Primitive Grooming – Lice Removal Service

Ellen was wonderful! I was lucky enough to get same day care, and that helped a lot. After going to the store yesterday and using a box brand kit on my entire family, then cleaning like a mad woman up until midnight… I woke up to find that my daughter still had lice. We did not get rid of it all. Panic… how am I to get rid of this? A great friend passed along Ellen’s website and information and I booked online.
Shortly there after, I was given a confirmation via email and text that the appointment was set. I was later given a reminder ping that Ellen was on her way to save the day!
Ellen had all of her equipment, and we were able to keep the special pic that she used to comb through our hair. She taught me how to use the pic, and gave step by step instructions. Ellen was very sensitive to my daughter’s needs and made her calm. She was extremely thorough and did a wonderful job.
Worth every penny and not over priced at all like some of the other places listed in the Austin area. When you receive the dreaded call or notice that there is lice in your child’s class… call the expert! Primitive Grooming was the best!
Thanks Ellen!

I just want to say that Ellen is WONDERFUL! Lice is her business, so there’s no judgement. AND SHE COMES TO YOU! I called her about 1 kid and she came prepared to check all of us (6 total). The process was quicker than I expected and the kids didn’t complain to Ellen like they do for me. I THOUGHT I was doing it right, but after 3 weeks I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was exhausted. Ellen came in and SAVED me. She was so calm and matter-​of-​fact that I was able to calm down. I learned the proper way to do a lice check and I have the tools to do it all with NO CHEMICALS NECESSARY!
If you find out you or your kid has lice, CALL ELLEN! I cannot say enough good things about Ellen or this company. Calling Ellen was worth every penny a thousand times over. I wish I would have called her sooner.

Ellen is so calm and professional. Very thorough and great at putting everyone at ease. Highly recommend.

All of the other 5-​star reviews are spot on. Ellen provides two critical services when she comes to your house: 1) she gets rid of the lice and nits in your family’s hair, and 2) she calms you down.
Our son came home from kindergarten with lice, which we found out when we took him for a routine haircut. His hair is short, so we figured we could deal with it. Nix chemical shampoo and then using the Nix-​provided comb for an hour and half on a boy’s head with short hair had, we thought, fixed it. We were wrong. But, we didn’t know that until later.
After we ‘fixed’ our son, we checked our daughter. She’s three. Long hair. Curly like Shirley Temple. Nightmare to comb on a good day. Unholy chaos to try to get a nit comb through. Adult lice and nits in her hair. So, like most good parents, we panicked. We knew we couldn’t do this, so we looked here on Unilocal and called Ellen. This was on a Saturday about 2:00 in the afternoon. Ellen rearranged her schedule and was at our house in far West Austin around 5:30. She went to work on our daughter. An hour and a half of combing — with no chemicals whatsoever except a bit of coconut oil to help the combing process — and she is nit and lice free. The particularly good nit comb she uses is included in the price of the service so you have the right tool to perform your own follow ups, and you learn how to do it and what to look for (she shows you photos in a book of the nasty little buggers) and carefully explains the life cycle so you can understand what you need to do and why.
After fixing our daughter, she rechecked our son, whose hair we figured was clear. Nope. She found a fair number of more nits. So, she fixed him up, too.
This bring me to point 2. Ellen is a powerful calming influence on your house in the middle of this gross problem. We were in the middle of giving our house the equivalent of a Silkwood shower and she made it clear that a lot of what we were doing was not strictly necessary. It made us feel better to do it, and house guests were coming soon so deep cleaning is a good idea anyway, but Ellen educates you about what you really need to do, and what you really don’t need to do unless you feel compelled to it. You get the idea that she could be standing in the middle of two dozen preschoolers hopped up on juice boxes and ring pops and she would be as calm as sleeping baby.
So, she’s very good at her job, brings in a necessary calming influence, educates you on what to do, is available at the drop of a hat (I wouldn’t count on this for all circumstances, but at least one other reviewer said the same thing), and provides a great service. Worth every penny we spent.
If I could give her more than five stars I would. If anyone were to ever ask us what to do (that would be an awkward question, right?!), we would tell them to call Ellen. Don’t try to do it yourself; call Ellen. You will be very very glad you did.

One of the best calls we ever made. 9 year old daughter got lice for the first time and we were clueless on what to do. A friend referred Ellen to us and she was able to come to our house in Leander in the middle of Monday evening rush hour from South Austin to help us. Ellen was helpful, informative, patient, and great with the kids. She even followed up with us a couple of times afterwards. I wish there was one of her in each of the cities where my sisters live so that they can call on her if needed. Simply put, Ellen saved the day, put our minds at ease, and is amazing at what she does. I highly, highly, recommend her.

Ellen was very calm and patient with our children. She put our daughter’s mind at ease after a couple of stressful days. Thank you, Ellen! You are the best!

I called Ellen and she was at my house on a Saturday within an hour of my call. I was recommended to her from many preschool teacher friends. She brought everything and combed my hair several times. She provided me with so much helpful information. Great service!

