Did you know that over half of the toxins that enter our body enter through our SKIN? Lotions, makeup, and even cleaning products that come in contact with our skin can all contain toxins. Dry brushing is an easy practice that can help us get rid of these toxins.
By design, our bodies help filter out toxins. As products become more laden with harmful chemicals, our bodies are having to filter out more and more toxins.
The good news is there is actually something we can do to help improve the way our body detoxifies itself– naturally!
Drinking more water and exercising/moving can help us get rid of some of these chemicals, to be sure. But dry brushing is a practice that boosts our body’s own ability to filter out these harmful toxins.
The Basic Benefits of Dry Brushing
Who can dry brush?
Anyone!
If you have open scrapes or wounds or rashes, definitely avoid those areas. If your skin becomes irritated, you may need to take a break. Find a schedule that works best for your skin.
Again, this simple practice is typically safe for everyone. If you have a concern or a condition you feel is a contraindication, consult your healthcare provider before beginning this regimen.
What is dry brushing?
Dry brushing is simply gently brushing the skin with a natural bristle brush, in a particular pattern. Expanding on that, this means you are using a firm natural bristle brush over your skin in a pattern that moves toward the center of your body.
There are various types of dry brushes, some with handles, some without. Largely, the choice is your personal preference. Handled options provide ease of reaching areas like the back.
As indicated by the name, you brush the skin while it is dry (so not during a shower/bath, and not after a shower/bath– in fact, before a shower is a great time to dry brush).
- You brush gently, working your way up your body, from feet to shoulders. Move upward in long, smooth strokes, covering feet, legs, palms of hands, arms, abdomen, and back.
- Brush your stomach and armpits in small clockwise circular motions, about ten strokes is a good rule of thumb. You always brush in a direction TOWARDS your heart, and brushing gently is sufficient– there is no need to brush vigorously.
The entire process can take as little as a couple of minutes, but brushing for a longer session is okay, too. Two minutes, once or twice a day, is more than sufficient to experience the benefits of dry brushing.
When and where should I dry brush?
This beneficial practice can be done at any time of day, but many people find dry brushing to be energizing and therefore prefer to only do it in the morning.
Others dry brush in the evening or morning and evening. It really doesn’t matter what time of day you dry brush, as long as your skin is dry when you’re brushing.
A shower following will rinse off any exfoliated skin and help stimulate blood flow. Some people dry brush in the shower (with no water running yet!) then turn on the shower when their brushing session is over.
Make sure to put your dry brush outside of the shower before turning the water on, so it doesn’t get wet.
After showering, use a natural(we want to avoid extra toxins since we are working to remove them with this process) lotion or oil to moisturize your skin.
Again, remember, you should not dry brush on sensitive areas of the skin (i.e. rashes, cuts, broken skin, etc.).
Why should I dry brush? Now we are getting down to it– what benefits can we reap by dry brushing? Sure, helping rid our body of toxins sounds positive and good- but how does that play out/what does it mean?
Here are some benefits we can all reap from dry brushing:
Dry brushing cleanses the lymphatic system.
In our bodies, fluids flow freely. These fluids are filtered by our lymphatic system (think lymph nodes). Lymph nodes allow our white blood cells to circulate.
Our white blood cells are our main immune cells– they are what helps us fight off infections, bacteria, disease cells, etc. They help defend our bodies.
If we didn’t have white blood cells, our immune systems would be useless, and our susceptibility to a whole host of things would be wide open.
For this reason, it is incredibly important that our lymphatic system functions properly.
As we are exposed to chemicals/toxins in our world, our lymph nodes can become clogged (think about how sometimes your lymph nodes are swollen when you’re sick).
When we dry brush, we stimulate the pores on our skin, which opens them up. If we follow up with a shower, those pores are more open to sweat a bit and allow some of those toxins to move on out of our body.
Dry brushing can help with hormone balance.
Yep! Hormones circulate through the body with the help of the lymphatic system mentioned above– so a stagnant lymphatic system may not get hormones moving to where they need to be as effective as a healthy functioning lymphatic system will!
This is so important because the hormones that are released by our endocrine system influence nearly every cell, organ, and function in our bodies.
This could be beneficial to women in all seasons- from the onset of puberty to childbearing age to perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause.
Dry brushing can help your skin be smoother, tighter, softer, and can reduce stretch marks and cellulite!
Dry brushing removes dead skin cells and also encourages the growth of new skin cells– this leads to softer, tighter, and smoother skin.
This benefit is often noticeable the very first time you dry brush. A regular dry brushing regimen will leave you with less dry, softer skin, and this will continue for as long as you keep up your dry brushing regimen.
Additionally, the extra lymph movement helps to flush out the toxins stored in that layer of our bodies that form cellulite, which is one reason many regular dry brushers find a reduction in the appearance of cellulite as they faithfully dry brush!
Another reason dry brushing may reduce cellulite is that dry brushing may help soften hard fat deposits under the skin and distribute those fat deposits more evenly. This would reduce the appearance of cellulite.
Cellulite itself is composed of toxic fat buildup below the skin, resulting in a dimpling effect. Dry brushing tightens the skin and assists in gentle detoxification that helps to break up that toxic fat buildup.
Again, this results in a reduced appearance of cellulite. Some dry brushers have even noticed a reduction in the appearance of stretch marks, due to the skin tightening effects of dry brushing.
Dry brushing can help jumpstart weight loss.
If practiced regularly and correctly for three consecutive months, dry brushing can aid in weight loss.
Our skin is our body’s largest organ– and our body’s largest detoxifying organ. Dry brushing helps our skin do its job more effectively, and as our body detoxifies and cellulite is reduced, weight loss is promoted.
The light pressure against the skin encourages our lymph fluid to flow through our lymph nodes so that the waste/toxins in our bodies can be removed properly.
While dry brushing isn’t going to be a magic solution for shedding pounds, it does have the potential to give your weight loss efforts a boost.
Dry brushing can help to decrease our stress level.
Because of its soothing sensory input, dry brushing may help to lower stress hormones.
Just like taking a few minutes a day to breathe deeply or pray or meditate can help you calm down, so can a concentrated few minute session of dry brushing.
Taking a few moments out to do this can help your cortisol levels regulate– and cortisol is our stress hormone!
An additional fact worth noting– stress can lead to weight gain and water retention.
So dry brushing reducing stress could be another reason some dry brushers experience a boost in weight loss!
Dry brushing helps in the overall detoxification of our bodies.
This is a large umbrella over all of the more specific benefits listed above– but this is important to note because as our bodies are functioning better, less “gunked up” with a slow lymph, our immune system, digestion, and kidney function can even improve.
So while we are only seeming to work on the outside, on our skin, our body’s biggest organ– we are actually working all the way in, to help our entire body to function stronger and healthier.
Knowing these benefits, is dry brushing something you’d consider? Is dry brushing something you’ve already done? What benefits did you see? At just a few minutes’ commitment a day (or less if your skin is too sensitive), this powerhouse modality is worth a try!
