Doctors Confirm TikTok Whisk Trick Does Make Hickeys Disappear — But Be Careful

Published September 28, 2021

After seeing how many health-related TikTok trends turn out to be complete bunk, one could be forgiven for not wanting to take any advice from that platform.

But every now and then, we can see doctors actually confirm that TikTokers are on the right track. And sometimes, we can see that these health tips even come from the doctors themselves.

And while some of the ideas that circulate the platform are obvious in how unhelpful they'll be, we can also be surprised to discover that the weird lifehacks that people come up with on there aren't always wrong.

But of course, we're about to see that this doesn't quite mean everyone's on board with them.

Be advised that the videos featured in this article contain explicit language

Back in January, a young woman named Madisson Larocque uploaded a video detailing how she managed to get rid of a hickey.

As she showed off in a "before" shot, it was quite pronounced before she spent about five minutes twisting a metal whisk against the spot.

She also proved that no makeup was involved in this process and as a result, her glaring hickey was reduced to just a slightly red patch of skin.

That same day, a young man named Spencer Hunt decided to test Larocque's strategy out since he also happened to have a hickey that day.

He seemed to approach Larocque's claim with some skepticism as he decided to time his own neck whisking to see if she was right about it taking five minutes.

And while he reported that it was more painful than he expected, he was nonetheless excited to see that the trick had worked and his hickey had faded.

And if you're wondering how this happened, a pediatrician named David Shafran has an explanation.

TikTok | @mads.larocque

As he told Insider, hickeys appear because the suction of — in this case, a particularly rough kiss — causes enough damage to the walls of small blood vessels that they leak into nearby tissue, thus causing bruising.

But when the whisk is twisted against that spot, it breaks up the clotted blood that accumulated in that area and increases blood flow, both of which allow that blood to be reabsorbed elsewhere in the body faster.

In his words, "You can actually see that the area on her neck is flushed due to the increased blood flow induced by manipulation of the skin."

But a North Carolina dermatologist named Beth Goldstein argued that just because this can work, that doesn't mean you should do it.

In her view, it's better to let makeup and time take care of an unsightly hickey rather than a technique she sees as causing more injury.

Shafran addressed this point as well and decided that while it's theoretically possible to damage the major carotid blood vessels by doing this, he'd "have to imagine that to be exceedingly rare."

That said, he didn't see any reason to put his estimate to the test and overdo it.

As he put it, "Still, if the contusion were extensive enough, I'd caution applying too much pressure with an egg beater or any kitchen utensil."

h/t: Insider

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