Making out with someone you love is normal and a very pleasant experience. Private moments shared with someone you love can help you relax after a long day at work. It helps you rekindle the love after being separated for a time because of your academics or jobs. However, getting carried away can sometimes lead to messy and tell-tale “accidents”. Although hickeys are a tell-tale sign to other people that you are “getting some”, it isn’t really ideal to flaunt it at the workplace or at school. It may also suggest promiscuity to some, so you wouldn’t want your boss or teacher to have such notions, right?
In this article, you will find lots of tips on how to prevent, minimize, completely heal, and conceal those hickeys. There isn’t anything really bad about getting hickeys, as our present-day society is more open about various means to express one’s love. However, it does pay to stay discreet with regard to the intimate goings-on in our lives. Read on to know more about how to manage those hickeys effectively and without spending too much on costly but ineffective products.
Prevent It
If you are searching the net trying to find ways on how to get rid of a hickey, it would not really be your problem if you prevented it in the first place. Getting rowdy while making out may be an immediate turn-on, but don’t let your partner lose control and create love-making residues that you have to deal with tomorrow.
So, if you have to take care of that hickey right now, remember to prevent having it in the future. To do this, you may spoil the moment because you have to stop whatever your partner is doing to you. If you don’t want the flame of passion to flicker, you can still avoid getting a hickey by diverting your partner to do something else. Instead of some serious skin-sucking moments, why not ask your partner to get the chocolate syrup in the fridge and start some licking sessions instead? Or perhaps a massage with fragrance oils would be a better turn-on for you both. The whole point of preventing a hickey is to not spoil the moment, but to find ways to enjoy the special moment more without making any physical damages, no matter how small, to your partner.
Note: If your significant other cannot be persuaded to not leave his/her marks on you, at least tell your partner to make a hickey in a place that can easily be concealed by clothes (mind you, this area is pretty large, so you don’t have to worry about where to place it!). Obviously avoid doing it on your neck, arms, shoulders, and (ehem) chest.
How to Control the Hemorrhage
Now, if you failed to control your partner and the hickey has already formed, there are three ways to immediately control the hemorrhage. As a side note, a hickey is just like any other bruise where the capillaries under your skin have exploded due to too much pressure which was caused by sucking on the area.
The first thing to do is to stop whatever you are doing and find a blunt object you can use to press on the surface of the hickey immediately (Yes, you have to spoil the moment if you don’t want to bother about hiding a large hickey first thing tomorrow!). The idea is to push the blood back down and to disintegrate the clot that is forming near the skin which causes the discoloration. You may use the butt of a lipstick, blunt end of a pen, or even the concave side of a spoon. It may hurt because you are applying pressure on a sore spot, but it will keep the bruising to the minimum.
The next thing to do is to get some ice and rub it over the hickey. Although the red patch is already there, the internal bruise is still bleeding and it will be worse when you leave it to bleed. Applying ice will cause the burst capillaries to constrict, thus making it impossible for more blood to go there to clot. Try applying ice for 30 minutes to 1 hour, until you notice that the area is not getting any bigger or more reddish.
The third thing to do is to apply the cooling balms that are usually used for aching muscles. The cool effect of these balms is just like ice applied on your hickey. If you constantly apply this to your hickey, it will heal up a lot faster.
Speeding Up the Healing Process
A day after you got the hickey you may expect it to turn dark brown or even blue. Now is the time for you to help the hickey to heal a lot faster. To do this, you need to understand some basics on coagulation a.k.a. blood clotting. A blood clot is reabsorbed by the body for disposal. It is slowly washed away by blood and carried into your kidneys for processing. Basically, if you let more blood flow in the area, the faster it will disintegrate.
One way to do this is to apply warm compress for 15 minutes at least 3 times a day. Soak a towel in warm water and place the wet towel over the area until the towel cools. The towel needs to be warm upon application, so keep soaking and wringing the towel until your 15 minutes is up.
At the end of the day, you may also massage the area lightly using a fine-haired comb. Simply press the tips of the comb over the wound then slide it over. This thin-point stimulation will cause capillaries underneath the skin to pump more blood into the area, making it easier for the clot to get washed away.
While Waiting for it to Clear…
If you follow all the tips provided in this article, you can easily make your hickey disappear in 3 days. However, while waiting for it to clear, you might want to learn some tricks on how to conceal the revealing bruise. The easiest way is to trying wearing clothes that cover the hickey. You can also find a concealer with green tint. Green-tinted concealers work well with reddish spots, so applying it over the area will make it look close to your natural skin tone.
A savvy way to cover up the scar is to apply dressing for healing over it. A bandage may look gory but your co-workers or classmates would be more inclined to think that you hurt yourself by accident (and not during a moment of passion!). Some creative people tend to make their hickeys look like accidents to avoid the need for concealment. For instance, a neck hickey can be turned into a curling-iron burn by simply making the partner add more to the hickey. Your friends will surely comfort you over your self-grooming ordeal and won’t give it a second thought. But then again, it’s your choice. Just try to follow the advice given in this article and you will say goodbye to those damn hickeys in no time.
Note: A hickey is actually an injury, no matter how seemingly harmless it is. Try to play safer in the bedroom (and anywhere else you plan to get kinky!).