Feel soft on the outside and sparkling on the inside with this relaxing treatment that jumpstarts your healing process!
Imagine this: there's relaxing music playing and you slide into heated bedsheets…
Section by section, your skin is softly massaged with a bristled brush. It feels like every itch you’ve ever had is being scratched at once.
Your body is coming alive limb by limb, as your circulatory, lymphatic, and nervous systems are kicked into high gear.
You're almost being lulled to sleep...
Then a firm massage begins, using sustained pressure to target specific muscle knots and slowly melt away all tightness.
Ahhh. You’ve waited for this moment.
But let’s back up.
What Is Dry Brushing?
Dry brushing is a gentle, exfoliating massage done with brush bristles or a loofah.
It feels like a sugar scrub or salt scrub. The difference is that this scrub is done “dry,” without water or oil.
This has huge benefits: “dry” scrubs have greater exfoliating power and boost your lymphatic system too! (And no, it doesn’t feel scratchy or uncomfortable - it feels amazing!)
People love dry brushing because it makes their skin super soft, but it's actually doing so much more to boost your health than just that.
What Are the Benefits of Dry Brushing?
It relieves stress and feels great!
Because dry brushing stimulates your nerve endings so well, it's great at waking up an area of the body and overwriting pain signals. If you've felt sluggish, stiff, or sore for a long time, dry brushing might be just what you need to reset.
It supports the body’s natural detox process and improves circulation.
The light pressure of dry brushing stimulates lymphatic drainage, which flushes toxins, decreases swelling and inflammation, and improves your immunity. It even reduces wrinkles and bags under the eyes, which are actually just inflammation trapped in the skin. Awesome!
You can often feel your body becoming lighter and more energized during lymphatic massage.
Dry brushing is also a great boost for your circulation and blood flow. It gets things moving!
It’s amazing for your skin!
This is the major benefit for most people; dry brushing exfoliates dead skin and unclogs pores, so after a treatment your skin is soft and clear.
It also encourages collagen production, which helps your skin repair itself to be strong, young, elastic, and bright.
One benefit people don’t often think about is how dry brushing helps moisturize your skin. Even though the application itself doesn’t include oil, the bristles stimulate the oil glands in your skin to do their job. You aren’t left with a greasy, slippery film of oil on your skin: just the right amount of moisture!
You can follow up your dry brushing with your favorite body lotion or oil, and it will absorb quickly into your exfoliated skin and leave you super soft. But even if you don’t, you’ll have supple, soft, healthy skin.
How To Dry Brush as Self-Care
There’s lots of tools you can use for dry brushing, and they vary in the intensity of the exfoliating. A long-handled bristle brush is great for scrubbing your back, but otherwise I tend to prefer scrub gloves for the ease of use. You can even use a loofah or rough towel.
Use long, light strokes, starting far away from your heart and pulling towards your heart. Spend a little extra time pulling over and across your joints to pump the lymph nodes there.
This is a great way to energize yourself in the morning and jumpstart your body’s processes! It helps flush the metabolic waste that builds up overnight.
I recommend dry brushing, showering, and then moisturizing with your favorite lotion or body oil for super soft skin. It’s good practice to brush before shaving to minimize ingrown hairs.
You can practice dry brushing daily if you’d like, or at least once a week to maintain the benefits.
Finally, I don’t recommend dry brushing on your face, because the exfoliation can be too harsh for that delicate skin. But definitely brush down your neck and across your collarbones to pump those lymph nodes.
Or, let a pro do it for you! I include Dry Brushing as a complimentary upgrade with all massage therapy appointments. Learn more and schedule online by visiting the homepage.