Extensions are in. Someone’s scratching. Before you buy anything or start pulling at a bond, make two calls: one to the lice clinic in Cranford, one to whoever installed the hair. Describe the system, ask what each side can work with, and let those answers shape the plan.

Do it in that order and you get a care plan that fits the hair in front of you, settled before anything goes on the scalp and before anyone starts taking the system apart. Do it backwards and you can spend money on the wrong thing and still not know what’s on the head.

The first call is the obvious one. The second one shapes what’s possible.

What should you do first if you suspect lice with hair extensions?

Leave the hair alone and make the two calls. Don’t apply a product. Don’t unpick a bond or start cutting anything out. A proper head check tells you what’s on the scalp. Your installer tells you what the system can handle. Put those two answers together and you have a plan.

Two things make the first hour feel urgent: the itch, and the sense that waiting makes everything worse. Head lice die within two days if they fall off a person and can’t feed, the CDC notes, so the laundry pile isn’t the emergency. The hair is where your attention belongs.

There’s also the pull to decide from what you can see. A speck near a taped row. A bit of grit by a braid. Neither one settles it. A live nymph or adult louse found on the scalp or in the hair is what confirms head lice, and that takes a real look in good light.

And there’s no way to know from here how a product would behave once it’s sitting in an installed system. Your installer knows what the system tolerates. The clinic knows what the treatment involves. Neither of those answers is on a store shelf.

What does the Cranford clinic need to hear on that call?

Say the extensions are in before you say anything else. Describe how they’re attached in plain words: glued, taped, sewn onto braids, clipped in, beaded. Say when they went in and who did the work. Then ask what a head check looks like with the system still in place.

Ask what the team can and can’t do with a system in, and expect part of that answer to wait until someone sees the hair in person. Ask what the visit costs and how much time to set aside. Ask whether a follow-up is part of it. Those answers come from the team.

What to have ready before you dial

  • When the extensions went in, and who did the work.
  • How they’re attached, in whatever words you’d use to describe it.
  • The brand or system name, if your installer gave you one.
  • Any aftercare card or paperwork that came with the install.
  • Anything already put on the hair since the itching started, including anything bought off a shelf.

Skim the Cranford clinic’s head check and treatment steps before you call. Then your questions get sharper. How would each step work with my system in? What changes if it has to come out first?

Then call the person who installed the extensions

Your installer holds information nobody else has. They know the system by name. They know how it’s meant to come down, what that takes, and whether they’d need to be the one doing it.

At least one manufacturer requires that its own certified stylist remove the system. That’s one brand’s rule, not a standard covering every system on the market. Which is why the answer has to come from the person who put yours in.

A few things worth asking:

  • What system is this, and how is it attached?
  • Does the manufacturer set rules about who removes it?
  • If the scalp needs to be reachable, what are my options?
  • How soon could you see us if removal ends up being the plan?
  • What would putting it back in involve later?

If the two answers don’t line up, you’ll know early. Better to find that out on the phone than halfway through a bottle of something.

At the appointment, detection comes before anything else

A technician goes through the hair with professional-grade detection tools and specialized combing techniques to find out what’s there. Nothing gets decided from a description. If lice are confirmed, the team talks you through what treatment would involve for your hair and your system.

At the Cranford clinic, treatment begins with a specially formulated lice-immobilizing mousse applied by a technician, followed by a comb-out with professional-grade combing tools. A lice removal solution goes on at the end. Whether all of that works around your extensions, or whether something needs to change first, gets settled with you rather than assumed.

If the comb-out is the part you have questions about, we’ve covered it separately, in a piece on why nits are so hard to get out of hair.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can lice live in hair extensions?

Lice feed on human blood, so they live on people. Hair that isn’t growing from a scalp doesn’t feed them, and lice that fall off a person don’t last long. The real issue is access. A system installed close to the scalp can make the skin harder to see and harder to reach.

Does the whole system have to come out before treatment?

Nobody can answer that from a description, and you shouldn’t decide it at home. Some manufacturers set rules about who takes their system down. What yours needs depends on how it’s attached and on what the head check finds. That’s why both calls happen before anyone touches the hair.

Should anyone else at home be checked too?

Check anyone with a real reason. Close head-to-head contact is one. So is itching, or a note that came home from school. A proper look at the scalp is what settles it for each person. And no one needs treating without a real finding, so a check comes first either way.

Can the extensions stay in until the appointment?

Don’t take the system down on your own, and don’t put anything on the hair in the meantime. Ask your installer what the system allows and ask the clinic what a head check looks like with it in. What happens to the extensions gets decided after someone has looked at the scalp.

Do I need to know which extension system I have?

It helps a lot. Your installer can name the system and the attachment method, and some manufacturers have their own rules about who removes their work. If you kept the paperwork or the aftercare card from the install, have it in front of you for both calls.

What if lice are found and my installer says the system should come out?

Then the timing gets worked out between your installer, the clinic and you. Your installer says when they could take it down. The clinic says how that fits with a head check and treatment. Ask each of them what their part involves before anything comes out, so nobody is guessing.

Two calls, then a plan

You don’t have to solve the extensions tonight. You need a head check that shows what’s there, and an installer who tells you what the system allows. Put those two together and the rest gets a lot simpler.

The clinic is at 198 North Avenue East in Cranford, open every day from 9 AM to 7 PM. When you’re ready, call the Cranford clinic before your visit and lead with the extensions. That one detail changes how the whole appointment gets planned.