HealthHabits · 5 min read

Switched to the vape to quit smoking? 5 reasons thousands of Brits are now swapping it for a stick of wood

The vape was meant to be the way out. For a lot of us, it turned into the habit we can't put down. Here's what's changing.

Friday night. One of these isn't a vape.

It was supposed to be temporary. Swap the fags for a vape, cut down, done.

Years later, plenty of us are still on it. More than ever, if we're honest.

And a growing number are quietly trying something that sounds daft until you hold one: a small stick of wood that gives your hand its habit back, without the nicotine and without the vapour.

Here's why.

Patches, gum and 0mg all fix the wrong thing

Nicotine is the bit everyone treats. Patches, gum, lozenges, a 0mg liquid: they all deal with the chemical.

But ask the people who tried and slipped back what actually dragged them back, and it's rarely the nicotine.

"Craving nicotine doesn't last so long but our habits do."
Planet of the Vapes forum

"I find 0mg to be a bit like an alcohol-free beer or a decaf coffee - It looks and tastes basically the same but it just feels like something is missing"
Planet of the Vapes forum

The nicotine fades in days. The habit is what's left: the hand, the drag, the little break after the brew. And nothing on the chemist's shelf touches it.

You're probably vaping more than you ever smoked (and it isn't your fault)

A cigarette had an ending. You went outside, it burnt down, you could count them.

A vape has none of that. It sits on the desk, rides in the van, comes to bed. There's no last one.

When HÜM asked 1,090 of its customers why they'd bought it, 566 ticked the same box: "I vape, and I used to smoke before that." They did exactly what they were told. Then the vape took over.

"I used to smoke 2-3 roll ups a day. Although I don't miss smoking- I am vaping far far more than I ever smoked."
Mumsnet

Your hand goes to your pocket before you've decided anything

In the pocket before you've thought about it.

Watch yourself for an hour. The brew. The van. After tea. The sofa. Your hand goes to your pocket on its own.

"For the first few days after I quit, I kept reaching for a vape that wasn't there. My hand would instinctively pat my pocket, or drift towards the corner of the desk where it normally sat."
r/QuitVaping

It's the same at 3am. The same in the work loo. The same with the camera off in a meeting.

That isn't your willpower failing. It's a movement your hand has practised more times than anything else you do.

HÜM replaces the ritual, not the chemical

The same movement. No nicotine, no vapour.

HÜM is a stick of wood and metal, about the length of your finger. You hold it, raise it and draw on it: the same movement your hand already knows. A small flavour insert inside gives you cool, lightly flavoured air.

How it works:

Pop a flavour insert into the stick (mint, spearmint, coffee, maple and more).
Twist the ring at the top to set how tight you like the draw.
Draw on it whenever your hand goes looking for the vape.

No nicotine. None.
No vapour. Nothing comes out when you breathe out.
No battery. Nothing to charge, nothing to die on you.

Patches for the nicotine if you need them, HÜM for the hand. That's how a lot of its customers do it. Asked why they chose it, their top answer was "the idea that it targets the habit, not just the nicotine."

89% of HÜM customers feel the urge fade within 30 days.

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They get their drives, their evenings and their money back

★★★★★

"I first tested the Hüm on a 6hr drive home from a holiday in Cornwall. Driving is one of my most habitual times to vape. It worked!"