Shingles Sidelined Ed Sheeran for a Month — Here’s What the Virus Actually Does to You
Ed Sheeran has joined the roughly one in three people who will get shingles in their lifetime — and he’s not sugarcoating the experience.
“I’ve had shingles for the last month, wouldn’t recommend it, but on the mend now,” the “Perfect” singer wrote in an April 2026 Instagram update that also explained his newly shaved head. “Yes I’ve shaved my hair. I wanted to shave it to signify a fresh start. A lot of new beginnings in my life atm. I Iove it, thinking of keeping it this way.”
While recovering, Sheeran said he watched Stranger Things, read Demon Copperhead and hunted “random vinyl at record stores, coming across some gems.” He plans to restart his Loop tour within “a week and a bit.”
So what is shingles, exactly — and why does it hit so hard?
A Virus That’s Been Hiding in Your Nerves
Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the same one behind chickenpox, according to the Mayo Clinic. Here’s the unsettling part: once you’ve had chickenpox, the virus never leaves. It retreats into your nerve cells and waits, sometimes for decades, before reactivating as shingles. The CDC estimates about 30 percent of people will experience it at some point.
What the Telltale Shingles Rash Looks Like
Forget a generic itchy patch. Shingles tends to announce itself with a stripe of fluid-filled blisters wrapping around one side of your torso — almost always just one side.
“The main thing with shingles is a rash. Now the rash may look initially somewhat like chickenpox where you get these little pustules and then it may crust over,” Dr. Ankush K. Bansal, a lifestyle medicine physician and hospitalist, told the American Medical Association. “But one of the other things about this is you’re going to see it in one part of the body and usually on one side of the body.”
According to Johns Hopkins, the rash usually appears one to five days after the first symptoms — which can include itching, tingling, discolored skin, fever, chills, headache, malaise, light sensitivity, fatigue and upset stomach. Blisters typically scab over in seven to 10 days and clear within two to four weeks.
When Shingles Doesn’t End With the Blisters
For some people, the worst part starts after the rash fades. Postherpetic neuralgia — lingering nerve pain in the area where the rash appeared — is the most common complication.
“It’s kind of like you have a pins and needle or sharp and shooting pain in that part of the body that got the shingles rash, and it just doesn’t go away,” Bansal said. “It’s there all the time and it’s debilitating and it’s stressful.”
If shingles erupts on the head, it can be even more dangerous.
“One of the other things that can happen that’s more serious is if you get shingles on the head, it can infect the eyes,” Bansal said. “And if it does infect the eyes, you need to see an ophthalmologist immediately. And you may have to be admitted to the hospital for medication because it can cause vision problems or even vision loss.”
Who’s Most at Risk for Shingles
People over 50 and those with weakened immune systems face the highest odds — and the risk climbs with each decade.
“The main reason for that is your immunity starts to decrease as you get older,” Bansal explained. “If you’re 60 versus 50, your immune system is weaker than when you are at age 50 and same for age 70 and 80. So, the chance of shingles increases.”
There’s also an unexplained gender skew. “Women are slightly more at risk than men in getting shingles,” Bansal said. “We don’t really know why, but that just seems to be what’s happening.”
Contagious — But Not How You’d Think
You can’t give someone shingles. But if your blisters touch their skin — or they breathe in particles from them — and they’ve never had chickenpox, they can catch chickenpox from you.
What Actually Helps Shingles
There’s no cure, but antivirals taken within 72 hours of the rash appearing can shorten the infection and reduce the chance of complications. Creams and lotions ease the itch. Vaccines lower the risk of getting shingles in the first place.
For Sheeran, the worst is over. For the rest of us — especially anyone over 50 who once had chickenpox — the virus is still there, waiting.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
