Welcome to the first Beauty + Wellness Wednesday post. While I’ve written about beauty before, I thought giving it weekly home would be a plus for those beauty and wellness obsessed (as I have become more and more) and push me to delve deeper into the topic.
This inaugural post is on dry brushing. And I am lucky to have Cayli Cavaco Reck of Knockout Beauty, who is a big proponent of this circulation booster and skin regenerator, to give TFI an expert how-to. With warmer weather and more skin-baring clothing on the horizon, who doesn’t want to focus on their skin?
What is dry brushing?
What it is, is literally using a brush on your dry skin prior to taking a shower to invigorate the body.
Why dry brush?
Think about the dry brush as a key and the activity of the dry brushing as the ignition–it gets the body to run. At night when we sleep, we’re not moving. Our circulation isn’t happening the same way it is when we’re moving and running around and dealing with our day. Unless, of course, we’re sitting all day, in which case, that’s a different story. But by in large, we’re more physically active during the day. What the dry brushing does is it gets that system moving. It helps with lymphatic drainage, which then, we pass through our urine, which is essential for detox.
Your lymphatic system is like the garbage disposal essentially, right? It’s going around and literally collecting and moving the waste through your body. If that system isn’t working well, then you get a build-up. You want that system to sweep it out as soon as possible. When you dry brush, you actually make that process faster.
You also sweep away the dead skin cells. You help with digestion because your body, your circulation in your body, your systems are moving better. Boosting your circulation helps the improvement of the appearance of cellulite. It helps the body get rid of waste, which is a key element to also losing weight and having that more light form.
How do you dry brush?
This is what’s fascinating. There’s a lot of conversation around which direction do you go in, because you want to go toward the heart. When you’re doing it, it’s like an up-sweeping motion up your legs. I start at the bottom of my feet. It’s essential to start at the bottom of your feet because that’s where the ends of the meridians are. You start at the bottom of your feet and you want to go up toward the tops of your feet, all the way up physically toward your heart.
When you get to the belly range, you go counter clockwise. Then you go in your heart area, and you go clockwise. In your armpits, go down toward your heart, away from your armpit. You don’t want anything going up in toward the armpit, always out from the armpit.
Are there any other areas that you need to dry brush that are important?
The neck is good to get–the back of the neck feels really amazing. The bottom is a place to really get going, because that’s often where you can get a lot of stagnant energy. I don’t do my face.
What kind of brush do you use and what follows the brushing?
I do not use a brush, I use a Supracor mitt. There’s so much bacteria that lives in the brushes. I like to use an antibacterial antimicrobial brush or Supracor.
Then you take a shower. While your skin is still wet, it’s great to use a body oil. I love the antiaging, the Absolute Antiaging Body Oil from UMA, the Divine or the MUN body or argan oil.
Do you think it makes a difference if you do it in the morning or the night? Or just whenever you shower or take a bath?
Since it activates the system, it’s optimal to do it in the morning. But I know people that wouldn’t do it otherwise if it weren’t at night.
How often should you dry brush?
Daily!
Uma Absolute Anti-Aging Body Oil, $90; Supracor Body Mitt, $38; Mūn Argan Oil, $70. You can also visit Knockout Beauty art 1031 Lexington Avenue in NYC for these products.
top photo, Irving Penn
This may be a dumb question but when you do your belly is it counter clockwise as if your belly were the clock facing out (so you are brushing up on your left side towards your heart)?
Not at all and yes you are correct!