Member-only story
What Dry Brushing Can Do For You
(And also what it can’t)
In my eternal quest to find a skincare routine that works for me, I decided it was high time to try this dry brushing fad that I keep hearing about. Okay, you caught me… I mean, no one just randomly owns a brush for their skin for non-itchy reasons, right? Of course, I had heard of dry brushing before, but what really prompted me to get a Swedish dry brush was that when I got home from Ireland, the dry California air instantly gave me a plague of eczema, which I just would not stop picking at. Apparently using your nails to scratch your eczema is bad for your skin. Like, really bad. Moreover, my grandparents got real tired of watching me scratch my back against the door frame like a bear, and hence, a neatly wrapped package arrived at my door containing both a suggestion and a demand in the form of a Swedish dry brush.
Game on. After I satisfied my curiosity about the brush by manically brushing every inch of exposed skin on my body (pretty much just my forearms), I took out the little instructions. Apparently there is a proper way to brush one’s skin. The instructions suggest going from the bottom of your body to the top, brushing in an outward and upward motion. Aside from exfoliating the skin, the manual claims that dry brushing (especially before a warm shower), can improve circulation and energy, get rid of toxins…
