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How to Get Rid of a Hickey
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. -
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Hickey Tips
- Hickeys are actually bruises.
- Time is the only way to totally get rid of a hickey.
- Ice and vitamins can help a hickey heal faster.
- Many remedies that people claim work can make a hickey worse.
- Makeup can be used to conceal a hickey.
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Using Make-up to Conceal a Hickey
This video discusses how to conceal a hickey using make-up. It first discusses the different stages of healing for a hickey and how you will need to apply different shades of concealer make-up throughout the healing process. The video then goes on to demonstrate how to apply the make-up to the hickey with a brush, using a roll and pat motion.
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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?
- In medical terms, a hickey is a subcutaneous hematoma that is caused when the lining of the blood vessels are damaged and blood escapes into the skin and tissues.MedicineNet.com: Hematoma Definition In other words, a hickey is just a fancy word for "bruise."MedHelp: How Do You Get Rid of a Hickey? Like all bruises, a hickey will generally fade in a few days but can take up to three weeks.Durham Regional Hospital: Bruises University of Illinois Medical Center: Bruising The higher up on the body the hickey, the faster it is likely to heal.Durham Regional Hospital: Bruises
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:
- Apply ice several times a day for the first 24 to 48 hours.MayoClinic.com: Bruise: First aid
- Apply ice for about ten minutes each time.Durham Regional Hospital: Bruises
- Ice helps reduce further bruising and swelling by reducing arterial blood flow, which decrease bleeding.USA Today: Hematoma - Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention University of Illinois Medical Center: Bruising
- The sooner you apply ice, the less bleeding will occur.USA Today: Hematoma - Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention
- Keep the area elevated.MayoClinic.com: Bruise: First aid
- After 24 hours, you can apply heat to the area for about 10 to 15 minutes.University of Illinois Medical Center: Bruising
- Some also suggest applying an elastic wrap with mild pressure to the area.Durham Regional Hospital: Bruises However, since hickeys are most often found on the neck, this is probably not a good idea.
Vitamins
- 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.
- Vitamin K helps prevent bruises when taken internally.Durham Regional Hospital: Bruises When applied to a hickey in cream form, Vitamin K is supposed to speed up the healing by constricting blood vessels and reducing redness.Prevention's Healing with Vitamins: Bruises Cosmopolitican.com: Hiding Hickeys - How to Cover Up a Hickey
- Vitamin C is good at preventing bruises and can help them heal faster.Durham Regional Hospital: Bruises The Doctors Book of Home Remedies II: Bruises 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.The Doctors Book of Home Remedies II: Bruises
- Taking 50 to 100 mg of zinc a day is supposed to help bruises fade.Health 911: Bruise Remedies
- Vitamin E oil applied on the hickey is supposed to help heal the broken capillaries faster.About.com: Hide a Hickey - How to Cover Up a Hickey With Makeup Video (Time: 1:35)
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.
- 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.The Doctors Book of Home Remedies II: Bruises
- Comfrey is available as a cream or oil that can be applied to the skin.Organic Nutrition: How to Heal Bruises?
- 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.The Doctors Book of Home Remedies II: Bruises
- Calendula can be applied as a cream or tincture to the hickey.Health 911: Bruise Remedies
- Arnica can also be used to help alleviate bruises.
- Apply arnica gel every three hours.Health 911: Bruise Remedies
- You can also add a few drops of arnica tincture to a cup of water and soak a clean cloth in it.Organic Nutrition: How to Heal Bruises? Hold the cloth to the hickey.
- Some people can have allergic skin reactions to arnica.Organic Nutrition: How to Heal Bruises?
- Witch hazel is supposed to disperse the blood and encourage healing.Organic Nutrition: How to Heal Bruises? Apply as a cool compress.Health 911: Bruise Remedies
- Vinegar, when applied as a compress, may help alleviate bruises.Health 911: Bruise Remedies
- Cabbage is good for more than just cole slaw; it also has anti-inflammatory properties.Organic Nutrition: How to Heal Bruises? Macerate and heat the cabbage before applying it to the hickey.Health 911: Bruise Remedies
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.MedHelp: How Do You Get Rid of a Hickey? Some of these dubious techniques include:
- Place a hot tea bag on your neck (which is supposed to reduce swelling).UCM College on the Record: 8 Ways to Get Rid of a Hickey
- Rub roll-on deodorant onto the hickey and leave it on overnight.UCM College on the Record: 8 Ways to Get Rid of a Hickey
- Leave toothpaste on the hickey overnight.UCM College on the Record: 8 Ways to Get Rid of a Hickey
- 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."UCM College on the Record: 8 Ways to Get Rid of a Hickey You can use a toothbrush to do this.MedHelp: How Do You Get Rid of a Hickey?
- Use a comb to brush the hickey.MedHelp: How Do You Get Rid of a Hickey? Combing the hickey for ten minutes is supposed to disperse clots.WonderHowTo: How to Get Rid of a Hickey (Time: 2:45)
- Rub the hickey with a cold spoon.MedHelp: How Do You Get Rid of a Hickey? Some say this only works if you also apply pressure with the spoon.Real Rap Talk: How To Remove A Hickey
- Get a sunburn on it.MedHelp: How Do You Get Rid of a Hickey?
- Use a quarter or other coin to disperse the blood.WonderHowTo: How to Get Rid of a Hickey (Time: 2:45) You have to stretch the skin flat and press hard as you can without breaking the skin (which can be very painful).Real Rap Talk: How To Remove A Hickey
- Twirl the eraser of a pencil forward and backward on the hickey.WonderHowTo: How to Get Rid of a Hickey (Time: 2:45)
- Twist a lipstick cover over the hickey to "get the blood flowing." This is supposed to make the hickey temporarily redder before fading.WonderHowTo: How to Get Rid of a Hickey (Time: 2:45)
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:
- Concealer brush.
- Concealer that matches your skin tone.
- Neutralizing concealer.
- Foundation that matches your skin tone.
- 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.Cosmopolitican.com: Hiding Hickeys - How to Cover Up a Hickey
- Neutralizing concealers come in three different colors: green, lavender and yellow. To cover most hickeys, you will want to use a green neutralizing concealer.About.com: Hide a Hickey - How to Cover Up a Hickey With Makeup Video (Time: 1:35) You use green because green is opposite red on the color wheel.Styles 101: Makeup Tips: Corrective Concealing with Green, Yellow, Purple Concealers
How to Apply Makeup Over a Hickey
- To cover the hickey, you need to follow these steps:
- Apply neutralizing concealer over the hickey using a concealer brush.Styles 101: Makeup Tips: Corrective Concealing with Green, Yellow, Purple Concealers A concealer brush will blend the concealer easier and cover things better.Styles 101: Makeup Tips: Using Makeup Brushes, Makeup Brush Types
- 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.Styles 101: Makeup Tips: Corrective Concealing with Green, Yellow, Purple Concealers You can also try mixing yellow concealer with your regular concealer and applying it.About.com: Hide a Hickey - How to Cover Up a Hickey With Makeup Video (Time: 1:35)
- Cover with the foundation. Use a sponge or your fingertips and pat on the foundation in a downward motion.Styles 101: Makeup Tips: Corrective Concealing with Green, Yellow, Purple Concealers Pat; do not rub.About.com: Hide a Hickey - How to Cover Up a Hickey With Makeup Video (Time: 1:35)
- 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:
- 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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