Lose the lizard: the skin brush

-By Lisa

 

“You’ve always had lizard skin.” – My mother

It's true. My skin is unbearably dry and every dermatologist I’ve seen tells me to drink more water. I drink until I drown; it doesn’t help. I’ve tried lotions and oils and moisturizing soaps and body washes and nothing seems to make a difference. I've even resorted to chemical-laden prescription creams to try to deal with it.

I’m just flaky.

But this might be the thing that sheds my lizard skin. I first heard about skin brushing from the book Clean. Dr. Junger suggests it as a detoxifying aid. Apparently, about 10-15% of the body’s elimination occurs through the skin and dry brushing helps to eliminate dead skin cells, regenerating new skin and improving blood circulation. It also improves your lymphatic and immune system.

So now, before I hop in the shower, I spend a quick 5 minutes dry brushing. The body brush I have is made of stiff palm fibers, you can find them at Whole Foods or any local health store. I start with my feet and work up, as instructed, brushing towards the heart making sure to cover every part of the body.

I had heard that dry brushing didn’t hurt.

I found this to be completely untrue.

The first couple times, I found it to be pokey as hell, so I brushed very lightly. However, once I did it more, I was able to brush harder and I've come to find it quite invigorating. So don’t get discouraged if you feel like you are being sand blasted when you start.

The end result is that I am much less lizard-y. Which works out well with the warm weather approaching and my tank tops and summery skirts coming out of the closet depths...

For more from Lisa, check out www.justherejustnow.com

Comments

[tim]

Try a long hot salt water bath. 20 oz of salt

[Simplifying the Simple Life]

Great suggestion - sounds very pleasant!! And I just happened to have bought a giant thing of Epsom salts...

Thanks for reading!
~Lisa