Life seems pretty great, you had a smoking night with a hot date last night and today you're totally psyched for the interview for that thrilling new job prospect. Or, maybe there's some big family gathering that you can't miss. Or, possibly its plans for a weekend away with your best buds, and the teasing and cross examinations will go on the whole time. Regardless of the reason, you're flabbergasted when you see it there...On your neck. No! A love bit left over from last night's passion? The scarlet mark of shame has burrowed into your throat.
You have a hickey! Really? I'm afraid so. So, what are you going to do about it? Some say there's nothing to be done; you have to just grin and bear. We'll have none of that. Yet, theories abound. And numerous strategies are available. Which should you try?
To start, there is the ever popular cold spoon. And when we say cold, we don't mean your mama's cold, we mean ice cold. Many swear that applying the ice cold spoon to you hickey is the best way to reduce its spread. In fairness, though, we better warn you that others claim you'll only make matters worse: the hickey will spread. I suspect this is one of those personal physiology things. You won't know how it works on you until you try it. Maybe experiment though when there's not so much at stake.
There are also those who apparently can't distinguish their neck from their teeth. There's a whole crazy bunch of hickey alleviation techniques based on employing dental hygiene resources. Particularly popular from this category is to scrub the hickey with a tooth brush. The thinking here is that it breaks up the clotting blood (which is what a hickey is, in case you didn't know). The idea is once you get the blood circulating the hickey fades away. Also in the dental hygiene category is the use of mint flavored toothpaste. It's supposed to be the mint that actually does the magic, but hey if you're going to be brushing your neck anyway? Why not? I say, if none of that works, try whipping your hickey into shape with some dental floss!
Though less exotic, a more time honored approach to stimulating blood circulation is massaging the area. No magic here, but it should offer some relief. Much more exciting though is the coin technique. It may sound a little gruesome to some, but apparently many people report great results. Using the finger and thumb of one hand stretch out skin of the place where you have the hickey. Meanwhile, in the other hand, holding the coin, scrape the edge of it over the hickey. What you're trying to do here is to disperse the blood. You want to be sure, then, to scrape from the center of the hickey, out toward the edges. Don't freak out when you're first done doing this. There definitely will be an unsightly red mark from the scraping, but, if you did it right (you understand that you're not actually supposed scrape off your skin, right"), that red mark will clear up in just a few minutes. And once that mark is gone, there should be, to coin a phrase, a marked improvement in your hickey.
If the hickey is not from the night before, but as least 48 hours earlier then when you want to get rid of it, warm compresses can be quite effective, too. This one is tricky, though. It definitely has to be at least 48 hours since you got the hickey! (You do know when you got the hickey, right? This hasn't been like a three day bender, I trust?) If you use the warm compress method too soon, it will definitely make the hickey worse.
However, when all is said and done, the fastest way to get rid of hickeys is not actually to get rid of them at all, but just get rid of the sight of them. The turtle neck sweater is an old school classic for a very good reason; it works! If you can get away with scarves, that's another reliable classic. If the weather, though, will make such choices a tad too suspicious or uncomfortable, there's always make-up.
I can't say I've tried this one, but my color coordinator assures me that powering a little green over the hickey, neutralizes its red. Once neutralized, the hickey can be covered with a flesh tone compatible with your own. This is supposed to make for excellent camouflage.
There are indeed plenty of options. Which one you go for will be a personal choice, possibly based as much on timing needs and pain tolerance as good taste. Though, good taste should never be underrated.
The old line goes, once bitten, twice shy. You can decide for yourself if you want to learn from the wisdom of the ancients. If though it turns out that you just can't help yourself, rest easy knowing we got you covered, here at How to Get Rid of Hickeys Fast.
You have a hickey! Really? I'm afraid so. So, what are you going to do about it? Some say there's nothing to be done; you have to just grin and bear. We'll have none of that. Yet, theories abound. And numerous strategies are available. Which should you try?
To start, there is the ever popular cold spoon. And when we say cold, we don't mean your mama's cold, we mean ice cold. Many swear that applying the ice cold spoon to you hickey is the best way to reduce its spread. In fairness, though, we better warn you that others claim you'll only make matters worse: the hickey will spread. I suspect this is one of those personal physiology things. You won't know how it works on you until you try it. Maybe experiment though when there's not so much at stake.
There are also those who apparently can't distinguish their neck from their teeth. There's a whole crazy bunch of hickey alleviation techniques based on employing dental hygiene resources. Particularly popular from this category is to scrub the hickey with a tooth brush. The thinking here is that it breaks up the clotting blood (which is what a hickey is, in case you didn't know). The idea is once you get the blood circulating the hickey fades away. Also in the dental hygiene category is the use of mint flavored toothpaste. It's supposed to be the mint that actually does the magic, but hey if you're going to be brushing your neck anyway? Why not? I say, if none of that works, try whipping your hickey into shape with some dental floss!
Though less exotic, a more time honored approach to stimulating blood circulation is massaging the area. No magic here, but it should offer some relief. Much more exciting though is the coin technique. It may sound a little gruesome to some, but apparently many people report great results. Using the finger and thumb of one hand stretch out skin of the place where you have the hickey. Meanwhile, in the other hand, holding the coin, scrape the edge of it over the hickey. What you're trying to do here is to disperse the blood. You want to be sure, then, to scrape from the center of the hickey, out toward the edges. Don't freak out when you're first done doing this. There definitely will be an unsightly red mark from the scraping, but, if you did it right (you understand that you're not actually supposed scrape off your skin, right"), that red mark will clear up in just a few minutes. And once that mark is gone, there should be, to coin a phrase, a marked improvement in your hickey.
If the hickey is not from the night before, but as least 48 hours earlier then when you want to get rid of it, warm compresses can be quite effective, too. This one is tricky, though. It definitely has to be at least 48 hours since you got the hickey! (You do know when you got the hickey, right? This hasn't been like a three day bender, I trust?) If you use the warm compress method too soon, it will definitely make the hickey worse.
However, when all is said and done, the fastest way to get rid of hickeys is not actually to get rid of them at all, but just get rid of the sight of them. The turtle neck sweater is an old school classic for a very good reason; it works! If you can get away with scarves, that's another reliable classic. If the weather, though, will make such choices a tad too suspicious or uncomfortable, there's always make-up.
I can't say I've tried this one, but my color coordinator assures me that powering a little green over the hickey, neutralizes its red. Once neutralized, the hickey can be covered with a flesh tone compatible with your own. This is supposed to make for excellent camouflage.
There are indeed plenty of options. Which one you go for will be a personal choice, possibly based as much on timing needs and pain tolerance as good taste. Though, good taste should never be underrated.
The old line goes, once bitten, twice shy. You can decide for yourself if you want to learn from the wisdom of the ancients. If though it turns out that you just can't help yourself, rest easy knowing we got you covered, here at How to Get Rid of Hickeys Fast.
About the Author:
In addition to writing for How to Get Rid of Hickeys Fast, Tosh Caliberni also writes at its sister site, How to Get Rid of Mosquito Bites Fast.
