9 Little Tricks to Get Rid of a Hickey

There comes a point in almost everyone’s life where they look at their neck in the mirror, notice a splotchy bruise, and wonder how to get rid of a hickey. Whether you’ve spotted one the night before an important meeting or you’re going to (even virtually) see your parents, it’s natural to want your hickey to disappear.

Below, you’ll find all the information you need to come to terms with your little love mark. Is there any way to make a hickey smaller, lighter, or, you know, gone? It turns out that there are a couple of things you can do when it comes to how to get rid of a hickey—though they’re generally high-effort, low-reward.

First things first: What the hell is a hickey, anyway?

A hickey is, basically, a bruise, Sejal Shah, M.D., a New York City-based dermatologist, tells SELF. Like any bruise, a hickey forms when your capillaries (teeny-tiny blood vessels) undergo some kind of trauma. The capillaries break and release blood, which pools under your skin to create a bruise. The size of your bruise may vary depending on how much trauma your capillaries went through, how many capillaries were affected, and how long the blood pooled before clotting.

Okay, but how do hickeys happen?

Well, let’s spend a little time with the word trauma, shall we? “Suction on the skin can cause a bruise,” Robert Brodell, M.D., tenured professor and chair of the department of dermatology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, tells SELF, as can similar actions that put pressure on the skin. So even though biting, kissing, and suction can feel good when they’re happening, you are actually temporarily damaging the skin a little, Dr. Brodell explains. Your hickey is evidence that the pressure from biting, sucking, etc., broke a few capillaries. So even if you don’t really remember anyone nibbling on your neck, you probably didn’t notice while it was happening.

Here’s how to get rid of a hickey:

1. Apply pressure to the hickey as soon as it happens.

If you suspect someone has given you a hickey and apply pressure immediately, you can help your blood stop pooling. (Have you ever scraped your arm and applied pressure to stop the bleeding? Yeah, same idea.) The sooner the blood stops pooling, the smaller and lighter the hickey is—which means it should be less visible and take less time to heal, Robert Finney, M.D., a Brooklyn-based dermatologist, tells SELF.

In order for this to work, you’re gonna have to stop mid-hookup to apply pressure to your neck, shoulder, or wherever else you think a hickey’s cropping up. Alternatively, you could apply pressure to the spot while continuing your hookup if you happen to be extremely anti-hickey and also great at multitasking. Remember: This won’t prevent a hickey from forming altogether, but it will (hopefully) keep it from getting as big as it could’ve been if left unchecked.

2. Try applying a cold compress immediately.

Once your hookup session is over, Dr. Finney says you can apply a cold compress to the hickey to reduce some of the redness and inflammation, and Dr. Shah says heat or pressure might work as well. But these methods aren’t fool-proof. Instead, you might just have to live with your hickey for a few weeks. Which brings us to…

3. Let it heal.

The only tried-and-true hickey removal methods are time and patience, so just sit back, relax, and give it time. Most hickeys will “change color and fade” within a few weeks, Dr. Brodell says. So your strongest option is just to let your body heal at its own pace.

4. Try using a vitamin K cream.

If you want to try and nudge things along, Dr. Shah says vitamin K creams, like Reviva Labs Vitamin K Cream ($16, Amazon) or Instaderm Vitamin K Cream ($23, Amazon), might reduce bruising. A 2017 literature review, published in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, examined bruises after cosmetic surgery. Researchers found a few small studies that suggest vitamin K creams can reduce bruises, but Dr. Finney explains that you shouldn’t get your hopes up. These studies have been pretty small and fairly limited, so the jury’s still out on whether these creams will make an actual difference.