Summer time is that wonderful three months of the Montana year to get some sun (although this year, we've had to deal with less). The trouble with all that skin exposure is that you need to cover it up again...with no less than SPF 30 sunscreen!
I'm usually Miss Sun Safety Sally, especially since I work outside. In my opinion, a good day at work is one in which I can wear my coat all day... For the most part though, it is necessary for me to coat myself, rather, with sunscreen in the morning and halfway through the day. When you're mowing lawns all day, that sunscreen makes you an adhesive for blowing grass. Walking flypaper. Needless to say, I feel pretty grubby at the end of the day. My skin takes a beating in the summertime with all the heat, wind, sunscreen and itchy grass--an extra one-two to my skin lies in the fact that I dehydrate easily without realizing it. The good thing is that I rarely burn enough for my skin to peel. Skin peeling after a burn is just horrendous when you realize that it's essentially your skin committing suicide because the DNA is too damaged to replicate properly. Yeesh. So with all the sunscreen, bugspray and dehydration, I'm sure everyone's skin is feeling a little stressed.
Anyway, the point of this post was to share a little something I recently happened upon in a Women's Health magazine. It is called dry brushing and is full body exfoliation with a natural bristle brush before you shower. Naturally, before I try anything myself, I do a good amount of research. Dry brushing can offer a lot of health benefits including, obviously, aiding in cell turnover and therefore improving the resiliency and texture of skin. I did come across other claims that dry brushing can help detoxify your body, improve circulation, reduce cellulite and the like. These claims haven't been extensively studied and every person can experience a different result. However, I felt that the de-grubbifying offered by dry brushing was enough for me to want to give it a shot.
I ordered a natural bristle brush with a long handle from Amazon.com and just received it yesterday. I didn't spend too much on it: about $12 with shipping. I was super excited to try it out. It is recommended that you dry brush your skin in the morning before a shower to help you wake up and improve circulation. I shower at night in the summer and figured I'd just chance having an invigorated circulatory system before bed.
Here is a website that offers some really good tips for dry brushing; I recommend giving it a read: http://epicureantable.com/articles/adrybrush.htm
*You should stand in the shower (with the water off, of course) before dry brushing. You'd be surprised how much dry skin will come off. Plus you've heard of the statistic that like 80% (or more even--I'm just pulling that number from memory) of the dust in your house is made up of dead skin cells... Imagine the dust you'd make standing in one place, doing a full body exfoliation. (I hate to make a reference to clapping erasers....) By standing in the shower, you will contain that dust and be able to wash it down the drain.
*Dry brushing technique suggests that you make long strokes with the brush, always pulling it or pushing it toward your heart.
*You should brush hard enough for your skin to redden a bit--not hard enough to break your skin though!
*Don't forget to brush the bottoms of your feet and your hands.
*Perhaps consider getting a separate, smaller brush for use on just your face.
*Rinse off well in the shower, avoiding really hot water, which dries you out.
All in all, the dry skin brushing felt really good! And it did improve the smoothness of my skin after just one use. Areas like my shins, which are pretty dinked up from debris thrown from my string trimmer were evened out. People with a propensity for ingrown hairs or those with mild cases of those little KP bumps on the backs of their arms could also benefit from this ritual. I imagine that dry brushing daily will ultimately keep my skin clearer--my back and shoulders tend to break out in the summer from the sunscreen, dirt and sweat. I will certainly recommend that people give dry brushing a shot!
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