Benefits of Dry Skin Brushing

Dry skin brushing is a simple and inexpensive technique that can improve the appearance of your skin and stimulate the circulation of lymph, improving your immune system. This gentle technique exfoliates your skin, helping to remove the outer layer of dry skin cells and reveal healthier living cells in your skin. It makes the skin look and feel smoother.

Dry skin brushing also stimulates the circulation of blood and lymph, bringing fresh nutrients to your skin cells and removing metabolic waste, which keeps your cells healthy. Beneath the skin you have a rich layer of lymph vessels, which are concentrated near the skin more than any other area in the body. These lymph vessels absorb fluid from your skin and other tissues, along with metabolic waste and toxins such as harmful organisms, microscopic particles and harmful chemicals. The light pressure of dry skin brushing causes the lymph vessels to contract, pumping lymph fluid through the vessels toward the lymph nodes. In the lymph nodes lymph fluid is purified by white blood cells, which destroy anything harmful to your health.

How To Do Dry Skin Brushing

Use a soft brush, a dry loofah pad or terry cloth. Hold the brush in your hand, or hold it by the handle if it has one. If you are using a loofah pad, slide your hand between the strap on the back and the loofah itself. If you are using dry terry cloth, place it over your palm. Use your other hand to grasp the corners of the terry cloth around the back of your hand, then twist them into a handle. You'll hold the handle with one hand and use the other hand for polishing your skin, with the flat palm covered by the terry cloth.

Brush lightly in one direction, from the feet up to the lymph nodes in your groin, from the hands to the lymph nodes in your armpits, and on the trunk from the bottom up toward the lymph nodes in your neck. Use a long-handled brush for your back or ask your massage therapist to do dry brushing on your back before a massage. It's all right to alternate light circles with the lengthwise strokes.

Use light pressure, and repeat the strokes several times in each area. Using heavy pressure -- scrubbing your skin -- causes irritation and invisible scratches that can be susceptible to infection. To avoid dryness, follow the dry skin brushing with an application of oil, cream or lotion. For a really relaxing experience, ask your massage therapist to give you a dry brush treatment before a massage.