What Baihui does
Baihui is treated here as a practical point rather than a curiosity: where it sits, how it is needled, what the tradition says it does, and the skin conditions in this database that name it.
Actions
- Expels Interior Wind
- Raises Yang
- Benefits the Brain and the Senses
- Clears the Mind and Restores Consciousness
Location
7 cun measured from the landmark shown in the diagram and the location text, at the vertex, at the junction of a line connecting the apex of the ears and the midline, in the depression 7 cun above the posterior hairline and 5 cun behind the anterior hairline.
How to find it
Find the bony landmark first, then feel for the hollow or tender spot the location describes. The point is usually sensitive when pressed. The classical method is the spreading hands technique. Set both palms against the temples so that the little fingers rest on the tips of the ears, then bring the thumbs to meet on the midline; the point lies in the shallow hollow where they touch. A tape stretched from ear tip to ear tip crosses the midline at the same place. Feel for a slight depression rather than a tender spot, since the crown is rarely sore to press.
Deqi
De qi at this point is felt as local distension, heaviness or aching, and may travel a short way along the channel.
A cun is a proportional body measurement, not a fixed length: one cun is about the width of the thumb at the knuckle, 1.5 cun about two finger widths, and 3 cun about the width of four fingers. On an average adult one cun is roughly one inch, but it scales with the person, which is why the texts measure in cun rather than centimetres.
Technique
Needling
Angle: 15 degrees, transverse Depth: Standard depth half a to one cun. Direction: Needle in the direction the location describes.
Moxibustion
Moxibustion is particularly recommended at Baihui, for five to fifteen minutes with a stick or a few small cones, and it supplies the warming half of the point's lifting action. It suits prolapse and sinking patterns and is left out where there is excess Heat or raised blood pressure. The scalp is thin, so the moxa is kept moving and the skin checked between cones.
Cupping
Cupping is contraindicated at the vertex. The scalp there is thin, close to the bone and richly vascular, so a cup has little to grip and suction would bruise. Where a cup is wanted for a head pattern it is placed on the upper back instead.
Bleeding
Bloodletting at Baihui is used in severe excess, above all acute Liver Yang rising with a bursting headache or very high blood pressure, where reducing technique alone does not settle it. A few drops are taken from the point with a lancet in practitioner settings, and it is not used in depleted patients, who are tonified instead.
Skin uses
The classical record describes Baihui as a meeting place of the Yang channels and the extraordinary vessels, and its recorded actions are to expel interior Wind and raise Yang. That meeting-point function supports a cautious skin reading: where the picture includes sinking or deficient Yang, with fatigue, heaviness or a bearing-down sensation, the point is traditionally considered for lifting rather than for treating the skin directly. Its vertex location also places it over the scalp, so local scalp complaints are sometimes read through it. Because no skin-specific classical indication is recorded for the point, the connection above is an indirect rationale, not trial evidence.
No skin-specific classical indication is recorded for this point. The rationale above is an indirect, traditional reading of the point, not a promise of benefit.
Point classifications
| Classification | Value |
|---|---|
| Channel | Meridian |
Classical record
Baihui is the meeting place of the Qi and Blood of the five Zang, the six Fu, the extraordinary vessels, the three Yang channels and the hundred vessels, and from that convergence it takes the name of the hundred meetings.
Huiyuan Zhenjiu Xue (会元针灸学) on the name
Safety
Who should treat this point
Acupuncture and moxibustion are practitioner procedures. This page is educational and is not a guide to self-treatment.
Caution
Safety flags: the reference marks it as a dangerous point. Needle with care, adjust depth to the patient's build, and modify or avoid the point where a flag applies. Only shallow transverse needling is used, because the bone lies immediately beneath and the scalp at the vertex is dense with vessels. An infant's open fontanelle is a bar to needling altogether. Where there is high blood pressure or excess Heat, warming methods give way to reducing technique or to bloodletting, and pressure is held on the point after the needle is withdrawn to prevent a haematoma.
Deficiency and constitution
In a depleted patient the point is worked gently and briefly. Sinking Qi is the deficiency picture this point addresses, so a depleted patient is not excluded; the technique is what changes. Tonifying needling is kept gentle, small cones or a stick are used to warm the point, and the session is shorter than in a robust patient. Where Heat or raised blood pressure is also present the moxa is left out, since warming a depleted but hot patient can drive the Yang higher.
Before treatment
Educational reference only. Skin that is spreading, painful, blistering or accompanied by fever needs medical assessment.
Modern evidence and safety
General references for acupuncture safety and skin evidence. They are not specific to this point, and they are not a claim that needling it treats any condition.
- Acupuncture-related adverse events: systematic review and meta-analyses of prospective clinical studies. BMJ Open, 2021. PMID: 34489268.
- Acupuncture for atopic dermatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open, 2024. PMID: 39638592.
- Manual acupuncture for the treatment of chronic spontaneous urticaria: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Surgery, 2025. PMID: 40696933.
- Acupuncture in Dermatology: An Update to a Systematic Review. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2021. PMID: 32955916.
Evidence note
No controlled trial of this treatment in skin conditions was identified for this entry. What is described here rests on the classical and later materia medica record and on traditional clinical use, not on controlled trial evidence, and it is not a prediction of benefit. Where skin-specific research does exist it is linked above.
Common questions
What does Baihui do in skin practice?
It is used where the skin picture includes the conditions it is used with, always as part of a combination chosen for the pattern.
How is it needled?
10-15° (Transverse). Standard depth 0.5 - 1.0 cun. De qi: Distending or tingling sensation locally at the vertex, sometimes radiating across the scalp. The sensation may feel like warmth or pressure spreading over the crown of the head. Some patients report a sense of clarity or lightness in the head, or a subtle pulling sensation.
Why can one point both raise and lower Yang?
Because the effect follows the technique rather than the point alone. At the crown Yang gathers from the whole body, so a reducing needle angled toward the back draws excess Yang down from the head, while a tonifying needle angled toward the front lifts Qi that has sunk. The diagnosis decides which is used, and the wrong direction works against the case.
Why is an infant's fontanelle a contraindication?
While the fontanelle is still open the bone has not closed, so a needle at the crown has no safe depth to work in and the point is not needled in those children. In adults the same area is thin and rich in vessels, which is why insertion is shallow and transverse and pressure is applied once the needle is out.