If you are reading this article, the chances are that you went out of control with your moment of heat, and now you have a clear, big hickey (more popularly known as love bites or kiss marks), which doesn’t seem to be going off. So, how to get rid of a hickey fast or overnight? Are there are any good home remedies for hickeys? Well, the answer is yes. Before we list them for you, here is a quick introduction.
What Is A Hickey?
Hickey is a result of sucking or kissing the skin extremely hard. When this happens, the capillaries are broken, and the pooling blood turns one’s skin either purple or red.
How Long Does A Hickey Last?
Hickeys last for 5 to 12 days but can be treated in the same way as other bruises.
Symptoms of Hickeys
- Immediate swelling in the affected area
- Occurrence of blood clot (as it is a type of hematoma)
- Appearance of red, purple or brown colored bruise or marks on the skin
- Strike shall happen if the severity increases
- Due to the damage to the nerves in the skin, one might even be paralyzed. It is an extreme case that happens due to internal bleeding. However, this is rare.
How To Get Rid Of A Hickey?
When you have love bites, the situation can be quite embarrassing. Though you can hide them with clever make-up or clothing, there are times, when you may not be able to do so. If this sounds like your case, here are some amazing home remedies for you to try.
Before you you learn how to get rid of a hickeys Fast overnight, make a note:
- For Recent Hickeys: Apply Ice cubes, frozen spoons, and alcohol to reduce swelling and breaking the blood clots.
- For Older Hickeys: Use a coin or apply a hot compress for dilating the vessels. This, in turn, improves blood flow.
Based on your hickey, follow the tips listed below:
1. Cold Compress
The fastest way to get rid of a hickey is to apply a cold compress. All you have to do is to follow the steps given below:
- Step 1: Take a spoon and refrigerate in the freezer for thirty minutes.
- Step 2: Take out the spoon and press it on the bruised area.
Note: Never apply ice cubes directly onto your hickeys. Wrap them in a towel before using. Also, apply ice cubes only if your hickey is recent.
How Does This Work?
The pressure applied by the spoon regulates the flow of blood in the body and removes the blood clotting from the region. The cold compress also prevents swelling around the hickeys.
2. Hot Compress
A change in temperature reduces clot and redness. Just apply a heating pad on the bruised skin. If you don’t have a heating pad, follow the steps given below:
- Step 1: Take a big piece of cloth (make sure it is clean).
- Step 2: Fold the cloth until it is of the correct size so that it is easy for you to hold and apply on the hickey.
- Step 3: Warm the cloth using iron (avoid the highest setting, as it might burn your cloth).
- Step 4: After you iron it, hold the cloth against your hickey.
- Step 5: Keep the cloth until the warmness goes off.
Note: Never apply a hot compress if your hickey is two days old (or 48 hours). You might increase the blood flow with a hot compress, making the hickey even bigger!
How Does This Work?
A slight temperature change can get rid of a hickey much faster. For some people, heat works the best. According to University of Rochester Medical Center, Heat opens your blood vessels, which in turn enhances the blood circulation.
Further, it supplies oxygen and other nutrients to lessen the pain. It relaxes the ligaments, tendons, and sore muscles. Also, the warmth lessens the muscle spasms while increasing the motion range.
3. Use A Coin On Your Hickey
The next strategy to the question – how to get rid of a hickey fast is to break the blood clot and then, spread it to the surrounding tissues. Hence, a coin can be of great help. A coin acts as a scraper here. Here is what you need to do:
- Step 1: Take a big coin.
- Step 2: Use the coin to scrape it from your hickey’s central point followed by the outward part.
Note: You need to be careful while doing this trick. Only a sufficient pressure has to be applied while scraping or else, your tiny hickey might turn into a serious wound. Also, when you scrape, the area will become red. However, this is only for some time.
Though coin technique is effective on bruises and hickeys, it is painful and hurting. Hence, it is important to extend the skin around the hickey flat. Just pull the love bite on opposite sides. Then use the coin for scraping the skin.
How Does This Work?
When you use a coin’s edge to scrape the affected skin, you are trying to push hard. It breaks the clotted blood to scatter or disburse. Though there will be a slight irritation and pain during the process, it will fade away after overnight.
4. Pineapple
Besides being extremely delicious, pineapples are one of the best home remedies for hickeys fast. To try this, follow the steps given below:
- Step 1: Take few pieces of fresh pineapple.
- Step 2: Apply them directly on your hickey.
- Step 3: Repeat the process 4 to 5 times in a day, at least for 10 minutes.
How Does This Work?
According to the University Of Maryland Medical Center, bromelain is found in pineapple’s stem and its juice. This natural compound bromelain helps in fading bruises and alleviates pain. Hence, they work like a wonder on hickeys.
5.Try Eye-Drops for Hickeys
Eye-drops for hickeys is a good home-remedy treatment. Eye-drops help relieve inflammation and redness due to Hickey. But before that, please make sure you look thoroughly in to the ingredient constituents because some might be allergic to you.
