Bodylign™ Migraine Relief Cap

If you've never had a cluster headache, I genuinely cannot explain it to you. Mine hit in cycles, every night at 2am for about six weeks, right behind my left eye. The pain is a nine out of ten, every time. I've been to the ER twice thinking something was seriously wrong. This cap is now my first move when I feel one coming. It doesn't stop it, I want to be honest about that, but the cold around my temples and forehead takes the absolute peak off. It means I can breathe instead of just pace. That matters enormously when you're in it.

I've had chronic migraines since I was 22, I'm now 34. I've tried sumatriptan, topiramate, two rounds of Botox, and an elimination diet that made me miserable for six weeks. Nothing stopped them coming. I bought this mostly out of desperation, genuinely expecting nothing. I wore it during a migraine that usually would have wiped out my whole Saturday. Within 40 minutes the throbbing had dulled enough that I could sit up. I made it to my nephew's football match. That sounds small. It isn't small.

Honestly I thought it looked gimmicky. A frozen hat? I've tried the gel eye masks and they either leak, go warm in ten minutes, or feel so heavy they make the headache worse. I only bought it because a woman in my migraine support group wouldn't stop talking about it. The fit is genuinely different, it covers the back of my head where a lot of my pain sits, which no other product ever reached. I've used it four times in the past three weeks and each time I've avoided a full migraine spiral.

My wife gets migraines that knock her out for a full day, sometimes two. She'd been lying in the dark with a tea towel in the freezer for years, genuinely, a tea towel. I ordered this for her birthday without telling her what it was. She looked at me like I'd lost the plot. Three days later she had a bad one and used it. She texted me from the bedroom: 'okay this is actually helping.' She's protective of it now. When I mentioned buying a second one she said she'd handle it herself and did it that day.

I work in finance. By Friday at 3pm my head is a pressure cooker, tight across the forehead, stiff neck, the works. I used to just white-knuckle it until the weekend and then spend Saturday recovering. Now I keep this in the office fridge, slap it on for 20 minutes before I leave, and I actually arrive home functional. My husband noticed before I did. I've stopped buying paracetamol in bulk.

First time I put it on I wasn't sure it was positioned correctly, the coverage felt off and I wasn't getting much relief. Second time I adjusted it further back on my skull and suddenly it made sense. The gel sits right over the areas that actually hurt. I wish the instructions were a bit clearer about placement for tension headaches versus full migraines. Once I found the sweet spot though, it works well. I use it after long drives, which is when my headaches are worst, and it shortens the recovery time significantly.

My doctor told me I was overusing triptans and needed to cut back, but she didn't give me anything to replace them with. I was using rizatriptan as a crutch because the alternative was just suffering through a full migraine. I started using this cap at the first sign of an attack, the visual aura, the neck stiffness and catching it early makes such a difference. Three weeks in, I've used a triptan once. My sleep is better too because I'm not dreading waking up in pain.

About a year ago I started getting these strange flickering arcs in my vision, like a crescent of static on one side. No headache at first, just the visual stuff, then a dull throb arriving twenty minutes later. My GP told me they were ocular migraines and that there wasn't much to do. Putting this cap on the moment the visual disturbance starts has shortened the afterache dramatically. Last week I had one during a work presentation, excused myself for fifteen minutes, came back and finished. That would not have been possible six months ago.

Delivery took a little longer than expected, which was frustrating because I'd ordered it specifically ahead of a stressful week. Once it arrived I was relieved I'd waited. I used it on Wednesday evening after a brutal all-hands meeting and it was the first evening that week I didn't go straight to bed after dinner. My kids actually got to talk to me.

I bought the first cap about four months ago and used it almost daily during a horrible run of stress migraines while moving flat and dealing with a difficult period at work. It became part of my routine, freeze it overnight, use it in the morning if needed. Last month I left it at my mum's house after a weekend visit and felt lost without it for three days. Ordered a second one immediately. I keep one at home and one at hers, she started using it for her arthritis and apparently I'm not getting that one back.