A Simple Skin Exfoliation Technique that Really Works

Advice from a Massage Therapist

There's a lot of talk about exfoliation. You hear it touted in commercials, magazine articles and ads, and just a stroll down the beauty aisle at a drugstore can make your head spin with the hundreds of facial, body, salt, and sugar scrubs-the microbeads, brushes, loofahs, fruit peels, and even DIY microdermabrasion kits and tools, can be quite intimidating and confusing.

What's all the fuss about? Well, confusion and marketing aside, there is a reason for all the fanfare-exfoliation is a healthy and essential practice for your skin. It is simply the removal of dead skin cells (and the impurities therein) by the use of some kind of friction. Exfoliation is essential to proper skin care, and a step to optimal general health. The skin is an organ of elimination, and when excessive dead skin is present, it can inhibit the body's natural detoxifying abilities. Exfoliation also provides a clean slate-a fresh layer of new, living skin cells--allowing for maximum penetration of your daily skin care products and special treatments like facials.

Exfoliation should be part of your daily skin care routine. It really makes a discernable difference in appearance, and feel. After years of experience, I can usually tell if someone exfoliates based on appearance only. Upon touching skin, I can always tell. Regularly exfoliated skin is many times more youthful, soft, and resilient than non exfoliated skin. It is my experience that most people do not exfoliate enough, and many people never do. Some people have so much built up dead skin that it comes off in large clumps and rolls while they are receiving a massage. It can also build up and form harder, bumpy areas. Soap and water does not provide enough friction to remove all dead skin cells and trapped debris. So, unless you are exfoliating properly, you are not getting completely and truly clean.

Luckily, it is easy, and you don't need to spend any money, or navigate that scrub aisle at Walgreens, to get results. There is a simple, natural, and free technique that I believe provides the ultimate in exfoliation.

Ultimate Exfoliation Technique

What you will need: