Dry Brushing For Natural Skin Health

Have you ever heard of dry brushing? It’s a centuries old practice of massaging and exfoliating the skin to improve its health and appearance. Your largest organ regenerates itself by eliminating toxic and dead skin cells. Your skin can eliminate as much as two pounds of this waste material each day.

Your skin needs to renew itself and breath for it to look its best and dry brushing can help. When your skin is clogged with dead skin cells and toxins that cannot be eliminated by perspiration, then your skin will suffer. Your skin needs air and sunlight so getting rid of excess waste through exfoliation is vital. Most people already know that they need to exfoliate their faces but in reality your whole body can benefit from exfoliation.

Dry brushing involves talking a soft bristled brush, similar to what you use on your hair except with a long handle, and brushing it across your whole body in a massage like fashion. Some people also use special gloves to dry brush. Your skin is dry when you do this and the best time is usually before you shower. Our bodies form a new top layer of skin every 24 hours or so. Dry brushing helps to slough off that topmost layer allowing the softer, smoother, skin below to surface and breath.

When starting a dry brushing routine it is good to keep in mind the following tips:

Start our softly at first to avoid soreness and gradually apply more pressure over time.
Be careful not to brush over open wounds and cuts or rashes.
Use brush strokes that go towards the heart. The exception to this is when you are brushing over the stomach, when you should brush in a clockwise fashion to aid digestion.
Wash your dry brush after every use to wash off dead skin cells.
Brush when the skin is dry and then shower afterward to wash off any remaining dead skin cells.
Use natural bristles if possible and brushes made with sustainable materials such as ethically harvested wood or bamboo.
If your skin is dry, rub in natural oils like Jojoba afterward. It will soften the skin and it won’t clog pores.

In addition to exfoliating your dead skin cells and removing barriers to toxin excretion, dry brushing is also wonderful for lymph vessels and capillaries. Dry brushing should be done using strokes that go towards the heart, aiding in the body’s blood circulation. This is why many dry brushing enthusiasts feel so refreshed and invigorated after a brushing session, because their circulation improves.

Starting out gently is advised and then as you get used to the practice you can brush more vigorously. Dry brushing also massages the lymph nodes and gets them functioning as well. Our lymph nodes are responsible for filtering and removing invading organisms and abnormal cells as part of our immune system. Massaging them to encourage better functionality can have a big impact on our health and our ability to keep from getting sick.