The Health & Beauty Benefits of Dry Brushing
Dry brushing in an Ancient Ayurvedic self-care practice that stimulates your lymphatic system to promote cleansing and drainage of toxins or ama from your skin and body. In sanskirt, it’s called garshana and it has other balancing benefits for health and beauty.
Because it promotes blood circulation, it’s also a great energy and mood booster for when you’re feeling fatigue, sluggishness, mental dullness, constipation, or feeling a bit under the weather.
Because it gets rid of dead skin cells, it also makes skin soft, brighter, smoother, and more radiant. As a result, your skin will more easily absorb all the nutrients from the sun and the oils you apply to it that it wouldn’t normally absorb because of the layer of dead skin and toxins blocking it.
All these prana-stimulating benefits (prana means life force) make dry brushing one of my favorite Ayurvedic beauty and self-care rituals.
Watch my video for a quick how-to on dry brushing as well as written instructions below.
Here’s how to dry brush:
Get your favorite dry brush tool. Make sure that’s it made from natural fibers so that you don’t contaminate your skin with synthetic materials. You can use exfoliating gloves too. It just depends on your preference. I like the dry brushes that come with a removable stick because it makes reaching hard to reach areas like my back, easier.
Start from your feet and work your way upwards towards the neck. Strokes should be smooth and long and going in the direction towards the heart. When it comes to the joints (knees, elbows) and rounder areas like the butt and breast, do circular motions.
Make sure that you also go over the areas under your arms. Lots of toxins build up there because we sweat a lot a lot in those area.
Apply just the right amount of pressure, not too soft, not too hard. You definitely want to feel it but you also don’t want to irritate the skin.
After dry brushing:
I like to shower to remove any excess dead skin that may have been leftover. However, you can easily just skip to #2 if you don’t have time.
Apply your favorite nourishing oils. I love this Ayurvedic oil from India called Tejus Tailum. Take your time here and really enjoy that self oil massage. This process is called abhyangha in sanskrit and it is a necessary way to close your dry brushing practice. Your fresh new skin is primed and ready to receive nutrients and hydration so soothe it with some nourishing oils. For those with a Pitta (hot constitution), I recommend cooling oils like coconut or sunflower. For vata and kapha dominant (cold constitution) folks, warming oils like sesame and walnut are great. I actually like to heat my oils and apply them warm so it’s even more comforting and relaxing for my cold vata body.
Dry brushing can beneficial for everyone, unless you are experiencing the following imbalances:
Sunburn
Skin rash or inflammation like eczema, psoriasis, acne, etc
Open wounds or scabs
Serious sickness - focus on getting better
How often should you practice dry brushing?
I recommend every other day. If you don’t have time, then at least 2-3 times a week. If you’ve got time, then everyday is actually ideal.
When should you do dry brushing?
In the morning right before you shower is the best time because it does stimulate energy in the body, a perfect way to get your day started so you’ll have the rest of the day to use up that charge. If you dry brush in the evening, it could keep you up at night, which is not what you want.
Have any other questions about dry brushing or request for future videos and blog posts? Comment below.
