Listerine, vinegar,” he said.
The clinic also provides a simple plan Masoud and Cindy have formulated to care for the home after lice are discovered. Bedding and clothing need to be put into the dryer for one hour on high heat. Floors must be vacuumed, and leather couches and cars should be wiped down. Hair ties and miscellaneous small items should be put in a zip lock plastic bag in the freezer for two days.
“There is no more messy melting of brushes — in the past we would boil them,” Barukzai said. “A lot of these different things I have learned from my career as a fireman.”
He mails out these tips to anyone who inquires, even those who decide to try the over-the-counter cures.
“I recommend against that,” he said. “It has pesticides in it, which are extremely toxic to children, and absorbs into the blood stream very quickly.”
The Barukzais own the license to treat the greater Tri-Valley area, including from Tracy and Mountain House to Alamo and Orinda. All clients have medical oil applied to the scalp after the hour-long heat treatment.
“We are just so happy to be in our own community to help people,” Barukzai said. “It’s another way to continue helping people, like my wife teaching and me in my firefighting.”
