I’ve been an avid dry brusher for 18 years.  In fact I’m a little evangelical about it, to the point where I nearly bought everyone a dry brush for Christmas a few years ago.

It’s as embedded into my morning routine as brushing my teeth, and only takes a couple of minutes.

You may find the feeling a little weird at first, stick with it, start with a couple of mornings a week and build up from there.  I do it every morning, but during the first year of recovery and even now when I’m not well, I try to up it to twice a day – morning and evening, to help my body as much as I can.

If you’ve just finished chemo, your skin may be highly sensitive and this will be too painful for you right now.  It’s a brilliant technique for recovery, so I urge you to give it a go – if it is too painful, put your brush aside and pick it up again in a months time.  Try it each month until the sensitivity has gone.

So what is the benefit of adding another 5-10 mins to your morning routine?

Dry brushing helps our largest organ – our skin, in its detoxiying process.  And since you are carrying all those treatment toxins for a year after you finish, it would be great to give your lovely body an extra helping hand – it has a lot of work to do.

Since we can’t look at our insides on a daily, weekly basis, our skin is the perfect indicator to what’s going on in there.  It shows us which organs need help and what they need.  After chemo and / or radio therapy, your blood, lymph and cells have all been zapped of goodness, and your organs are under lot of pressure to clean up the show and rejuvenate.  Part of this showing on the outside is your skin looking sad & dull and spots all over the place – we’ll talk about what spots mean next week.

• Dry brushing helps shed dead skin cells, which not only encourages new cell renewal but it helps smooth and brighten the skin.

• As with all types of exfoliation, when you rid the dead skin cells, your skin is better able to absorb moisturisor.  You’re probably moisturising all day every day post treatment as your skin is thirsty and dehydrated as hell – dry skin is another sign of the body detoxifying itself.

• The brushing motion helps improve vascular blood circulation, lymphatic drainage and release toxins. Yeahi ! We want those poisons out of our body as quickly as possible.

• Another thing to get excited about is that it helps strengthen the immune system.  It does this by stimulating the lymph vessels to drain toxic mucoid matter into organs of detoxification so we can purify our entire system.

• The rough bristles stimulate the nerve endings in our skin, in turn stimulating our nervous system. It’s the sensitivity in our nerve endings post chemo that may make this a little painful at first.

• After all those toxins and poisons, I bet your cellulite has hit a depressing new level.  Alongside other means, dry brushing also aids reduce the visibility of those toxin dimples.  The technique increases the blood flow, which moves the toxins to other detoxifying organs and lessens the appearance of cellulite on the top layer of the skin.

How you do it:

• Get naked!
• Start on dry skin before bathing – no water, hence ‘dry’ brushing.
• Starting at your feet, take your brush and gently work it in gentle circular motions upwards.
• After you’ve finished with the ankles, move up to the lower legs, thighs, stomach, back and arms.
• On your limbs move the brush in long, smooth, gentle strokes.  Starting from the bottom of your feet upwards, and from the hands towards the shoulders, and on the torso in an upward direction help drain the lymph back to your heart.
• Please be careful of any post surgery scars, it’s best to avoid this area for about a year until the skin is less raw.
• Also, be super light on more sensitive areas where skin is thinner, such as your breasts.
• That’s it! Super quick, super easy.
• You’re now ready to step into the shower and wash away all those dead skin cells.
• Finish this lovely routine with a layer of moisturisor.

Tips:

• When I have time, I focus a few more additional minutes to my cellulite and up the pressure on the thighs and buttocks.

• There were days during and immediately after treatment where my skin was so sensitive that even water from the shower hurt.  This does eventually go and when it does, you can add another little routine to your shower, which alongside the dry brushing invigorates the skin and stimulates blood circulation.  Dry brush, wash as normal, then finish your shower by ending it with three hot and cold cycles.  By this I mean turning on the water as hot as you can take it for several seconds, then as cold as you can handle it, then hot, then cold for three cycles.

• Rinse your brush with warm water at the end of each week and dry it in the sun or on a radiator to avoid it getting mouldy.

Types of brushes:

• Always go for a natural bristle bath brush – stay away from anything synthetic.
• There tends to be two types:

I always go for the long handle version as it helps me reach my back.  It’s also a good idea in early days of recovery where you can’t bend down too much.

My personal favourite is a long handled cactus bath brush from The Body Shop at £10.

Be careful:

• If you are recovering from skin cancer, please seek medical advice before trying this.
• Do not use the brush on broken skin, rashes, or anything infectious.

Happy brushing!

Lulu x