It’s about 18 months since I had my daith pierced and I’ve purposely held back from writing this post because I wanted to give it ample to time to see whether getting it done had any affect on my migraines. See, it’s been long believed that getting your daith, which is a bit of cartilage on the inner part of the ear lobe, pierced, can significantly reduce migraines.
The connection between piercing and migraine relief is linked to Chinese acupuncture, the belief being that by triggering specific points on the body with needles you can alleviate or even completely irradiate symptoms of certain ailments. The ear has certain pressure points used in modern-day acupuncture and daith piercings for migraine relief gained popularity in the mid-2010s with the theory that the daith piercing activates a pressure point which may help relieve migraine symptoms. Whilst there’s no scientific evidence that suggests daith piercings are effective in treating migraine symptoms, there are many testimonials online that claim they have worked, and since I already had my ears pierced 3 times anyway, it’s clearly not something I’m adverse to. What did I have to lose?
I’ve written about my migraines before so not going to go into great detail about them here but needless to say, it’s something I’ve suffered from for many, many years and they are not pleasant. Although am pleased to say that they seem to have eased off in frequency and severity as I’ve gotten a little older. Before having my daith done, I suffered from them about every six months. And whilst I say their severity had eased off, if I were to get one, the rest of the day would still pretty much be a write off. They just wouldn’t floor me for 3 days anymore like they used to.
Like a good hairdresser and brow girl, finding piercer you trust is vital. I’d known Amy at Blades and Needles through work and knew she had a piercing business on the side (but like, in a proper salon, not like, in the pub with an ice cube) and knowing how bloody good she is at work, I knew I’d be in safe hands. So one Saturday last March, Steph and I went along to get jabbed.
I was unsure as to which side to get done, Amy suggested the side that my migraines were most prominent, but the problem with that was, I get them on alternating sides every single time. I decided to go for the left ear, for the simple fact that my left side is my ‘good side’ in photos and when it healed I could upgrade to some pretty jewellery. I also asked Amy how much it would hurt, and this is when I knew Amy was the right choice.
Why? Because she didn’t lie to me. She was completely honest that the daith is one of the most painful areas to get pierced because of the location and the fact it can often be quite thick. And she wasn’t wrong. As the video below would attest to, safe to say it smarted a bit. But it did really help that Amy had warned me that it would hurt, made sure I had some water and plenty of deep breaths and we just went for it. Plus I had Steph there holding my hand, well, allowing me to crush her hand. And if you’ve ever had anything pierced, you’ll know that almost as soon as it starts to really hurt, it’s over, so it’s not like prolonged excruciating pain.
It was all done in about 10 minutes and off we went with our little bottles of antiseptic to keep it clean. Because it’s right on the inside of my ear, I found sleeping on it completely fine however using earplug or ear buds hurt a bit for about 2 weeks after. About 1 month later it got a little bit crusty, which I noticed when I was dabbing the antiseptic but that’s all perfectly normal apparently. I would say after 4 months it felt almost healed and after 8 months, completely healed. You really need to be able to take your time with these things and make sure they’re fine before changing the jewellery. I waited over a year after getting mine changed.
BUT did it help with my migraines? Well, before my daith, which I had done in March 2020, the last migraine I had was November 2019, so I was kind of due one at the time of getting pierced. To date, I have only had one back in January this year, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as ones I’ve had in the past; the headache wasn’t as severe and I was able to just lie feebly on the sofa watching telly for the night rather than have to shut myself off in a darkened room for 24 hours. So I’d be willing to stick my neck out on the line and say, science be damned, it’s worked for me.
The fact that getting it done has triggered somewhat of a little piercing obsession for me, and I’ve been back to Amy 4 times for different things since, is another blog post for another day
