Beauty Benefits of Dry Brushing!

Hellooo everyone!

In today’s post I’m going to give you all the 411 on dry brushing.  Dry brushing is one of those super easy practices to incorporate into your existing skincare/health care/ detoxing routines that has a big effect on your body! I’m all about those quick and easy practices that enhance our inner and outer beauty, so let’s dive right into what dry brushing is and why we should be doing it!  🙂

What is dry brushing and how do we do it?

Dry brushing is done by using a natural bristled brush (like the one pictured above) to brush all over your body for a number of reasons-which we will get into later on.  As probably made clear by the name, you brush against your dry skin in long strokes always toward the heart– for best results on your circulation.

I start from my feet and work my way up my body, excluding my face.  I just go over each section of my skin once or twice in long strokes, so as not to exfoliate too much or cause irritation.  I like to do this before I take a shower at night so that iI can rinse away all the dead skin cells that I’m exfoliating.

Make sure that your brush is made of natural materials, and the bristles should feel a little stiff, but never painful against the skin.   I use a brush with a long handle to reach my back as well.

Beauty benefits:

• Exfoliates:

We often think about exfoliating our faces, but maybe not so much our bodies.  Remember our skin is responsible for removing a lot of toxins out of our system through sweat, breakouts, etc. so when the skin cells are clogged, detoxing doesn’t go as smoothly as it should.  It also feels great to just know that you are removing dead skin cells and keeping your skin fresh and clean.

• Stimulates the lymphatic system:

“The lymphatic system is a network of tissues and organs that help rid the body of toxins, waste and other unwanted materials.” (source: www.livescience.com) Dry brushing stimulates the lymphatic systems and lymph nodes all around the body, to help prevent clogging and promote the system’s detoxifying processes.

• Stimulates circulation:

Brushing on the skin directly stimulates blood circulation, promoting even more detoxifying processes to start up and work harder.

• Diminishes appearance of cellulite:

Cellulite is a direct effect of toxins.  The body tries to save its vital organs from toxins by pushing them out toward the skin, creating cellulite. (This is why even very thin people can have cellulite-it’s not a weight issue, it’s a toxin issue).  So, as we detox, the body can break down and remove built up toxins, and eventually get rid of cellulite.

Also, “dry skin brushing may help to soften hard fat deposits below the skin while distributing fat deposits more evenly. This may help to diminish the appearance of cellulite.” (source: mercola.com)

• Increases energy:

A lot of people, myself included, report that dry brushing actually gives them a little boost of energy.  When your circulation and lymphatic system get revved up in a new and more direct way and when everything starts working better, it can result in increased energy.  Who couldn’t use a little natural boost of that? 🙂

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I’ve mentioned it before, but we should really not underestimate the value of a practice that “feels good.”  Obviously that feeling alone can clue us in that it is a positive practice to incorporate, but often times when these kinds of things feel good to us, our body is sending us a message that we are doing something great for it- both physically and energetically.  Keeping things out of stagnation (enhancing circulation and detoxing processes) is always a great thing on an energetic level, and dry brushing accomplishes just that!

As always, let me know your thoughts below!

ciao ciao,

Amanda <3