Buzz
The morning after St. Patrick’s Day, a wedding, or any other celebration full of alcohol, you may be tempted to pour whiskey into your coffee or vodka into your orange juice—essentially, using more alcohol to fight your hangover, a strategy known as hair of the dog. But where does the term come from, and does it actually work? Read on to discover the facts.
What Does Hair of the Dog Really Mean?
The full expression is hair of the dog that bit you, which offers some insight into its history. According to Cosmopolitan, people once believed that consuming a mixture containing the hair from the rabid dog that bit you—or even applying the hair directly to the wound—would cure the rabies infection. (It doesn’t, by the way.)
The exact origin of the phrase as a euphemism for 'drinking more alcohol to cure a hangover' remains unclear. However, we do know it dates back at least 475 years. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known mention of hair of the dog as a hangover remedy appears in a 1546 collection of proverbs by John Heywood: “I pray they let me and my fellow have a hair of the dog that bit us last night—and bitten were we both to the brain, alright” (paraphrased from Heywood’s 16th-century English).
Does the Hair of the Dog Actually Work?
When your headache is pounding and your stomach is upset, you're likely more focused on finding a cure than on the origins of the saying. The real question is whether this remedy actually works.
There’s little scientific evidence to back the idea that more alcohol can actually cure a hangover. The theory is that since hangover symptoms kick in after your body has processed alcohol, you can delay them by simply providing more alcohol for your body to process. But you can't keep drinking indefinitely.
“Once you stop drinking and your blood alcohol levels return to zero, the hangover will inevitably return. In a way, 'hair of the dog' only delays the hangover’s onset—it cannot stop it entirely,” Dr. Alka Patel explained to Cosmopolitan.
Since you're essentially adding more alcohol to an already overwhelmed system, there's a high likelihood that your hangover will be even worse later on. “It might offer temporary relief, but it’s just delaying the inevitable withdrawal,” Dr. Abisola Olulade told Refinery29.
Instead, you’re better off trying one (or all) of these science-backed hangover remedies.
