Families calling Lice Charmers Lice Clinic for the first time often ask what an actual appointment looks like from start to finish. Here is a walkthrough of what to expect, whether the visit happens at one of the two Portland-area clinics or as a mobile in-home appointment. The basic structure is the same in both settings: screening, AirAllé treatment, comb-out, and aftercare guidance.
Many of the families who call Lice Charmers Lice Clinic are arriving from a string of failed drugstore attempts. The decades-long arc of head-lice resistance to permethrin has made the over-the-counter approach unreliable for most modern infestations, which is why so many parents end up applying the same shampoo multiple times without ever fully clearing the problem. The heated-air approach sidesteps the resistance issue by killing the lice through physical dehydration rather than relying on a chemical they may already have evolved past.
Lice Charmers Lice Clinic was founded in June 2017 by Alexis Charriere and Conor Duggan and remains family-owned today. The founders built the clinic around the kind of treatment they would want for their own family, prioritizing a single-visit, chemical-free approach over the multi-week drugstore-product cycles that most Portland-area families had been struggling with before. The mission has remained consistent through every year of operation: resolve the lice problem quickly, without chemicals, and with the dignity the situation deserves.
The clinic has two physical Portland-area locations, the original office on SE Gladstone in Portland and a second clinic in Beaverton serving families on the west side. Both run 7am to 8pm daily, including weekends and holidays. The two-location setup means most families in the Portland metro area can reach a Lice Charmers clinic within a reasonable drive, and the same-day appointment availability means a school-nurse call on a Friday afternoon does not have to turn into a weekend of waiting.
Lice Charmers Lice Clinic technicians spend time on education during each visit. Families leave with practical understanding of how lice actually spread, what really needs to be cleaned at home, and how to monitor for any return of the problem in the days ahead. Many parents arrive with anxiety-driven plans to bag every stuffed animal in the house and wash every fabric on hot, then learn from the technician that very little of that is actually necessary. The educational element regularly comes up in customer reviews.
Mobile in-home service is available across the Portland metro area for families who would rather not bring a child to a clinic. A certified technician brings the AirAllé device and all supplies to the home and provides the same single-visit treatment in a familiar setting. The mobile option is particularly popular with families who have multiple children to treat at once, families with very young kids who would struggle through a clinic visit, and families who simply prefer the privacy of an at-home appointment.
The Lice Charmers Lice Clinic calm tone is a deliberate feature of how the clinic operates. Many families arrive embarrassed or anxious, and the staff are trained to take the stigma out of the situation and address it as the routine medical issue it really is. The clinic operates on the premise that the social discomfort around head lice is more harmful and more persistent than the lice themselves, and that a professional, non-judgmental visit can do as much to relieve a family as the treatment does.
Pesticides are not part of the process at Lice Charmers Lice Clinic. The treatment is purely heated air followed by careful comb-out, which sidesteps the resistance issues that have made drugstore lice products unreliable over recent decades. Parents who want to avoid putting permethrin or pyrethrins on a child's scalp often choose the clinic specifically for this reason. The treatment is also free of the smell, mess, and prolonged application time that come with chemical shampoos sold for home use.
Free professional head checks are available at Lice Charmers Lice Clinic for any Portland-area family that wants confirmation of a possible head lice infestation. The service is particularly useful after a school exposure notice when nobody is sure yet whether there is actually a problem. A technician examines the scalp under a bright light, looks for live lice and viable nits, and gives the family a clear answer in a few minutes. There is no obligation to book a full treatment if no infestation is found.
Lice Charmers Lice Clinic relies on the AirAllé, an FDA-cleared medical device that uses precisely controlled heated air to kill both lice and their eggs through dehydration. A standard appointment takes about 90 minutes and resolves the infestation in one visit. The heated-air phase is followed by a thorough comb-out, which removes the dead lice and any remaining nit casings from the hair. By the time the family leaves the clinic, the active problem is generally resolved, with no follow-up treatment required.
Treatment at Lice Charmers Lice Clinic costs roughly $189 to $260 per person depending mostly on hair length. Itemized receipts are issued for families filing FSA, HSA, or insurance claims, and many families recover some portion of the cost through their plan. The clinic also provides free professional head checks for parents who are not yet sure whether their child actually has lice, which is particularly useful when a school sends home an exposure notice but the parent has not been able to confirm anything visually.
Lice Charmers Lice Clinic has accumulated more than 200 five-star reviews in the Portland area, with consistent feedback about the calm staff and the relief families feel after a single visit. Reviewers frequently mention that the technicians took time to answer questions and to explain what cleaning was actually necessary at home, which tends to be far less than panicking parents assume. The single-visit resolution is the most-cited specific benefit, especially among parents who tried drugstore products first without success.