- Step 1 : Out 2-3 drops of the Eye-Drops over the Hickey and very slowly massage the area.
- Step 2 : After five or ten minutes, rinse the affected area with cold water.
- Step 3 : You can do this twice daily
How Does This Work ?
It works in the same way as it treat for eye infections. It kills the bacteria and give an immediate relief.
6. Parsley
Parsley’s a distinct herb and an effective home-remedy for Hickey. The presence of volatile oils and flavonoids helps alleviate swelling, reduces the discolored skin (common with love-bites) while the rich Vitamin C content will help heal the skin and prevents blood-clotting over the area.
- Take a handful of clean Parsley ( according to your need the capacity varies)
- Roughly chop them and place them in a clean mortar.
- Using the pestle, make them in to a thick paste like consistency.
- Scoop the paste out and out them in your palms
- Apply over the hickey.
- You can keep replacing the paste with fresh ones.
- Do this method as often as required till the Hickey goes away.
7. Peppermint Oil
Peppermint has been used since ancient times to treat common cold, sinus infections, respiratory infections, inflammation of throat and mouth. But did you know that it could heal hickeys as well? There are two options to make your hickey disappear:
- Option 1: The peppermint oil can be applied gently to the affected area. There can be a tingling sensation in the beginning, but it will fade away quickly. Doctors advise using this remedy only twice a day.
- Option 2: The second option is to use peppermint-based toothpaste on the discomfort area for five minutes. After you get relief from the tingling sensation, you can wipe the paste off with a wet washcloth. Similar to the remedy mentioned above, this procedure also has to be practiced twice a day only.
How Does This Work?
Peppermint has chemicals called menthol and menthone, which helps in stimulating the blood circulation. Hence, they are highly effective in the treatment of hickeys fast. Also, they can also heal the capillary vessels.
8. Rub Alcohol
If you have a hickey, the best medicine to get rid of the discomfort and the temporary scar is by rubbing alcohol. If it has been just a few hours, rubbing alcohol on hickey can work like a wonder. This alcohol has soothing, cooling and disinfectant properties.
- Step 1: Dip a cotton ball in rubbing alcohol and apply on the discomfort area.
- Step 2: Rub the area gently for several minutes to minimize the discomfort.
How Does This Work?
The alcohol can create the soothing, cooling effect on the discomfort area and it has disinfectant properties. It is advisable to try this treatment as quickly as possible for getting relief from itchiness and other minor infections. Your skin might get dry, so it is advisable to use moisturising lotion on the specific area. You can continue the procedure until you get relief.
9. Massage
Another home remedy for get rid of a hickey fast is none other than a gentle massage. Here is what you need to do:
- Step 1: Place two fingers on the affected area and gently rub them in a clockwise direction.
- Step 2: After two minutes, switch with the other hand and massage in an anticlockwise direction.
How Does This Work?
A massage helps blood circulation in the discomfort area. The action distributes the blood all around the infected area and hickeys will disappear in two or three days.
10. Aloe Vera
Aloe Vera is a natural skin moisturizer. It helps in reducing the sensitivity of the affected skin region. It also has anti-inflammatory and soothing properties, which heals the damaged capillaries under the skin. To try a remedy using Aloe Vera, here is what you need to do:
- Step 1: Extract the gel from a fresh Aloe Vera leaf.
- Step 2: Apply it to the bruises.
- Step 3: Repeat the process two to three times a day.
How Does This Work?
The medicinal components in Aloe Vera are salicylic acid, urea nitrogen, phenol, lupeol, and sulfur. All these are known for their antimicrobial properties. The saponins in this ‘rough’ herb have some amazing cleansing properties. Hence, they help in healing your hickeys much faster.
11. Banana Peel
A banana peel is one of the best home remedies for hickeys fast. So, before you discard its peel, use it. Here is what you need to do:
- Step 1: The peel of a banana (ripe) should be cut to the same size as the hickey.
- Step 2: Place the peel on the bruised area for ten to thirty minutes.
Note: Repeat the process three times a day to decrease the appearance of bruises.
How Does This Work?
The antioxidants present in a banana peel hydrates and promotes healthy new skin cells, thereby reducing hickeys fast. The flavonoids in a banana peel include flavonoids, catechin, and anthocyanins.
12. Orange Juice
This fruit contains an abundance of Vitamin C, a nutrient that is required by the body to repair the skin. You can drink orange juice to health internally and externally. However, choose organic juice instead of drinking supplements. You can also apply orange juice on the affected area.
How Does This Work?
The bleaching properties of Vitamin C help the scars heal as quickly as possible.
13. Witch Hazel
One of the best-known herbal remedies for hickeys is “Witch Hazel”. You can also use it for bruises and other inflammations. Just follow the instructions given below:
- Step 1: Dip a cotton ball in witch hazel oil.
