Aim: To test whether dry brushing daily produces any visible changes is health or appearance.
Requirements:
- a brush with natural bristles (intended for skin, a removable long handle is advised)
- or a loofah or loofah mit
- your pretty little self
Method: There are lots of ways to do dry brushing, but this is the basic low down:
- Start at your feet and work your way up your body
- Making gentle upward strokes or circular motions (circular on butt and back)
- Avoiding tender skin such as ya nips!
- If you want to dry brush your face do so with a special face brush.
- Repeat before your shower daily!
- Maintain cleanliness of brush by washing weekly (of fortnightly if you’re busy/me).
Observation: I started out making little circles with the brush when I’d do it, but after a while I changed to stroking (eyebrow waggle) which I found isn’t quite as scratchy. Although there wasn’t much change to my skin in the first month or so, it did make me feel really awake and zingy in general. After a month I started noticing that the bumps on my arms had decreased and the pinkness wasn’t as noticeable.
Discussion: The main purpose of dry brushing is to help the lymphatic system move the lymph around your body, which helps many of the other systems of your body work even better. Many also recommend it as it can give some great results if you have skin issues like if you’re prone to ingrown hairs or skin irritations like reoccurring rashes. Many also claim that it can get rid of cellulite!
So I don’t know whether dry brushing is helping my lymphatic system, and I have no way of gauging it either, so I think I’ll just assume, since it makes me feel great after I do it, that that is the effect of my lymph nodes squealing for joy… Not very scientific I know, but I have a theatre degree and barely passed senior Biology, so that’s as close to scientific as I’m going to get.
As for skin issues like ingrown hairs and irritations – I’m really glad to say that I didn’t see many at all when I was dry brushing. If I didn’t dry brush for a day (or say, three days, when I was stranded away from home during the floods in January) sometimes I’d end up with an ingrown hair here or there.
Cellulite – well, I don’t know if it really helped that much with cellulite, but I won’t say that it doesn’t work. I’m sure that if you combined dry brushing with a healthy plant based diet and regular exercise that you could kiss your cottage cheese thighs goodbye, however I didn’t see too much of a difference. (My thighs are still a little dimply, but I love ‘em anyway.)
Results: Dry Brushing definitely gave me visible change in my skin, particularly the bumpy skin on my upper arms, which had always given my worries in the past. Health benefits? Well I’m sure it’s doing some good, and it sure makes me feel good, and LOADS of sources say it’s great for you. So I suppose that it’s doing some good!
Conclusion: Give it a try! It might work for you, it might not… But I definitely recommend trying it, at least for a month and a half.
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