Once you’ve settled on a shade, New York City colorist Aura Friedman, whose clients include everyone from Carolyn Murphy to Caroline Polachek and Sky Ferreira, says the only rule for dyeing your eyebrows is to match warm tones with warm tones, cool with cool. That, and be prepared to return to the salon at least once every four weeks.
Dry Brushing is an Ayurvedic medicine practice that consists of using a brush with firm natural bristles to brush the body in wide circular motions with a light pressure, starting at the feet and working your way up the body. Dry brushing offers benefits like exfoliating and detoxifying the skin, as it helps to unclog the pores and increase blood circulation, promoting lymphatic drainage.
This ancient practice, or garshana (pronounced gar-shun-uh), is essentially a dry body massage done with a bristle brush. It is done on dry skin before showering.
When dry brushing, both the skin and brush are dry which allows the bristles to remove dead skin from the top layer, revealing a newer layer of skin. The exfoliation and stimulation gives your body a glow, while temporary, causes the skin to appear more radiant and vibrant. It’s recommended to limit the activity to one to two times per week, being gentle as to avoid any moles, cuts and sores, or areas of the skin with eczema or psoriasis.
Aside from a beautiful glow, dry brushing is also said to help reduce the appearance of cellulite. Does it really, though? There isn’t scientific research that backs up the claims that dry brushing helps reduce the appearance of cellulite. It’s highly likely that the gentle massaging that’s stimulating blood flow and lymphatic drainage are helping to reduce the appearance of cellulite. With this in mind, massaging without dry brushing can be completed much more often and may help to provide visible results much faster than dry brushing alone.
What are the ladies saying?
I’ve tried dry brushing but did not stick with it, because honestly – I’m impatient and it hurt! I don’t know too many people who willingly continue to do a thing they aren’t enjoying. After talking to some friends, I’ve heard mixed opinions – that dry brushing did give them a beautiful glow, but that glow was short lived, another mentioned she went to a doctor who advised that dry brushing may age the skin faster, as it causes microtears in the skin. A third friend mentioned that she feels she may have become more toned from dry brushing, but admitted she has also been incorporating collagen and has had a better diet.
I personally love to exfoliate in the shower with exfoliating gloves, killing three birds with one stone. With exfoliating gloves, I can exfoliate the skin, give myself a massage and improve the skin by using cleansers that target skin concerns. I also find that I can exfoliate more surface area than I can with a brush, simultaneously addressing ingrown hairs. I also think I may be biased towards chemical exfoliants like AHA’s and BHA’s.
What are your thoughts? Have you tried dry brushing? Is this something you’ve incorporated into your self-care skin routine?
What do you think?