Dry body brushing: too harsh?

[fingerling]

Hello, I have a query about dry body brushing.

I use a cactus bristle brush, and tend to brush, starting at the feet and working towards the heart, just before having a shower (no soap, etc) in the morning. The friction creates a sensational feeling and wakes the body right up (especially on cold mornings!).

I’ve not seen any literature on any adverse effects of dry body brushing, but I was wondering if it might be considered to be too harsh/stripping on the skin itself. Any advice would be much appreciated.

[RRM]

It seems a bit harsh to me.
What we should do, is remove the dead skin cells, and not the ones that are still very much alive, so that you need to find a gentle way.

[fingerling]

Thanks RRM. I will try and dry brush less often. I dont think that the way I do it breaks the skin in any way and it seems to only remove the dead skin layer. However, I see your point - and to be honest, I probably dont need to do such vigorous things to my skin if it is healthy anyway.

[Marty]

I think that daily shaving (of the face) for men is also quite harsh, is it not?

[RRM]

For my skin it definitely is. Whatever I try, I always get red 'rashes' from it, so I usually just trim my beard as short as I can, and I therefore always have a 3-days-beard-look.
I guess that shaving will always remove more cells than when they would shed naturally.

[Marty]

Ah, that is interesting.

It recently dawned on me (because the few times I shave my legs it is an almost unbelievable harshness; and has seemed more so since starting this diet) that men must have a very hard time navigating the shoals of having facial hair, on this diet.

Shaving is very harsh; yet without shaving the face, there are so many issues of cleaning the hair on the face; applying oil, etc.

It just dawned on me as a woman that this was a whole new universe of something to work with, and around....

RESPECT!

[RRM]

You are right, it IS harder on this diet.
The reason: on a normal diet your skin retains more water, which is protective regarding blows, rubbing, shaving etc.

[avo]

On that note, my skin in general is more 'fragile' to rough bumps, knicks and scrapes. Not just the face, but hands, arms, etc. Not overly sensitive, but if I scrape myself on something somewhat sharp, it usually breaks the skin a bit. It may be normal, but I recall my skin being tougher a year or two ago, now it is baby-soft.

[RRM]

Thats exactly what I mean, and its generally true for people on this diet. The protective 'airbag' in your skin is gone ('waterbag' actually).

[Marty]

The first two months of the diet, which was summertime, I was in agony at night-- scratching while asleep-- from shaving just my lower legs lightly once a week.

I thought I had a terrible infestation of skin mites or something. My legs became raw from scratching, even though I was shaving using coconut oil, and then adding walnut oil afterwards. But it was hot and dry in the sun, and I was in airconditioning at night.

It really took awhile to know how to treat the skin-- and to get a much better razor, and learn to use it infrequently--- even knowing in advance that my skin was more sensitive, I still underestimated how much more sensitive it was.

[huntress]

Hey Marty

I have the same problem as you do from shaving my legs no matter which blade I use. But I found a better way to keep my legs smooth without going through the agony of having a coarse and itchy skin: waxing! I use an organic and all-natural water-base wax so it is pretty safe on the skin.

Well hey...maybe you can use it to wax your beard off too RRM? But keep it since winter is coming and beards work as a natural insulator for the face so at least you get to keep your face warm while we ladies freeze our faces off. Plus, I think stubbles are sexy!

[RRM]

maybe you can use it to wax your beard off too RRM?

ouch!!!

I think stubbles are sexy!

phew..., that sounds better!