Dry brushing for cellulite: learn why it doesn't work

February 29, 2024 Beachy Legs

Dry brush, body brush, cellulite brush, whatever you name it, it only works for exfoliation, nothing else

Does dry brushing help cellulite?
Dry brushing: the yearly springtime cellulite removal delusion
Using the body brush for lymphatic drainage
Even plain massage with your hands is far better than skin brushing, so why waste your time and money to apply an inferior massage with a body brush?
Dry brushing for cellulite: working in the wrong way
Dry brushing for cellulite: working on the wrong skin layer
Body brushing for cellulite cream absorption?
Whatever reason you use it for, do not become overzealous with the “cellulite brush”
Have you ever wondered why more and more women complain about sensitive skin? It’s called too much exfoliation.
Hyperpigmentation from excessive body brushing
Dry brushing cellulite before and after pictures
Skin brushing with coconut oil
Flushing out the cellulite/toxins with dry brushing
Have a real cellulite treatment in London with the cellulite specialists

Does dry brushing help cellulite?

Dry brushing (aka skin brushing or body brushing) for cellulite is the immediate, go-to advice by “beauty experts” the world over.

“You want to reduce cellulite at home? Hey, dry brush! BTW, here is a list of overpriced body brushes below, for you to consume…”

But does this advice stand to scrutiny? Will dry brushing the cellulite make it go away?

Read all below.

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Dry brushing: the yearly springtime cellulite removal delusion

Every year, come spring, millions of women get misled by countless articles, on the web and in print, that suggest "dry brushing" as a method to help you "rid of" cellulite.

In the past, due to our limited knowledge of the problem, cellulite was assumed to be just a circulation and lymphatic drainage impairment.

That assumption lead to the myth that manual lymphatic drainage massage (MLD) can "get rid of" cellulite.

Or to the even more ludicrous claim that dry/body brushing, which alegedly helps with lymphatic drainage, can also achieve the same thing.

Using the body brush for lymphatic drainage

However, this could not be further from the truth.

Dry - or even wet - skin brushing is not even a valid lymphatic drainage method. This is because all that skin brushing can do is exfoliate the skin. And that's all. Not much else.

If you follow the direction of the lymph flow when you dry brush your skin, you may be able to achieve a VERY WEAK lymphatic drainage effect.

However, that doesn't even come close enough to the strong, cellulite-specific lymphatic stimulation massage needed to significantly boost the body's natural lymphatic drainage and blood circulation.

And it doesn’t even come close to the systematic manual lymphatic drainage achieved by a good pressotherapy machine.

In fact, dry brushing does not even come close to the lymphatic drainage achieved by your very own hands and a tiny bit of oil.

Even plain massage with your hands is far better than skin brushing

The truth is that normal upward massage movements with your lovely hands and a little bit of oil will do a far better job at boosting circulation and lymphatic drainage than dry skin brushing.

And use a plain oil, don’t be a victim and spend £30 for those ridiculously overpriced 30ml oils.

And if you alternate those upward movements with some strong skin kneading with your fingers and palms you will give your legs a ten times better massage than with a "body brush".

So why waste your time and money to apply an inferior massage with a body brush?

Dry brushing for cellulite: working in the wrong way

In fact, you would need to bring your skin to the point of bleeding from all the dry brushing, if you were to provide the same results as a strong cellulite massage, provided by yourself or by a therapist.

This is because skin brushing is just exfoliation and exfoliation does nothing for cellulite and lymphatic drainage.

As we discussed above, dry brushing is not an effective lymphatic massage method and besides, lymphatic massage itself is not that amazing for cellulite, anyway

Don't waste your time and energy doing the wrong things.

Dry brushing for cellulite: working on the wrong skin layer

Dry brushing literally scrapes off the epidermis, i.e. the top layer of the skin, while for cellulite reduction the hypodermis (i.e. the bottom layer of the skin) needs to be manipulated.

Totally wrong skin layer.

Dry brushing is yet another example of the many cellulite "cures" (microneedling, coffee scrubs, exfoliation, bipolar RF, lasers etc) that involve working on the epidermis (most superficial skin layer, 0.1-2.2mm depth) to treat the exact opposite layer of the skin (deepest skin layer, 3-30mm depth).

It is a bit naive to believe that with a 10-minute, superficial exfoliation of the epidermis you can treat deep tissues on the hypodermis, which 60-minute, deep, professional cellulite massages treat with difficulty.

That’s wishful thinking at its worst.

Body brushing for cellulite cream absorption?