- Step 2: Apply on the affected skin.
- Step 3: Leave it for a while and wash off with water.
How Does This Work?
The components of witch hazel include gallic acid, Gallo tannins, catechins, phenolic acids, saponins, and safrole. The tannins present in witch hazel assist in tightening the proteins of the skin. A protective covering is formed around the affected area, which speeds the healing process.
14. Tea Bag
Whether it is green or black, do not throw away the tea bags after you use. The shrink the swollen tissues and narrow down your blood vessels. You can use them for treating hickeys, bruises, and even pink eyes. Just follow the instructions given below to treat your love bites:
- Step 1: Apply the tea bags over the hickeys.
- Step 2: Repeat the process for two to three days, three times a day for best results.
How Does This Work?
The tannins and other astringent compounds in tea leaves stimulate blood circulation around the affected area. Eventually, the symptoms of hickeys will disappear.
15. Tuna Oil
You can also make use of tuna oil for hickeys. Tuna oil is rich in vitamin E and Omega-3 fatty acids, both of which are crucial for skin regeneration.
- Step 1: Take few drops of pure tuna oil.
- Step 2: Gently massage on the affected area and let it remain for 10 minutes.
- Step 3: Wash off with water
How Does This Work?
Selenium, the mineral is present in large quantities in tuna assists in preserving the elastin protein necessary for keeping the skin smooth and tight.
16. Drink Pomegranate Juice
Did you know that lack of vitamin K could make a person bruise easily? This could be the probable reason you might be getting hickeys so easily. However, drinking fresh pomegranate juice can fix the issue.
To treat a love bite, you need to drink fresh pomegranate juice at least 2 to 3 times in a day.
How Does This Work?
The fruit is packed with polyphenol antioxidants and contains minerals like Vitamins E, C, and zinc. The vitamin E also helps in reducing the symptoms of hickeys, regulates inflammation in the affected area and promotes healing of wounds. Another vital component is Vitamin C, which assists in the synthesis of collagen the protein vital for excellent skin and reduces signs of wrinkles.
Pomegranate Juice Is Not Good, If:
- You are suffering from low blood pressure. It might reduce to low levels, and you might experience symptoms of dizziness.
- You are taking medication for high blood pressure. Interactions might happen.
17. Olive Oil
This oil has been found to be effective in curing the signs of hickeys. To apply a remedy using olive oil, follow the steps given below:
- Step 1: Dip a cotton ball in olive oil and apply to the affected area.
- Step 2: Massage the area gently so that the oil can penetrate the skin to promote the healing process.
How Does This Work?
The olive oil is an excellent source of Vitamin E and contains some amount of minerals (antioxidants) such as zinc and selenium. Also, it has flavonoids like luteolin, cyanidin, and apigenin. All these together help in lessening the bruises.
When To See A Doctor?
Hickeys can be either serious or harmless. However, it is necessary to know to which one you should take treatment. A break in the skin can be the first sign of infection, and it is necessary to get a tetanus shot.
Consult A Doctor If You Experience The Below Signs:
- Some hickeys might get normal with time but if you have pus in the skin or suffer from pain, understand that you have an infection. In fact, this is your first sign.
- An increase in color from pink to red to yellow is the initial stage of infection. Even if you notice that there are red streaks right from the passage of the wound to other areas, infection is imminent. The body’s defense system is in action, and it is necessary to pay a visit to your family physician or health practitioner.
- The swelling may be light on the first day, and it will decrease in subsequent days (if you have administered the home remedies mentioned above). If not, then you have to term it as an infection.
- If you get a fever, then kindly understand that it is a cause for concern. You should also not wait for fever symptoms, as the idea is wrong. Kindly check with your fingers around the affected area. If the area is warm, then it is a sign of an infection.
- If you suspect that a foreign body is in the infected area, it is vital to seek medical care.
- In the case of severe infection, you have to adhere to the services of the doctor and receive the necessary treatment. It could mean taking antibiotics or IV medication or may be a hospital stay.
- If a person with hickey has a weak immune system or suffers from HIV or is under a cancer treatment (chemotherapy), he or she is at a great risk of becoming infected.
Natural Remedy vs. Pharmacy
If the remedies mentioned above do not work in favor, you can try over-the- counter medications. There are drugs and creams that can be effective against hickeys. These are usually Aspirin, Excedrin, and Vitamin K.
I had hickey on the neck ,as soon as i applied some aloevera, it helped me to overcome hickey
Thanks to lll, i tried cold compress it help to rid of a hickey.
Wow a lot of simple homemade remedies with simple steps..Its good!!
I have applied tea bags on the affected area,and it proves to worthy with in a day.
These remedies are helpful to get rid of a hickey. I tried some remedies. Thanks a lot!
Its better to use Olive oil and Aloe Vera to remove hickey. I recommend them.
Peppermint oil is best remedy