Peppermint Essential Oil: Headaches, Tired Legs and a Heavy Scalp

Peppermint is the oil people reach for first and misuse most. It is cheap, it smells immediately useful, and the cooling is so obvious that the natural instinct is to use more.

Almost every bad experience with peppermint comes from that instinct.

Why it feels cold

Menthol binds to a receptor in your skin called TRPM8, the same one that responds to actual cold. The nerve sends a cold signal to the brain. Your skin temperature has not changed at all.

That is worth knowing for two reasons. The cooling is real as a sensation and useless as cooling — it will not bring down a fever or treat heatstroke. And the same receptor, overloaded, stops reading as pleasant cold and starts reading as burning. That is the line people cross with the second and third drop.

The uses, with doses

Headaches

One drop in a little carrier oil, on the temples and the back of the neck. Keep it well away from the eyes — the vapour alone will make them stream.

This is the best-supported use peppermint has. For tension headaches a dilute application to the temples performs respectably.

Tired legs and feet

Four drops in 10ml of carrier oil, massaged in upwards. Good after a day standing. Better if the oil has been in the fridge.

A heavy or dull scalp

Two to three drops in 10ml of carrier oil. Massaged into the scalp before a wash. It wakes the scalp up and the sensation is pleasant for about ten minutes.

Note: peppermint is often sold for hair growth. The evidence there is a rodent study, frequently cited and rarely read. Treat it as a pleasant scalp oil, not a treatment.

In a diffuser

Four to six drops in a full tank. Sharpens a room. Good for a desk in the afternoon, bad for a bedroom at night.

Blocked nose

Two drops in a bowl of hot water, towel over the head, eyes closed. Not for children.

The rules

Never neat on skin. Peppermint is one of the oils most likely to punish this immediately.

Never near the eyes. Including the vapour from your own hands. Wash them afterwards.

Not for children under six, and not in a room where a baby is sleeping. Menthol can cause breathing difficulty in small children.

Not around cats. Cats process essential oils poorly and peppermint is among the worse ones. If you diffuse it, leave the door open and let the cat leave.

Avoid in pregnancy without medical advice.

If you have overdone it

Do not rinse with water — it spreads the oil. Apply a plain carrier oil to the area, which dilutes it, then wipe with a cloth and wash with soap.

How long a bottle lasts

At two to four drops a session, a 10ml bottle gives you well over a hundred uses. Essential oils degrade in light and heat, so keep the cap tight and the bottle in a drawer.

Peppermint is in The Essential Oil Collection alongside lavender, rose and lemongrass — four oils that between them cover the evening, the face, the headache and the room.