At the end of spring break, your kids might be bringing back something more than just good memories of that family vacation. Holidays, it turns out, are a time when head lice spread.

Any time kids’ noggins are in direct contact with each other, or when parents and children spend time cuddling, lice have a chance to crawl from one head to the next.

Melissa Shilliday, who owns two NitPixies hair salons in Northern California, says she often sees an uptick in her lice-combing business after holidays or when popular movies for children come out in theaters. At the salons, for $115 per person, a technician will comb lice out of the client’s hair with a special metal comb that has closely spaced, narrow teeth and then follow that up with a treatment of certain oils from plants.

“It’s always slow a couple of weeks before a Pixar movie comes out,” Shilliday notes.

VIDEO: Head Lice Up Close, And All Too Personal

Video: Deep Look/KQED