Headache home remedies: cold compresses, mint and 4 more

A headache takes the day apart. You cannot read, you cannot concentrate, and the noise of an ordinary kitchen becomes unbearable.

French grandmothers treated it in a particular order, and the order is most of the method: water, dark, cold, and only then something on the skin. Most people start at the end of that list and wonder why it did not help.

Here are six of their remedies, in the order they were used.

Water, immediately

Drink a large glass, about 1 cup (250 ml), at room temperature. Cold water is absorbed more slowly, which is the opposite of what you want.

A pinch of sea salt or a few drops of fresh lemon juice helps it go down and go in.

If you are thirsty, you are already late. Dehydration is one of the most common headache triggers there is, and this single step sometimes settles the whole thing within the hour. It is also the reason a headache so often turns up after an afternoon in the sun, alongside the sunburn itself.

Then keep drinking through the rest of the day, which is the part everyone forgets.

The cold compress

Wrap ice cubes in a clean thin cloth, or use a bag of frozen peas, and hold it on the forehead, the temples or the back of the neck for 15 to 20 minutes. Lie down somewhere quiet and dark while you do it.

Never ice directly on the skin, and take it off if the area goes numb.

If nausea has arrived with the headache, which for a migraine it usually does, treating both at once helps more than treating either: the ginger and the wrist pressure point in our nausea remedies work perfectly well in a dark room.

This is the remedy on this page that costs nothing, needs no shopping and asks nothing of you but twenty minutes in the dark. For a throbbing headache it is the one to try first, and the darkness and quiet are doing as much work as the cold.

A mint leaf poultice

Wash about ten fresh peppermint leaves and crush them lightly between your hands to release the oils. Lay them on a clean thin cloth and hold it against the forehead and temples for 15 to 20 minutes, two or three times during a flare-up.

No fresh mint? Steep two peppermint tea bags for 5 minutes, squeeze them out, and use those.

Worth doing in advance: freeze fresh mint leaves in an ice cube tray with a little water. You then have the cold and the mint in one object, ready in the freezer for the next time.

Not on broken or irritated skin, and keep it away from the eyes.

Peppermint essential oil on the temples

In a small dark glass bottle, mix 2 drops of peppermint essential oil with 2 teaspoons (10 ml) of coconut or sweet almond oil. Massage the temples, forehead and back of the neck in slow circles for 5 to 10 minutes.

For a roll-on, put 6 drops of peppermint essential oil in an empty ⅓ fl oz (10 ml) roller bottle and top it up with jojoba oil.

This one carries real limits, and they are not formalities.

• Never near the eyes or on the eyelids. Wash your hands carefully afterwards, because the transfer from fingers to eyes is how this goes wrong.
• Not for children under 12, and not during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
• Not for anyone with epilepsy or a history of seizures.

And a caution from the science rather than the tradition. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health states that menthol should not be inhaled by, or applied to the face of, an infant or small child, because it may affect their breathing. That is the reason the age limit on this remedy is not negotiable, and it is the same reason we keep steam inhalations away from children in our cough remedies.

A strong coffee, at the very start

Make a single espresso, 1.7 fl oz (50 ml), or a strong ½ cup (100 ml) of coffee, add a few drops of lemon if the acidity suits you, and drink it slowly somewhere quiet for half an hour.

Two conditions, and the remedy fails without either.

1. It has to be at the very beginning, within the first half hour. Once the headache has settled in, it does nothing.
2. It only applies if you are not already a heavy daily coffee drinker. If you drink four cups a day, your body has nothing left to respond to, and this was as true in a French kitchen as it is now.

Skip it entirely if you have high blood pressure, a rapid heartbeat, or trouble sleeping.

Rosemary steam, for a sinus headache

Pour 1 quart (1 liter) of boiling water into a large heat-proof bowl, add a handful of fresh rosemary sprigs or 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary, lean over it with a towel over your head and breathe deeply for 10 minutes.

This is the one aimed specifically at the headache that sits behind the face and gets worse when you bend forward. That pattern usually means the sinuses rather than the head, and the warm compress and nasal rinse in our sinusitis remedies will do more for it than anything else on this page.

Adults only, and not for anyone with asthma, epilepsy or severe high blood pressure. A bowl of boiling water at face height is a scald risk on its own, which is reason enough to keep children away from it.

On what we can vouch for: NCCIH, which is where we check what the science says about a plant, has no rosemary page. So this stays where it belongs, as a traditional practice, with the steam doing work that steam is genuinely good at.

The habits that prevent more headaches than any remedy cures

French grandmothers were better at this part than at the remedies, and it is the part that changes the number of bad days in a month.

• Keep a one-month diary of food, stress, sleep and weather, and find your own triggers. They are personal, and nobody else’s list will match yours.
• Regular sleep hours, including weekends. Seven to nine hours for an adult.
• Break up screen time: five minutes away every hour.
• Watch the known trigger foods: dark chocolate, aged cheeses, cured and processed meats.
• Move regularly: thirty minutes of brisk walking, yoga or swimming, four or five times a week.
• Sit properly: screen at eye level, back straight, feet on the floor.
• Air the room. Stuffy air makes every headache worse.
• Stop early. A quiet, dark, cool room at the first sign beats anything attempted an hour later.

If the shorter days are also flattening your mood and wrecking your sleep through the winter, the sleep advice above is only half the answer, and the other half is in seasonal affective disorder.

When to see a doctor

This is the section that matters most on this page.

Get medical help right away if a headache comes with:

• a blow to the head;
• a stiff neck;
• fever;
• confusion or loss of consciousness;
• pain in the eye or the ear.

And tell your doctor about any sudden, severe headache, the kind that arrives at full strength rather than building up.

That list is MedlinePlus, quoted closely because there is no good reason to paraphrase it: “Get medical help right away if you have a headache after a blow to your head, or if you have a headache along with a stiff neck, fever, confusion, loss of consciousness, or pain in the eye or ear.”

Also worth a call, without urgency: headaches that are becoming more frequent or more severe, headaches that wake you from sleep, and headaches that have changed character from the ones you are used to.

And one cause people never suspect: a bad tooth. Pain from an infected or cracked molar refers upward and presents as a headache on that side, which is why a headache that will not shift and sits stubbornly on one side is worth a dental appointment as much as a medical one. Our toothache page covers what to do while you wait for it.

A headache with a sore throat and a fever is usually an ordinary infection rather than anything sinister, and the distinctions that matter there are set out in our sore throat remedies.

FAQ

Cold or heat on a headache?

Cold for a throbbing headache, on the forehead, temples or the back of the neck. Warmth suits a tension headache better, on the shoulders and neck where the muscles are tight. If you are not sure which you have, start with cold in a dark room.

Why does the coffee remedy work for some people and not others?

Because it depends entirely on what your body is used to. On someone who rarely drinks it, a strong coffee at the first sign is a genuine French grandmother trick. On a four-cups-a-day drinker it is just another cup of coffee.

Can I use peppermint oil on my child’s headache?

No, not under 12, and NCCIH’s warning about menthol and small children’s breathing is the reason. For a child, stay with water, a dark quiet room, and a cool cloth on the forehead, and call the pediatrician if the headache is severe, unusual, or comes with fever or a stiff neck.