Did you or your main squeeze get overly passionate, and now one or both of you are wondering how to get rid of a hickey? Not to worry. There are many home remedies to help you hide that blemish under your skin that everyone is secretly smirking about or even secretly jealous of.
It is in understanding what causes a hickey to begin with, that there comes a better understanding of why some home remedies tend to work very well to get your cells back to a normal appearance.
What is a Hickey?
Hickies may be a bit embarrassing, as evidenced by the lengths people go to to make sure they are covered up by clothing or a good deal of cosmetic foundation. The foundation helps blend the color until it resembles their natural skin. However, in reality, hickeys are quite harmless.
They develop in areas that are either kissed or sucked with too much force. That pressure will cause the capillaries under the skin to break. In turn, blood will pool under the skin, giving off the reddish, purplish color that appears with a hickey. A hickey is no more than a bruise that will heal without affecting the skin long term.
If left alone, it may take anywhere from one to two weeks for a hickey to heal, depending on how deep the bruise is under the skin. The good news is, we can help you heal a lot quicker with proven home remedies that answer the questions posed about exactly how to get rid of a hickey.
How to Get Rid of a Hickey
Because of stigma and embarrassment that is often associated with hickies, there has been a long history of trying all kinds of ways to get them to go away at a more rapid pace. Thankfully for some, the trial and error of generations past has yielded home remedies that are now tried and true and bare significant results in regards to shortening the healing time of hickies. Any of the following home remedies, or a combination thereof, are worth exploring when figuring out how to get rid of a hickey.
Cold Spoon
Knowing that a hickey is nothing more than a bruise having its own inflammation and ache, you might deduce that applying anything cold to it will help the current situation. If you cannot get to an actual cold compress, all you would need to have to gain the same effect is a spoon you can put in the freezer for about an hour.
Once the spoon has chilled for an hour, apply it to the area where the hickey is on your body. You would need to apply a good amount of pressure for it to penetrate the coldness deep into the skin. If you do this, you should be able to see a difference in the color of the hickey mark in as little as five to ten minutes.
Aloe Vera
Aloe is a very common aid used all over the world to soothe burns. The properties of aloe make it a natural moisturizer for the skin, and it also serves as an anti-inflammatory substance when rubbed on the skin. Aloe is not only known to help cells rejuvenate at a faster pace, but it also has properties that help prevent scarring.
Aloe vera plants are commonly and easily grown in many households to use directly if the need arises. It is best to have the gel from an actual leaf to use directly on skin, but if you are not able to obtain a piece of the actual plant, you can use aloe vera gel that is made with the extracts of the original plant. The aloe should be applied two to three times daily for two or three days to be most effective.
Peppermint Oil
Peppermint oil, while you personally may not use it as such, has been in the category of essential oils for centuries. It is one forerunner of promoting better health when used as aromatherapy. It is known to help with a wide variety of issues including acne, asthma, headaches, and digestive issues. When used directly on the skin, peppermint oil will have a cooling and numbing effect where it is applied.
In the case of how to get rid of a hickey sooner, it will increase blood circulation and even help heal the capillaries under the skin that have been broken. The oil should be applied as soon as possible after the hickey appears. If you do not have actual peppermint oil in your house, a common product, toothpaste, that has mint in it can be used. You would apply the toothpaste until the tingling subsides and then wash off the toothpaste with a warm cloth.
Toothbrush
A popular anecdote in the past was to brush the hickey away. This tends to be a more painful way to treat it, but nonetheless, provides a way for the pooled blood to dissipate enough for the skin to absorb the blood more quickly. The trick to this, is to make sure your skin is pulled tight before you start the process. Once your skin is tight over the area, use a firm bristled toothbrush and brush in an outward motion from the center of the hickey to the edges. After doing this, apply a cold compress for five to ten minutes and repeat.
Banana Peel
Like many other remedies on this list, banana peels have soothing properties that will help also provide an option regarding how to get rid of a hickey quickly. All you need for this method is to peel a banana, cut a piece of the peel to fit over your hickey, and place the inside of the peel over your hickey for a range of ten to thirty minutes. You can repeat this up to three times a day to see an improvement in the color of your hickey.
Oranges
Everyone knows that Vitamin C is essential to the body to keep our skin and bodies healthy. Drink a glass of fresh orange juice daily. Fresh juice will work better than packaged, but if you do not have either, you can substitute a 500mg vitamin C tablet for the desired effect.
Warm Compress
The first fact to understand about using heat of any kind, is that it will do more harm than good if done in the first 48 hours after you get a hickey or any other bruise. Heat causes more inflammation if used too soon on a bruise.
However, after that given time period, heat will cause the blood to circulate better under the skin, which will rejuvenate the cells to go back to normal. This can be done using warm tap water on a cloth that is held to your skin for about ten minutes three times a day.
Turmeric
Turmeric is another spice that is centuries old and used a great deal in South Asian households as a spice. It is commonly used in Chinese and Indian medicine due to its antibacterial and antiseptic nature. When Turmeric is used in a paste form, it provides a great way to get rid of a hickey.In order to make the paste, one recipe calls for 1/3 cup of unpasteurized honey, 1 tsp. of vanilla extract, 2-3 tsps. of tumeric, and 1 tsp. of cinnamon.
Cocoa Butter
Cocoa butter is much like aloe vera, in that it is a great moisturizer for the skin and will promote new skin growth. To use this method, warm the area of the hickey with a compress, and then apply the cocoa butter. You then massage the area gently for a few minutes. This will disperse the blood under the skin so that it can heal more quickly. If you don’t have cocoa butter handy, you can substitute olive or almond oil in its place.
Witch Hazel
Simply put, witch hazel is a very effective oil that comes from the bark of this short flowering tree. Put directly on the bruised area, and it reduces the size of blood vessel appearance under the skin. The contraction of the blood vessels rapidly destroys the unwanted hickey.
Conclusion
When passion flies and you end up with a visible hickey, you quickly find yourself on a quest to find out how to get rid of a hickey in record time. There are many home remedies to choose from, including the tested and proven remedies listed above.
It is important to remember that the treatment to help remove a hickey mostly hinges on how quickly you can start to apply the treatment you choose, other than the heat option which should only be used after 48 hours have passed. Keep in mind that a hickey is a type of bruise that forms much like any other bruise where capillaries are broken and blood pools in a certain area. The best remedies all include applying some sort of cooling agent, because it has long been known that reducing inflammation, and getting blood to flow again is what will most quickly heal any bruise.
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