How To Get Rid of Your Hickey, Fast

This type of bruise might benefit from warm compresses, but time is really the healing key

You got a little hot and heavy in the heat of the moment, and now, there’s evidence of it for all to see — right there on your neck.

A hickey is a bruise caused by trauma to the skin, such as by sucking or biting. And although they aren’t serious injuries, they can be pretty embarrassing! So, how can you get rid of a hickey ASAP?

What to do to get rid of a hickey

The internet is full of DIY tips that claim to get rid of hickeys overnight. But you shouldn’t rush to scrape your hickey with a fork or put toothpaste on your superficial wound, for example, in the hopes it’ll make your hickey disappear faster. Dr. Vij says there’s no real science to most of these tricks, and you can actually do more harm than good if you scrape, puncture or irritate the surface of your skin where it’s been bruised.

“A hickey is a stain in the second layer of the skin, called the dermis,” explains Dr. Vij. “Any abrasive treatment of the skin like scrubbing with toothpaste or trying to scratch off the discoloration would be too superficial to impact the hickey. And it could even make the problem more apparent with scratches, bleeding, additional discoloration and scar formation.”

Instead, Dr. Vij shares his top tips for minimizing your hickey’s appearance as it heals.

1. Warm compresses

Your best bet is to treat your hickey with good old-fashioned warm compresses.

“Warm compresses can help open up your body’s blood vessels and break down the stain, taking away the red blood cells that have spilled out from the blood vessels and into your skin,” he says.

You can do the following method as many as four times a day throughout the duration of your hickey:

Fill a microwavable bowl with water and microwave it until it’s warm enough that you can just barely stand to keep a finger dipped into it. “It should be warmer than bathwater, but nowhere near boiling,” instructs Dr. Vij.
Take two clean washcloths and dip them in the bowl of water. Then, grasp one of them and wring it out. Apply it to your hickey and let it rest there until it cools down to room temperature. Then, take that washcloth back into the bowl of water and wring out the other; repeat with the second washcloth.
Repeat this process three or four times, for 15 to 20 minutes total. You may have to reheat the bowl of water between applications as it cools.

2. Cold compresses

Don’t bother with cold compresses for your hickey unless you obtain one in just a few minutes. In case you bump into your nightstand and had a bruised leg, then icing your love bite immediately might offer some little relief as regards to irritation or inflammation; but not like it would do in such circumstances.

Dr. Vij says, “the injury on your skin is just a little so cold will not be of help.”

Therefore, turn directly to hot compresses with additional ones also added and repeated from time to time until they disappear in days.

3. Healing gels and creams

Do not just use warm compresses. You may also use gels or creams with the ingredients below which could aid in the improvement process:

Arnica: Doctors are not sure how Arnica helps but they know it speeds up the healing of bruises, do not use it if taking blood thinners.

Vitamin C: Research shows that Vitamin C may facilitate blood clotting hence lessening bruising.

Vitamin K: While Vitamin K could diminish bruising, it should be applied topically and not orally; that come with several other potential risks.

Aloe Vera is advocated for by some sources to have skin calming properties in case of inflammation such as sunburns although Dr. Vij claims there is little that it can do on hickeys.

“With a hickey, there’s not that much skin inflammation,” he says. “It’s just slight trauma.”

4. Laser therapy

If a big event is around the corner, within 24 to 48 hours after appearing you can inquire from your doctor about having a hickey removed by laser. However, this method is expensive and will still need at least another one or two days before fully healing after treatment. Otherwise, your only option is to let nature take its course.

5. Hide it while it heals — or don’t!

As you wait for your love bite to heal, you may be interested in covering it with the following:

• Concealer.
• Articles of clothing with a collar or a scarf.
• Bandages or dressing.

But of course there’s an alternative; feel free not to conceal it if you’re comfortable with that idea. In relationships and sexual encounters you should never feel guilty or put yourself down; sexual positivity should be considered carefully instead.

How to get rid of hickeys fast?

If you are still in the dark on how to get rid of hickeys fast, then brace up for the truth, which shall be shown in the course of this paper-hickeys do not have an easy way of removal in just a short span of time.

Hickeys are vascular bruises. Like any bruise, they take time to heal. As such, it is impossible to remove a hickey overnight or within a span of hours, just like any other bruising.

Within three days and two weeks, however, most bruises tend to totally disappear. Hickey is the mildest type among superficial bruises; hence, it heals faster compared to others.

“A hickey does not cause as much trauma to the skin compared with what is seen in a black eye,” Dr. Vij iterated. “Thus, when placed into other reasons for bruising, hickeys may fall on the earlier end of the spectrum.”