When I was younger, I used to be a complete sucker for a musical on TV. “The Sound of Music”, “West Side Story”, and “Greece” all come to mind, as well as “The King and I”. As a teenager, I then went through a stage (pun intended) where I loved to go see the real thing. “Chess” and “Les Misérables” I remember, oh, and “The Phantom of the Opera”. More recently, migraines prevent me from going, because most stage-shows come with a trigger warning about strobing lights and loud sounds, so those days are gone… and memories… are all alone in the moonlight…
As well as having all this musical-fondness, I also clearly remember there was one musical movie that I did NOT like, but which caused a song to get stuck in my head forever…
[I’ve heard some people refer to this type of song as an “ear worm” but the idea grosses me out soooo badly that I can’t bring myself to use the phrase… ugh.]
Anyway – the show that I didn’t really enjoy, for whatever reason (I can’t remember), was called “South Pacific”, but the song that has been stuck in my head for literal decades is “I’m gonna wash that man right out of my hair”.
I didn’t get it then, and I still don’t really get it now. Sure, it implies a clean start, and a new you, maybe even a bit of revenge glamor… but you can’t have really liked him that much if a simple shampoo and rinse is enough to move on! Could it really be that simple?
All these years later, the song still randomly pops up in my head from time to time, and this time, it got me thinking… and singing… “I’m gonna wash that pain right out of my head!”
In this instance, it (sometimes) really IS that simple.
The most likely reason for the hurt-healing is that you get to be a Super Hottie (read more here). By placing heat on your head, you’re warming up the blood vessels which apparently increases their flow around your brain and across your scalp. This apparently replenishes starved cells and muscles with more oxygen, and speeds up the process of flushing out pain-producing toxins. This seems to be especially helpful if you have a tension headache, but can be hit and miss for people with migraines, because excessive blood flow to the head might have been what triggered the head pain in the first place (sigh).
[As someone who wears a heat pack like a beret to bed, being a hot-head is a BIG help in reducing the severity of my pain.]
Perhaps the running water drumming a gentle EFT Tap on the crown of your head also helps, as does the massage that you give your scalp as you work up a lather. Maybe it’s just the general relaxing comfort that comes from a shower that lasts longer than the soap-on-soap-off of a normal water-wise-wash. Add to that the warmth applied to your tense neck, a potential face rub you give yourself as you get the shampoo out of your eyes, and a few long contented sighs which expel all the carbon dioxide out of the depth of your lungs, and you really have a winning combination of healing techniques all put together in one, tiny, space.
When you get out of the shower, there are a couple MORE things you can do that might help reduce your head-pain further.
One is to wrap your hair up in a towel or wear a headband. Whilst it’s not really going to work like acupressure because you’re pressing too wide an area, some people gain comfort from the ‘gentle hug’ a towel-wrap gives them. For some migraines, if the headband is tight enough it can reduce blood flow to the scalp which calms the space down a bit. Whilst I’ve heard about this as a “tip to try”, I’ve got no idea whether you’re meant to wear the headband vertically like Alice in Wonderland, or more horizontally across your forehead like Olivia Newton John and her 1980s workouts.
[Regardless – this is NOT something I like or do. I hate having pressure on my head. I can’t even have my glasses resting on the top of my head because it ‘hurts’, and even a foam eye-mask can get ‘too heavy’.]
The second thing you can do is brush your hair.
Some people LOVE to brush their hair. Again, it’s like a massage. Some take it a step further, and use weird metal contraptions (that look a bit like torture devices) that are specifically designed to massage the scalp. Others have more modern fandangled devices that create a massage-pulse, which probably flattens your hair rather than style it, but hey… whatever works.
[For me – brushing my hair doesn’t work. It’s similar to the allodynia I have spoken about before. Sometimes, the pressure of the bristles actually makes my headache worse. I’ll stick to EFT tapping instead, but it’s totally personal, so try everything.]
Here’s hoping that the next time you get a headache you can wash your pain away… preferably without the addition of any earworms!
Take care washing, Linda x
[PS: Disclaimer – I’m not a doctor, and whilst personal hygiene tips aren’t likely to have an effect on your treatment program, if you DO suffer from dizziness or blood pressure issues, very hot showers can have an adverse effect. Always speak to your healthcare team before making any changes to your lifestyle or treatment plan.]
The Mindful Migraine 
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