Chill Out, Head

Alright, so these are basically gel masks. Toss them in the freezer (or the microwave for 20 seconds and then additional 10-second increments as needed) and enjoy some cold comfort (or warm relief).

Simple enough.

Now, before we go on, we want to address this bit from the product copy, where they claim it will ensure “migraine relief without medication.”

Oof.

Not great.

Getting out in front of this, we need to say: if you’re suffering from constant, crippling migraines, you should see a doctor, and if that doctor prescribes medication, you should, you know, take it. Getting through things without medication does not make you virtuous.

These are, however, great supplemental items to have on hand to go along with chronic migraine medication, or for relief if you suffer from occasional tension headaches brought on by stress or something else.

(I remember as a child, I would get them after eating my breakfast some mornings, and we were able to discern that it was a specific red dye that did it. Although the fact that I drank roughly three ounces of water a day that weren’t augmented by Country Time Lemonade or powdered ice tea probably didn’t help the feeling either.)

But how do we know they’re ‘great’? Well, we don’t. But we get it. Like, seriously, who hasn’t put a cold washcloth over their face while dealing with a rough headache and thought, You know what would be cool? If this thing applied a bit more pressure and also remained cold for more than thirteen seconds.

So yeah, we’re going by intuition here. And also the 4.6 out of 5 this thing earns on Amazon, based on 29,726 ratings. Seriously, isn’t that sorta nuts? Like, if that many people formed a municipality in the Northeast, it would have upwards of four Dunkins within city limits.

Why do the people of Amazon love it so much?

Sarah W. explains it pretty nicely:

Straight out of the freezer, it’s cold but not painfully stiff. The gel stays flexible so it actually hugs your head instead of just sitting there, and the gentle compression feels incredibly soothing when your head is pounding. I also love that it covers your eyes — the cool + dark combo is perfect when you just need everything to stop for a bit.

Sounds like a great solution for migraines and also just sorta being a living human person in the year of our lord two-thousand-twenty-six.

Nancy Harvey disagrees slightly, at least with the ‘straight out of the freezer’ part:

The only “con” is that it might retain cold TOO well. I think I just need to figure out my comfort level though, because I took it straight out of the freezer and tried to put it on and it was too cold to bear. But I guess that’s a better problem to have than the opposite.

Maybe take it out a few minutes before you put it on. Got it. (But we think Nancy’s right: we would rather have something that needs a few warm-up minutes than something that doesn’t feel cold enough.)

Throughout the reviews, you see this repeated: they’re super cold, they’re super comfortable, they shut the world out and reduce headaches (as well as sinus and puffy eye pain caused by extreme allergies, according to one review we saw). Awesome, right?

But a word to the wise, from EV:

I made the mistake of putting my hat in the freezer without a bag and even though my freezer is fairly clean every odor in the freezer leeched into the hat. It stinks. I tried to wear it anyways and the weird stale freezer smell then got onto my sheets as I napped on them. It was at this time I realized the hat is advertised as only being wipe-clean. You are not supposed to submerge it. I wiped it and the smell remained, so I then decided to risk hand-washing it in a wash basin. The hat seemed to be in good condition afterwards, but the smell remained. At this point I decided that the smell was too unbearable and distracting so I had nothing to lose by putting it in the washing machine (with cold water). The washing machine made the fabric lose it’s tightness and made the gel filling become lumpy. And if that’s not enough, I can still somehow smell the faintest note of the freezer. I’m not sure that it’ll be usable in its current condition, but I will try.

Sorry, that’s long, but we thought it was such a perfect comedy of errors to cut short. (Also, no offense to EV, but color us suspicious of this apparently “fairly clean” freezer whose various odors are capable of ruining a cold wrap beyond use. Still, not a bad tip.)

At any rate, the point is: people use them and say they work.

So maybe they’ll work for you too.