How to Get Rid of a Hickey

Guide Note Hickeys, or love bites, are reddish marks that can left on the skin after someone sucks or bites it. While they can be pleasurable when they are left, they become extremely embarrassing later. If you need to know how to get rid of a hickey, then it is time to separate the facts from the fiction regarding them.

Table of Contents

Hickey Tips

  1. Hickeys are actually bruises.
  2. Time is the only way to totally get rid of a hickey.
  3. Ice and vitamins can help a hickey heal faster.
  4. Many remedies that people claim work can make a hickey worse.
  5. Makeup can be used to conceal a hickey.

Disclaimer The content in this page is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please contact your doctor before using the information presented here.

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Introduction

  • A hickey, or love bite, is one of the few drawbacks to spending some times in the arms of a loved one. Hickeys are caused when one person sucks or bites the skin and leaves the tell-tale red mark. Although most people associate the neck with hickeys, hickeys can be left on any part of the body. While some may consider them badges of passion and love, most considering them embarrassing neon signs letting everyone know how they spent the night and want the hickey to go away. If you find yourself in this last category, then you need to know what will and what will not work.

What is a Hickey?

Ways to Help a Hickey Heal Faster

  • The only way to get rid of a hickey is to treat it as you would a bruise. A few methods that may help heal your hickey faster are listed below. Incidentally, these methods are believed to work on any type of bruises, not just hickeys.

Medical Remedies

  • According to the Mayo Clinic and other medical facilities, the best way to help a hickey heal faster is the following:
  1. Apply ice several times a day for the first 24 to 48 hours.5
    1. Apply ice for about ten minutes each time.3
    2. Ice helps reduce further bruising and swelling by reducing arterial blood flow, which decrease bleeding.6 4
    3. The sooner you apply ice, the less bleeding will occur.6
  2. Keep the area elevated.5
  3. After 24 hours, you can apply heat to the area for about 10 to 15 minutes.4
    1. This will help the blood get recycled faster.3
    2. Heat can be followed by cold compresses to help minimize the swelling caused by the heat.6

Vitamins

  • (Creative Commons photo by Brandi Sims)
    (Creative Commons photo by Brandi Sims)
    Many vitamins are believed to both help prevent bruising as well as help bruises heal quicker either by rubbing them in cream form onto the hickey or by taking the vitamins as supplements.
  1. Vitamin K helps prevent bruises when taken internally.3 When applied to a hickey in cream form, Vitamin K is supposed to speed up the healing by constricting blood vessels and reducing redness.7 8
  2. Vitamin C is good at preventing bruises and can help them heal faster.3 9 Vitamin C can be taken as a supplement or rubbed on the area as a cream. If taken as a supplement, do not exceed 2,000 mg a day.9
  3. Taking 50 to 100 mg of zinc a day is supposed to help bruises fade.10
  4. Vitamin E oil applied on the hickey is supposed to help heal the broken capillaries faster.11

Other Remedies

  • This section includes herbal and folk remedies that are supposed to help heal bruises (and therefore hickeys). While there is no clear medical evidence that these things will help speed up healing, these methods are not likely to do any harm either.
  1. Comfrey is one of the oldest herbal remedies for treating sprains, bruises and cuts. However, it should not be taken internally or applied to open wounds.9
    1. Comfrey is available as a cream or oil that can be applied to the skin.12
    2. You can make a poultice by placing crushed comfrey leaves into hot water. Then, spread them onto a warm, moist washcloth and press it to the bruise.9
  2. Calendula can be applied as a cream or tincture to the hickey.10
  3. Arnica can also be used to help alleviate bruises.
    1. Apply arnica gel every three hours.10
    2. You can also add a few drops of arnica tincture to a cup of water and soak a clean cloth in it.12 Hold the cloth to the hickey.
    3. Some people can have allergic skin reactions to arnica.12
  4. Witch hazel is supposed to disperse the blood and encourage healing.12 Apply as a cool compress.10
  5. Vinegar, when applied as a compress, may help alleviate bruises.10
  6. Cabbage is good for more than just cole slaw; it also has anti-inflammatory properties.12 Macerate and heat the cabbage before applying it to the hickey.10

