As cute as hickeys may be, they can also be embarrassing, especially when you have friends who are likely to tease you about it for the rest of your life. No worries, you don’t have to worry about them much. In this post, we’ll look at some quick and effective tips to get rid of a hickey and minimize its visibility for a hickey-free look. Here’s how to get rid of a hickey easily.
1. Warm compresses
Warm compresses are really effective, and here is why: when you have a hickey, red blood cells spill out of your blood vessels and sort of “stain” your skin.
What warm compresses do is make the blood vessels a bit more dilated so the stains come apart. Follow these easy steps to perform a warm compress.
– Warm some water and put it in the kettle. Test the water on the back of your palm and see if it is the temperature of bathing water, and dilute with cold water if it is not.
– Get a towel, dip in the bowl of water, and wring it dry. Place it on your hickey and leave it there for a couple of minutes.
– Repeat this process for as long as you can, but make sure it does not go below 15 minutes. If the water gets murky, replace it with another bowl of warm water. You can do this up to five times daily and also every day until your hickey fades out.
Read: Can Hickeys Give Blood Clots?
2. Cold compresses
If you are so nervous and so much in a hurry and cannot afford boiling water or you simply are not a fan of heat, popping out some ice from the fridge can work. If you have an ice pack, that will work even better.
But if you do not, making a DIY ice pack by wrapping the ice inside a washcloth or putting a metal spoon in the fridge for about twenty to thirty minutes could work, too.
When you get the ice, place it directly on the hickey so it slows down blood flow coming from your broken capillaries and reduces the size of the lesion. Do this off and on for thirty minutes. If you have very tender skin, do not apply either the compress or spoon directly on your hickey so the skin does not break and cause more damage.
3. Massage the area
Even though you may want to keep your hands away from your hickey, gentle massages with essential oils such as peppermint and Shea butter would not hurt.
Massage would not only cause the hickey to fade faster, but it will also relieve the pain you would feel in the area. It works because it can dilate the blood vessels in that area.
The rich blood flow can now displace it. Do not do it too much. Just a few minutes in between hours would work perfectly.
Read: How To Give Hickeys and What a Hickey Looks Like
4. Make a mask out of the banana peel
Yes, something as simple as a banana peel would help the appearance of your hickey.
Banana peels contain certain vitamins, antioxidants, and nutrients that would help improve how your bruise looks and also soothe the pain in the area by cooling it off.
Peel a banana and place it on the spot so that the peel covers it totally. Gently rub the area in circular motions until the banana becomes brown. When it does, you may dispose of the banana peel and pick up another one.
5. Moisturize with aloe vera
When dealing with hickeys or bruises, you need all the moisture you can get. Aloe Vera is your best bet as it is super packed with anti-inflammatory and wound-healing properties that could help reduce all forms of swelling.
The best part of the treatment process is that it is within arm’s reach. If you have an aloe Vera plant, all you need do is pluck out one leaf.
When you do so, divide it down the middle with a paper-knife. And to avoid wastage, you can get a small container with a lid and put in the extra gel and blobs.
And like with the banana peel, rub the insides of the aloe Vera peel and the hickey. Or better still, you mash the blobs out of the you have put in the container and apply it like a cream in the area.
Spread it out evenly and let it sit for a while so the skin absorbs it. If you cannot get fresh aloe Vera leaves, aloe Vera moisturizers can work, too.
4. Get rid of a hickey by not smoking
Smoking or consuming products that have tobacco in them, such as smokeless tobacco, hookah, and pipe, has the ability to reduce your blood supply, and this would reduce the pace at which the hickey would heal.
Read: 10 Must-Knows About Getting a Brazilian Wax
5. Apply and consume products rich in vitamins K and C
Vitamin K is one vitamin that has been proven to help with healing the skin and speeding up various forms of bruise healing. Vitamin K helps in the blood clotting processes of the body.
You can get vitamin K by applying oils like canola, pomegranate, and olive oils. You can eat foods such as spinach, kiwi, and avocados.
Vitamin C, on the other hand, is rich in antioxidants that may help boost the body’s collagen production. Collagen is a protein that is found in the skin and, in its purified state, can be used for cosmetic surgery procedures.
Vitamin C helps with keeping the skin smooth and healthy. It could help hickeys by giving strength to the blood vessels which surround your hickey, and this would, in turn, aid the healing process.
Eat foods rich in vitamin C, such as oranges, strawberries, and white potatoes. Also, get a bottle of vitamin C oil.
6. Don’t Scratch
You may be tempted to scratch your hickeys. But here’s a tip: don’t do it. Scratching it is only going to break more blood vessels and mess things up further for you.
Hickeys are blood clots underneath the skin that form when suction is applied. Getting rid of a hickey is pretty easy if you know your way around.
