The NY Daily News reports: A network of a dozen Orthodox Jewish businesswomen has developed a specialty in nitpicking – a profession rooted in Jewish tradition, the women say. “They say Jewish men make good husbands,” laughed Avigail Rosenfeld, who charges about $100 a head and works solo out of her Kensington home. “Jewish women are known to be nitpickers.”
These days, the best technique involves less picking and more of a combination of combing and the use of various lotions.
The women – who live in Borough Park, Kensington, Flatbush and Marine Park – have known each other for years and have worked together on lice outbreaks across the borough.
“Everybody here has a lot of kids, so [the louse infestation] spreads faster,” said Susan Sherman of Borough Park, who’s been nitpicking for years and is Rosenfeld’s best friend from high school.
Sherman recently started LiceBGoners, employing 16 people and charging $75 an hour for a treatment that lasts an hour or two.
Rosenfeld’s method, developed about 10 years ago, involves repeated combings, first with hair coated in conditioner and then with baking soda. The lice ladies use various versions of a stainless-steel comb with closely spaced teeth to do their work.
Rosenfeld offered an explanation of her community’s specialty. The women have experience checking food for bugs, which aren’t kosher.
(Source: NY Daily News)
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6 Responses
Thank you YW or sharing this very important information with me. I now know where to turn if anyone I know has lice problems. This information is just really strange to post on YW, and if I may say, kinda gross too.
I have been doing lice checks for years as a chesed for my childrens’ schools. It’s nice that some enterprizing ladies can profit in a such strange way but I don’t feel the price is justified. People should help each other as much as possible to not have to spend money on another money making venture. I realize this service goes beyond the lice check itself but it’s really too expensive.
and to think all I charged was 5 english pounds per session, no matter how long! By the way my kids do not have lice!
Sounds kind of creepy to me. 😉
$100 isn’t bad, depending on what’s included. $75/hour is pretty steep though. And is this a one time thing? Even once deloused, a parent still has to thoroughly check, and possibly pick for a good 10 days. By the time many people get to the pros, they’ve had it and can’t contain it, so this could run well into $100s.
But to the ladies who nitpick, tizkena l’mitzvos. Let’s not forget they’re putting themselves at risk!
LOUSY NEWS!
Now get the bugs out of our salads!