You may have seen this latest “beauty” trend around some natural living blogs, YouTube channels, and Instagram. I was immediately intrigued when I heard about “dry brushing”, and wanted to figure out what this whole thing was for myself!

After trying for a few months, I have already seen tremendous benefits for my skin (your body’s biggest organ) with dry brushing! I have noticed: smoother skin, decrease in cellulite, and brighter skin.

Dry brushing has so many internal and external benefits, and it is so easy and cheap to jump into doing!

Keep reading to learn all about the benefits of dry brushing, how to select the perfect dry brush, how to dry brush correctly, and more tips.

Benefits of Dry Brushing

The first (and most obvious) benefit to dry brushing is the exfoliation to your skin! Dry brushing is the most natural way to exfoliate all of the dead skin cells off your skin.

Did you know that the average person sheds about 40,000 dead skin cells EVERY MINUTE!? And most of those dead skin cells don’t even make it off your body, they actually hang on for dear life for a bit! Dry brushing will flake all of those bad boys right off, leaving your skin silky smooth like you’ve never felt it before!

Although I love the exfoliation benefit, that’s not why I started dry brushing. There are so many other amazing benefits for the internal systems in your body!

When you dry brush, you are actually creating a small amount of “stress” to the skin. This small bit of “stress” or “trauma” actually stimulates beneficial adaptive changes. This means that it triggers a healing response in the body and increases collagen production.

That’s all pretty much a fancy way of saying that your skin is going to become more elastic, brighter and plumper!

As you are dry brushing, you are stimulating your blood flow and getting that blood pumping and moving throughout your entire body. As your blood works its way around, it is increasing key “nutrients” to help moisturize and brighten your skin!
These “nutrients” come in the form of natural moisturizing oil that your skin already has, and bunches of good bacteria that you need for skin growth and healthy function! The oils and bacterial will improve your skin’s appearance and even help with acne!

Another benefit in increasing blood flow is the break up of toxins and pockets of fat (especially in the thighs and butt), which will help reduce cellulite overall.

And maybe you’re wondering why this all needs to be done “dry”? Well, without soap or water, you don’t need to worry about the toxins in most soaps “stripping” your skin of those naturally moisturizing oils we mentioned earlier! Let your body moisturize itself the way it wants to…without soap or water.

How to Pick a Brush

When selecting your perfect dry brush, you’re going to want to find one that has stiff (but not too stiff!) and thick (but not too thick!) natural hairs. That may sound confusing but just look for one that is stiff enough to do its job, but not so harsh that you will cause damage to your skin.

As you can see in the photos, my dry brush has a strap around the back, allowing it to stay on my hand easier as I use it.
Many dry brushes also come attached with a long handle (usually removable), to help you get the hard to reach areas, and cover every inch of your back! I love my dry brush, but if I were given the chance to get a new one, I would definitely grab one with a long handle, to help me out with my back!

However, if you already have one with no handle, no worries. It is still possible to get every inch of your skin, it just takes a little extra stretching and twisting!

How to Clean Your Brush

I like to clean my brush at least once a week. Sometimes I do clean it more than that if I dry brushing when I am particularly gross or sweaty. For example, I dry brush many times right after I workout (while I am standing in my tub about to shower!) When I am super sweaty, I clean my brush right away because the thought of sweat on my brush grosses me out a bit!

To clean, I simply rinse my brush under the water in my shower. Then, I use a small amount of my shampoo and scrub all the bristles clean!

I rinse well and then leave it on my windowsill to dry in the sun for the day.

Voila! All clean!

How to Dry Brush

Alright, enough of the boring stuff! Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of how to do the actual deed!

I have heard many different opinions of where to start dry brushing, but I always just start with the top of my feet and then work my way up to the rest of my body.

Make your strokes long, upwards motion, generally moving upwards toward your heart. Use a fair amount of pressure, without pressing too hard or causing yourself any pain!

I find I can use more firm pressure around tougher areas of my skin: legs, arms, back, etc. I use even extra firm pressure on the areas that have really dry skin: knees and elbows! When I get to more sensitive areas: stomach, chest, neck, face, I use much lighter pressure. You should be causing a small amount of “stress” to your skin without being in pain!

Be sure you cover the entire surface area of your body, without forgetting any areas! I focus more on my problem areas: my thighs and my butt! I just put a little extra time and attention to smooth skin and remove cellulite from these areas.
And don’t forget the areas of your skin that need it, but you might easily forget! These areas include bottom and top of feet, bottom and top of hands, and underarms!

I always dry brush as I am standing in my bathtub, right before I shower. This way, I am already naked, and the dead skin cells that I flake off will just fall into the shower and then wash away when I turn the water on!

Dry brushing is recommended to do at least once a day, some even say twice! However, this isn’t always possible for me, but I try to make it happen as much as I can! At least 5-6 times/week.

After you are done brushing, and you hop out of the shower, always follow up with an oil all over your body! This will continue to help your skin heal and enhance the benefits that are still going on under your skin (increased blood flow)!

I always use coconut oil, because (as you may already know) I’M OBSESSED. Let me tell you more here!

Well people, that’s pretty much your “crash course 101” all about dry brushing! Hopefully, this was beneficial and educational to anyone who has been considering dry brushing!

If you already have been for a while, I would love to know all about how it’s been going for you Have you noticed any benefits? Let me know in the comments below!

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