Whenever I've had a headache, I've always taken a couple of painkillers and that was that. But this 4Head Quickstrip is one of those products that you see on the shelf in the supermarket that makes you start thinking 'Could this calm my headache even quicker than taking painkillers?' After all, when you have a headache, you want to get rid of it as fast as possible, and this idea of trying a new approach to headache eradication by placing a cool strip across your forehead sounded interesting. So we thought that we would give it a try.

We paid £3.20 for this from the supermarket. They are marketed for headache and migraine relief, and you get 4 patches, or strips as they call them in a packet. Looking at the details and the instructions supplied, each strip is what they call a hydro-gel strip, which basically means that it is soft, flexible and contains a liquid gel. That gel contains something called natural levomenthol which apparently is a type of peppermint and hence they claim that this product is 100% natural. The claim is that this ingredient is a powerful natural painkiller that can block the pain signals causing tension type headaches. But when it is sealed into this strip, I'm not sure how it is meant to transfer to your head to stop your headache.

The main selling point besides the fact that the product is 100% natural is that you don't need to take anything internally, as you would with normal painkillers. This 4Head Quickstrip is applied externally. When applied, it gives a cooling effect to the skin and I think this is achieved by it being a moisture absorbing material, so as it absorbs the moisture away from your skin, than makes the skin in that area (your forehead for example) cooler. The process is all chemical, and hence there is no need for prior refrigeration of the product which is useful meaning you can carry them in your bag or keep them in the car and use them immediately as required.

You would normally apply it to either your forehead or the back of your neck, or the strip can be cut in order to apply tabs to your temples. The cooling effect is meant to make you relax and the natural levomenthol is meant to act as the painkiller to take your headache away.

So what is it like to actually use? The first time I used one of the strips was when I came home from work with a headache. You open the box and take out the strip which is sealed within a resealable plastic pouch, where they are sealed in packs of 2. Of note, once you remove a strip it advises that you should reseal the pouch to prevent the other strip from drying out. Each strip is about 12 cm long by 5 cm wide and pale blue in colour. The idea is that you peel off the film from the back of the strip and stick the strip to your forehead.

When I first put it on, it was very cooling, and they claim that it should last for up to 6 hours. But after a short while, it seemed to lose its' cooling effect as my body heated it up, and then it didn't really seem to be doing anything after an hour or so, and it didn't seem to be having any effect of my headache. After about 2 hours, I sort of gave up and took the strip off and threw it away. To be fair, I did try another strip about a week later and roughly the same thing happened - the coolness didn't last that long and it too failed to clear my headache.

I'm always sceptical about these new sorts of products that claim to take away your headache without actually entering into your body. Whilst the cooling strip on the forehead or the back of your neck may be good at relaxing you, and it certainly was pleasant for me while it lasted, it doesn't really appear to last that long. The other issue is the practicality of it. If you are at work and you have a headache, you can normally take 2 painkiller tablets with some water and that is it - no one needs to know. Probably not that fast acting, but they often will work given time. But with these strips, would you really want to sit in your office for up to 6 hours with this 12cm by 5cm light blue gel strip stuck to your forehead? Probably not.

So for me, this wasn't really a good product and especially not one that lives up to it's claims. So only one star from me and not recommended.