The Skinny Cow Times

Special Edition Issue 2024

Damn, this is one big issue

Hair of the dog club

The term ‘hair of the dog’ has been around since the 16th century. So, no my dear millennials, you did not invent it. Currently meaning the idea of lessening the effects of a hangover by further intoxication, it had a different meaning when it originated. It all started with the belief that if bitten by a rabid dog, applying the same dog’s hair on the affected area would cure it. The association with alcohol proposes that, though beverage intake is to blame for the hangover (as is the dog for the attack), another serving of the same will; perplexingly, act as a cure. And so, an old Scottish saying goes:

‘If this dog do you bite, soon as out of your bed, take a hair of the tail the next day.’

There are innumerable words and phrases used around the world. How are you supposed to know them all? Amidst a conversation, if you show even the slightest hesitation or incomprehension towards a term, many-a-times you are left embarrassed by being bluntly corrected. I mean, thank God for Google helping me to cleverly clear out (through a few clicks under the table) that hair of the dog was not a cocktail on the menu one afternoon, but a man-made cure my friend suggested for my self-inflicted punishment the night before.

the menu one afternoon, but a man-made cure my friend suggested for my self-inflicted punishment the night before.

Does just another drink do the trick? Every culture has its own therapeutic version, which has evolved with time. Eons ago, to reverse drinking damage, the Irish covered themselves with wet sand, Puerto Ricans put lemons under their armpits and the Japanese ate pickled plums. Even Max Factor saw an opportunity and invented the Hangover Heaven face pack featuring plastic cubes to be filled with water and freeze the symptoms away. Today we have pills, cocktails, hangover clinics, but still not just one remedy collectively used by everyone even in this century. Another drink a day may keep the sorrow away could just be the most common solace followed.

During my teens, I was too round, substantially hairy, and unpopular to start my own club. As I

During my teens, I was too round, substantially hairy, and unpopular to start my own club. As I grew older, I still resembled a figure similar to zero (0) and not even an eight (8). I even lasered my hairy bits, but somehow didn’t become Miss Congeniality overnight. Somewhere suddenly, during the transition of ugly duckling en route the decent swan route, I did become popular with the boys though. It wasn’t because of my killer looks and flirtatious charm, it was more due to my personality resembling theirs, and so I was treated like a boy; a ‘bro with b**bs’ (a Broob?), as many of them still call me. I realize now that we sometimes look for the wrong members to make a crowd. We don’t always get what we want, but that doesn’t mean we can’t include those who are different yet want to walk down the same path as us.

grew older, I still resembled a figure similar to zero (0) and not even an eight (8). I even lasered my hairy bits, but somehow didn’t become Miss Congeniality overnight. Somewhere suddenly, during the transition of ugly duckling en route the decent swan route, I did become popular with the boys though. It wasn’t because of my killer looks and flirtatious charm, it was more due to my personality resembling theirs, and so I was treated like a boy; a ‘bro with b**bs’ (a Broob?), as many of them still call me. I realize now that we sometimes look for the wrong members to make a crowd. We don’t always get what we want, but that doesn’t mean we can’t include those who are different yet want to walk down the same path as us.

So, join us. Become part of our Hair of the Dog Club. We are not concerned with what you look like, where you came from, what you do and where you want to go. If you want to put lemons under your armpits, drink Bloody Marys or sweat the toxins out, it’s fine by us. At least we know that we are all in this together, in sickness and in health, in hangovers or in heartbreaks.