Why is it called hair of the dog

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What is 'hair of the dog'?
Does hair of the dog actually work?
What can I do to cure my hangover, then?

Animals
Food and drink
The proverbs of John Heywood
Dogs

The hair of the dog is a small measure of drink, intended to cure a hangover.

The fuller version of this phrase, that is, 'the hair of the dog that bit me', gives a clue to the source of the name of this supposed hangover cure.

That derivation is from the medieval belief that, when someone was bitten by a rabid dog, a cure could be made by applying the same dog's hair to the infected wound. How many people managed to get bitten again when trying to approach the aforesaid dog to acquire the hair to achieve this completely useless remedy isn't known. The knowledge of the derivation should at least put paid to the frequent 'hare of the dog' misspelling.

With most metaphorical phrases that have a literal origin, for example toe the line and on the warpath, the later figurative use doesn't become popular until the literal use has fallen out of use. 'The hair of the dog' is unusual in that the figurative version is recorded before any known examples of the literal meaning.

John Heywood, in his early text, A Dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe tongue, 1546, uses the phrase with a clear reference to drinking:

I pray thee let me and my fellow haveA hair of the dog that bit us last night -And bitten were we both to the brain aright.
We saw each other drunk in the good ale glass.

Another useful text, Randle Cotgrave's A dictionarie of the French and English tongues, 1611, also records the 'drinking' version of the expression:

Our Ale-knights [habitual drinkers] often use this phrase, and say, Give us a haire of the dog that last bit us.

It isn't until the 18th century that the literal use of dogs' hair to cure bite wounds is recorded in print. Robert James alludes to the method in A Treatise on Canine Madness, 1760:

The hair of the dog that gave the wound is advised as an application to the part injured.

In fact, James is rather skeptical about the treatment, preferring another commonly believed but equally unpromising remedy - the application of the ashes of river crabs.

Whilst the hair of the dog that bit us is now dismissed as an effective rabies treatment, the taking of additional alcohol to cure a hangover has some scientific basis. The symptoms of hangover are partly induced by a withdrawal from alcohol poisoning. A small measure of alcohol may be some temporary relief, even if in the longer term it makes the hangover worse.

See also: the List of Proverbs.

Hair of the dog: An alcoholic chaser reputed to relieve a hangover, usually needed the morning after imbibing too much alcohol. There is no scientific evidence as to the efficacy of this time-honored treatment for a hangover.

The saying originated in the belief that a cure for hydrophobia (rabies) or any disease contracted from a dog bite consisted of taking a hair of the dog that bit you and placing it in the wound.

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Hair of the dog is the abbreviated term for the entire phrase, hair of the dog that bit you. This phrase has a quite literal origin. We’ll look at the meaning of hair of the dog, its ancient origins, and some examples of how the term is used today.

Hair of the dog is a small alcoholic drink one drinks in the morning in order to cure a hangover. Doctors tell us that this hangover cure does not work. You are better off drinking copious amounts of water, as most of the symptoms of a hangover come from dehydration. The belief behind this folk cure is that like cures like. Curiously, the term hair of the dog that bit you comes from the literal practice of treating a rabid dog bite by packing it with hair from the rabid dog who made the bite or concocting a potion to drink made with the rabid dog’s hair. This treatment is first seen in The Natural History by Pliny the Elder, who lived AD 23-79. By the late Middle Ages, the phrase hair of the dog that bit you became a cheeky way to refer to an alcoholic drink taken the morning after too much revelry.

Examples
Specialty cocktails are listed among other alcoholic options, which is good news for those looking forward to a hair of the dog since it may be soon legal to start serving alcohol at 10 a.m. Sundays. (The Democrat and Chronicle)
She started drinking the wine she’d stashed in her purse that day as a little “hair of the dog” for a bad hangover from the previous night’s drinking. (The Independent Journal Review)
The hair of the dog may well have been called for as Charlie recovered from his weekend bender. (The Irish Examiner)

We've all been there - banging headache, dry mouth and a serious case of the hangover shakes. The morning after a big night out normally isn't pretty.

So what if we told you there's an age-old hangover cure that might just spare you from your misery? Enter stage right, hair of the dog - that is, continuing to drink to help your body get over the shock of drinking the night before.

You've probably tried it before (hey, there, Bloody Mary...), but if you haven't, it sounds a bit mad, right? Yet having an alcoholic tipple when you're hanging is supposed to take the edge off your nastiest hangovers, on the days when you just can't hack it.

But, question: medically speaking, can more booze help you get over too much booze? And how does your body respond when you ply it with alcohol not one, but two days in a row?

We enlisted the help of two health experts to find out. Buckle up.

What is 'hair of the dog'?

The clue is in the name... kind of. Fun fact: the phrase 'hair of the dog' comes from the age-old belief that you could cure rabies by drinking a potion containing hair from the dog that bit you.

Naturally, modern medicine has proven that this isn't the case for curing rabies and over the years, the meaning of the expression has shifted. Now, if you 'hair of the dog', you cure a hangover by drinking more of what made you feel bad in the first place. Aka, booze.

Does hair of the dog actually work?

Well, according to the experts, probably not. We know that's probably not what you wanted to hear...

According to Matthew Rowe, health lifestyle adviser at Bupa Health Clinics, neither the rabies or the booze belief have any scientific backing as a hangover cure, and having a drink the next morning will actually likely make you feel much worse.

"Is drinking more alcohol to ease a hangover ever a good idea?," Matthew asks. "In a word – no. Ultimately all it will actually do is delay symptoms until later in the day."

Sigh.

Doctor Alka Patel, host of The Lifestyle First Podcast, agrees. The theory goes, because hangover symptoms are a result of your body breaking down alcohol to get rid of it, raising alcohol in the body again by drinking might remove those symptoms. But it's a no from Dr Alka.

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"Think about it," she asks. "When you eventually stop drinking and your blood alcohol levels return to zero, the hangover will return. In some sense, ‘hair of the dog’ delays the time until you experience a hangover – but it cannot prevent it entirely."

She also stresses that simply prolonging your inevitable hangover may even end up making it worse. "It's best to aid recovery as soon as you can. Rehydrate and nourish your body, instead," she suggests.

Do remember, alcohol is a carcinogen with the same rating as tobacco and asbestos. It has a strong link to cancers of the mouth, larynx, oesophaghus, liver and colon.... so, not to be a downer, but it's really important to drink in moderation.

So, it's official: that Bloody Mary at brunch is actually more likely to make you feel worse than you did first thing....

What can I do to cure my hangover, then?

Well, ahem... not an awful lot, actually.

"Contrary to popular belief, there’s no 'magic cure' for a hangover," shares Matthew. Truthfully, he believes that the best way to avoid a hangover is to drink sensibly and know your limits.

Remember, the recommended drinking guidelines are there for a reason, he points out. FYI, you're recommended to drink no more than 14 units per week.

But thankfully, as Dr Alka shares, there are loads of other scientifically-proven ways to ease your hangover. Like?