Sorted by the doubts people arrive with, not by date. Read the sceptics first if that is where you are.
★★★★★
The vice loosens
Two minutes in, the cold soaks through and the vice starts to loosen. It does not take the pain away — nothing does — but it turns a nine into something I can ride out in the dark. It is kind of my best friend now, which is a strange thing to say about a hat.
★★★★★
The light stops screaming
That is the only way I can describe it. Cap on, halo pulled down, curtains already shut, and the light finally stops screaming at me. Twenty minutes of somewhere else. I still lose the day sometimes. I no longer lose it in pieces.
★★★★★
Ordered it expecting to send it back
I have a drawer full of things that were supposed to help, so I ordered this fully expecting to use the guarantee. The 60 days was honestly the only reason I risked it. It has not left my freezer since March. Nothing works for everyone — this works for me.
★★★★★
Bought it for my wife
Fifteen years of standing on the wrong side of that door, able to do precisely nothing. You cannot fix it for them. You can put this in the freezer. She says it makes the worst ones more bearable, and she does not say that about anything.
★★★★☆
Honest four stars
I wish it stayed cold longer. You get a proper twenty minutes, then it starts to fade — which, to be fair, is exactly what they tell you on the page, and apparently every gel cap does the same. That is why you need two. One on, one refreezing. Star withheld for the week I spent with only one.
★★★★★
Fits my actual head
Thick curly hair past my shoulders and it still pulls down over my eyes properly — full blackout, no gap at the nose. The soft zones mean my ears do not freeze, which finished off every other cap I have owned. First one that fits my actual head and my actual hair.
★★★★★
My sister made me try hers
I was rude about these in a comment section once, more than once actually. Then my sister made me try hers mid-attack. It is an ice pack — one that covers everything at once, blacks the room out and does not drip down my neck. I ordered my own from her sofa before the twenty minutes were up.
★★★★★
Two in rotation, always
Two caps in rotation, sealed in their pouches so nothing smells of the freezer. Swap at the twenty-minute mark, and there is always cold when I need it. My old caps picked up the smell of fish fingers inside a week. These have not, and that alone was worth the upgrade.
★★★★★
Fridge, not freezer, for me
Full freezer cold is too much for me — it always has been, and I thought that ruled these out. I keep mine in the fridge instead, and warm it for the tension ones. The gentler version still does the job. Nobody else tells you that you are allowed to do that.
★★★★★
My mum sent it
I felt awful, because I was certain it would join the drawer of things that do not work and I would have to pretend. It is on my head as I type this, half over my eyes. My ice hat is my saviour is a strong sentence. I am using it anyway.
★★★★★
Third one I have bought
People keep taking them. My daughter first, then my sister borrowed hers and it never came home. The box gives nothing away in an office post room, and the note I typed at checkout arrived printed word for word. Buying a fourth before Christmas, clearly.
★★★★★
Pressure without the squeeze
Gentle pressure all the way round, without crushing my skull the way the cheap one did. It holds all my hair off my neck and the dark is total. I grab it, curl up in a ball, and wait it out. The bad day still comes. It is just less of a war now.