Ellen was awesome! Our son started at a new daycare and to our surprise came home with lice, which ultimately got mommy. Luckily we caught it early, but unfortunately we went to the pharmacy and got the chemical shampoo and packaged nit comb. They barely worked. We spent hours trying to use the comb with little luck. But, then we found Primitive Grooming and Ellen. She is a life saver. Even if you are unsure about whether your child has lice, she will put you at ease and methodically search each section of hair. She has a very calming style that will make you feel better about the whole process. She arrived to our house quickly and was very professional and teaches you how to remove the lice and what to look for. I highly recommend this service and Ellen!

Ellen is a life saver! She came to us and was quick and courteous. Gave us so much real info on what to do in the future too. I highly recommend!

Ellen is fantastic. After reading reviews on Unilocal I called her today around 2 pm and asked her if she could come to my house at 5 pm and she said yes. She is really nice and professional, my 3 daughters liked her immediately. At first I thought that only my 10-​year old had lice but it turned out that all 3 of them had lice. Ellen was particularly nice and patient with my 2-​year old, you really get the feeling that she knows what she’s doing. I was very happy with her service, she not only removed lice and nits but she also taught me how to prevent future re-​infestations. I highly recommend her!

Highly recommend Ellen, if you are stressed or lost when it comes to de-​licing yourself or your children. I thought my toddle had head lice, and I didn’t know where to begin to get rid of it and make sure it wouldn’t come back. I also knew I didn’t want to experiment with those yucky chemical treatments you can buy at the store. So on a friend’s recommendation, who had used Ellen and raved about the service, I looked up her site and scheduled her to come out the very next day.
As others have mentioned, she’s a breath of calm air. You just know it’s going to be okay when you meet her, and she quickly got to work combing through my daughter’s hair. She was able to comb-​whisper a squirmy toddley with a mountain of curly, thick hair. Within an hour she had combed through all of us and was able to determine that none of us had head lice. It was a false alarm. But, because Ellen spent time showing me exactly what to look for and how to best diagnose lice, I feel like the money I spent having her come out for an hour, was well worth it, because I had peace of mind (knowing for sure that we didn’t have it) and I felt better prepared and educated about how to deal with it ourselves, should the occasion arise in the future.
Ellen is wonderful. Scheduling is easy. And the rates are more reasonable than other de-​licing services in Austin.

After two unsuccessful attempts (and several mind-​numbingly awful hours) of trying to treat my kids on my own, I finally broke down and called Ellen. She showed up at our home within a couple of hours and was like a calming wind, blowing to our rescue. The kids sat still for her without any difficulty and she used natural products to gently and efficiently remove the bugs. She taught me how to keep them bug-​free and left behind the super special comb for further combings/​checks. She’s been gone for many hours now and my children have yet to stop talking about how much they liked hanging out with her!

Having a child in daycare, I always feared that this would happen… and it did. I was on the verge of freak out when I called Primitive Grooming. Jessica came over and was so calm and reassuring and was so great with my son. I was very relieved after she removed those little critters. I was also glad that no harmful chemicals were used in the process of removal. I also loved the fact that she was able to educate me on this situation. I gave my son’s daycare their info so they could go to his school and do some checks to stop this cycle!

I’m actually did not hire Ellen myself but rather sat in on a session she did with a friend of mine. I went in thinking that I had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done to rid my family of lice. Ellen demonstrated a much easier way of doing the comb-​throughs and a more sane understanding of what needed to be done regarding removing them from the environment. Above all else, she was calm, centered and sweet. I highly recommend Primitive Grooming!

I have two girls and when I got the call that they had lice I went into warrior mode trying to arm myself with all the knowledge the internet would divulge unfortunately after four days of «nit picking» for 3 hours a day and many tears… mine not my daughters (they just thought mommy was playing with their hair over and over, and after a while it got old and they would run when I had a comb in my hand) I spents more money on chemical shampoos yuck and some natural treatment and still finding nits I knew I needed help. Save yourself the trauma just call Ellen and have her some over and show you how it is done. She is so calm and so amazing with children. She is extremely knowledgable and really knows her stuff. She gives you the facts and not the pandemonium stories the internet fills you with. Dont run out to the store and buy anything just call her!!! You will safe countless hours and money!

When I discovered lice on my children and myself for the 3^rd time in a month and a half, I was fast approaching a nervous breakdown. I thought I had done everything right to get rid of them, yet they were back. I had heard about Ellen and knew that I needed help; there’s just not enough hours in the day to do it myself. I called her and she was at my house within an hour. She brought all the supplies we would need and got straight to work. She worked tirelessly and meticulously and possessed the most calming, soothing energy I’ve ever experienced in a person. Where my kids had been whiny, fidgety and impatient for me as I had looked through their hair, they were calm and patient with Ellen. She educated me about lice and what it really takes to eradicate them for good. I’m happy to say that we have been lice free for a month and I continue to comb my kids hair once a week to make sure of that. Ellen seriously preserved my sanity and I will be forever grateful. I have actually shared with many people, as shocking as it is to me, that I have come to be grateful for having had lice because it brought Ellen into my life. Thank you SO much Ellen, a million times over!!!

Ellen takes the hysteria out of getting lice. I could never have gotten my daughter to sit still for 2 sessions of thorough lice removal like she did. And she gives you the comb and instructions for following up on it yourself. Thanks Ellen!