What People Claim Works

  • Ask anyone who has had ever had a hickey and you will probably hear his or her own remedy for getting rid of a hickey. Dermatologist Alan Rockoff from MedHelp advises people to avoid such remedies because they are unlikely help and could actually delay things.2 Some of these dubious techniques include:
  1. Place a hot tea bag on your neck (which is supposed to reduce swelling).13
  2. Rub roll-on deodorant onto the hickey and leave it on overnight.13
  3. (Creative Commons photo by Joel Franusic)
    (Creative Commons photo by Joel Franusic)
    Leave toothpaste on the hickey overnight.13
  4. Rub a brush over the area hard to work the blood back into the skin. This is supposed to be "painful" and will "cause the skin to eventually flake off."13 You can use a toothbrush to do this.2
  5. Use a comb to brush the hickey.2 Combing the hickey for ten minutes is supposed to disperse clots.14
  6. Rub the hickey with a cold spoon.2 Some say this only works if you also apply pressure with the spoon.15
  7. Get a sunburn on it.2
  8. Use a quarter or other coin to disperse the blood.14 You have to stretch the skin flat and press hard as you can without breaking the skin (which can be very painful).15
  9. Twirl the eraser of a pencil forward and backward on the hickey.14
  10. Twist a lipstick cover over the hickey to "get the blood flowing." This is supposed to make the hickey temporarily redder before fading.14

Using Make Up to Hide a Hickey

  • One of the simplest ways to conceal a hickey is to use both a concealer. To do it properly, you will need the following:
    1. Concealer brush.
    2. Concealer that matches your skin tone.
    3. Neutralizing concealer.
    4. Foundation that matches your skin tone.
    5. Loose face powder.
  • Since most hickeys are located on the neck, you may need a concealer and foundation color that is lighter than you would use on your face. The neck is usually lighter than the face because it is shielded from the sun.8

How to Apply Makeup Over a Hickey

  1. Apply neutralizing concealer over the hickey using a concealer brush.16 A concealer brush will blend the concealer easier and cover things better.17
  2. Once the neutralizing concealer has set, pat on a thin layer of the skin-toned makeup concealer over the neutralizing concealer using the concealer brush and feather the edges.16 You can also try mixing yellow concealer with your regular concealer and applying it.11
  3. Cover with the foundation. Use a sponge or your fingertips and pat on the foundation in a downward motion.16 Pat; do not rub.11
  4. Apply face powder over the area.

Conclusion

  • If none of that works you can always try to use clothing to make the hickey disappear. Some things people have tried include:
    1. A carefully tied scarf.
    2. A turtleneck.
    3. A jacket or shirt with the collar up.
  • When all else fails, you can always try to come up with a clever story. Women usually have the old standby "burned myself with a curling iron" excuse. Men could try the "scratched my neck while climbing a tree to rescue a kitten" (considering adding that you did it for a crying child, group of nuns or an elderly woman). Men can cover it with a band-aid and claim to have "cut themselves shaving." Of course, in reality, the only person you'll be fooling if yourself (if you think anyone will actually buy these excuses).

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References for How to Get Rid of a Hickey

  1. ↑ MedicineNet.com: Hematoma Definition
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 MedHelp: How Do You Get Rid of a Hickey?
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Durham Regional Hospital: Bruises
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 University of Illinois Medical Center: Bruising
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 MayoClinic.com: Bruise: First aid
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 USA Today: Hematoma - Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention  WARNING: Ad-heavy
  7. ↑ Prevention's Healing with Vitamins: Bruises
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cosmopolitican.com: Hiding Hickeys - How to Cover Up a Hickey
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 The Doctors Book of Home Remedies II: Bruises
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Health 911: Bruise Remedies
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 About.com: Hide a Hickey - How to Cover Up a Hickey With Makeup Video (Time: 1:35)  WARNING: Auto-plays video
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Organic Nutrition: How to Heal Bruises?
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 UCM College on the Record: 8 Ways to Get Rid of a Hickey
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 WonderHowTo: How to Get Rid of a Hickey (Time: 2:45)  WARNING: Auto-plays video
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Real Rap Talk: How To Remove A Hickey
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Styles 101: Makeup Tips: Corrective Concealing with Green, Yellow, Purple Concealers
  17. ↑ Styles 101: Makeup Tips: Using Makeup Brushes, Makeup Brush Types


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