In summary, dry brushing for cellulite is a waste of time, no matter what the ‘beauty editors’ say.

However, if you have bought into the hype and purchased a body brush, all is not lost.

Dry skin brushing can still be used to exfoliate the skin prior to applying a good, concentrated cellulite cream, so at least you can use your “cellulite brush” to boost the effectiveness of a more valid cellulite reduction method.

Just do the body brushing first, have a warm shower afterwards (not the other way around) to remove the dead skin cells from the surface or your skin and to open the pores and then apply the cream.

And don’t brush more than 5-10 minutes.

More dry brushing is not better, it’s injurious to the skin.

Whatever reason you use it for, do not become overzealous with the “body brush”

Mother nature gave you an epidermis for a reason: to protect your skin from external aggressions:

Natural and artificial chemicals
High/low temperatures
UV/infrared light
Mechanical damage
Transepidermal water loss (TEWL), i.e. skin dryness
Protection from bacteria

…to name but a few.

If, with daily or aggressive dry brushing / exfoliation, you continuously slough off your ‘stratum corneum’ (i.e. the so called ‘dead skin cells’, what a stupid name for something so useful), skin allergies and sensitivities are guaranteed to follow.

Have you ever wondered why more and more women complain about sensitive skin? It’s called ‘too much exfoliation’.

Yes, quite often sensitive skin is the result of constant exfoliation, the cheap trick to look beautiful for a day or two (another favourite of beauty “experts”).

Frequent chemical peels, AHA serum applications, ablative laser treatments, dermaplaning, microdermabrasion, microblading, dermablading, dry brushing and the like destroy the epidermis, consequently opening the door for allergies and sensitivities.

But that is hot material for another article.

Hyperpigmentation from excessive body brushing

In fact, a few days before first first writing this article I treated a client who caused quite severe skin damage to her thigh skin with intensive dry brushing.

Her skin was dry and visibly damaged and also suffered from post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, as a result of skin damage from too much body brushing.

All in all, dry brushing is not smart:

When you do it lightly, nothing happens (for cellulite, at least)
When you do it vigorously, you get skin damage

So do it lightly for gentle exfoliation, once in a while.

And that’s it.

Dry brushing cellulite before and after pictures

A lot of women look for before and after pictures of something that does not have a chance in hell in working.

So the end result of such a search would be to find fake “before and after” cellulite pictures (as is the case with 95% of so-called “before and after” cellulite pictures on the web, instagram and tiktok).

Don’t be naive and fall for fake.

Skin brushing with coconut oil

Some people use “dry brushing” for “cellulite removal” with coconut oil, whose addition actually actually makes it “wet brushing”.

Oh well…

Just to say that coconut oil does NOT help with cellulite, either applied externally or taken internally. And combining it with brushing is a total waste of time: no real massage effect and not even exfoliation.

However, if you apply some coconut oil in your hands, you can indeed give a nice massage to your legs, as mentioned above.

But you don’t necessarily need coconut oil for that - any decent oil will do.

Flushing out the cellulite/toxins with dry brushing

As explained above, dry brushing is not even a valid method for lymphatic drainage so it does not flush out any “toxins”.

Furthermore, cellulite itself is a tissue, an integral part of the deeper layers of skin itself, not something that can be flushed down the toilet by brushing the most superficial skin layer.

You cannot, and even if you could you should not, “flush out the cellulite” through your kidneys and into the toilet (thank goodness this is biologically impossible).

Phrases such as “flush out the cellulite” are just vacuous beauty writer talk and mean absolutely nothing.

Have a real cellulite treatment in London with the cellulite specialists

At LipoTherapeia we have specialised 100% in skin tightening and cellulite reduction for more than two decades and 20,000+ sessions.

This is all we study and practise every day and have researched and tried hands-on all the important skin tightening equipment and their manufacturers.

As strong, deep acting radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation are the technologies of choice for skin tightening and cellulite reduction, we have invested in the best RF/ultrasound technologies in the world.

Furthermore, over the last two decades we have developed advanced treatment protocols in order to make the most of our technologies, for maximum results, naturally and safely.

Our radiofrequency/ultrasound treatments are comfortable, pain-free, downtime-free, injection-free, microneedling-free, 99.5%+ safe and always non-invasive.

And our focus is on honest, realistic, science-based treatment, combined with caring, professional service with a smile.

We will be pleased to see you, assess you, listen to your story, discuss your case and offer you the best possible treatment.

There are five ways to start treatment with us:

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