As a theatre major, singer and self-proclaimed talkative person, my voice is one of my most important weapons. Let me take you back a few weeks though, when I had to sing for class and struggled to hit even a treble C. Lately my voice has been on the fritz and I’ve had to come up with a quick remedy. Here is how I, and I’m sure many others, cure a lost voice.
1. The most basic of all basic vocal cures, silence. I took a three-day-long vow of silence, and while it was the most difficult three days of my life, I perfected a speedy white board writing technique (and also mastered drawing cartoons while bored in class as seen below).
2. Throat Coat! Throat Coat! Throat Coat! I didn’t know about this until it was brought to my attention by my friend who was tired of hearing me complain about my lost voice. I now swear by Throat Coat Tea, and it is my new favorite thing.
3. One of the main in ingredients in Throat Coat is Slippery Elm, which is why taking Slippery Elm lozenges is also another solution for a lost voice. They taste like syrup-flavored paper, but they work, trust me.
4. Do I even need to say to gargle warm salt water? (Every three hours for best results)
5. Spit don’t swallow. No, not like that, get your mind out of the gutter. If your lost voice is due to a cold, then spit when phlegm comes up because swallowing is just putting all the bad bacteria back into your body.
6. And last, but not least, steam. It will thin out your mucus and soothe your vocal chords.