Whether your personal preference is taking a bath or a shower, for many people there’s nothing like a good back scrub. However, it’s actually quite difficult to give yourself a really good thorough back exfoliation if you’re on your own.
Unless your significant other or close family member is on hand every time you wash, you may find yourself uncomfortably contorting in your back scrub attempts. Trying to make your elbows throw shapes that they were never intended to isn’t much fun—for them or for you!
What’s needed here, if we’re going to do the job right, is a good back scrubber—one that doesn’t eat into your salary! The problem is that there are so many different makes and models on the market, so it can be hard to decide which one is right for you.
We’ve been getting down and dirty in the shower to find out which scrubber can claim the title of best back scrubber! We’ve looked at what a back scrubber does and how it helps your skin and also reviewed five of our top back scrubbers to see how they work in practice.
So with a bit of luck, your back can look forward (pun intended…sorry!) to a nice treat while you scrub your way to lustrous skin!
What Is a Back Scrubber?
A back scrubber is a piece of equipment designed for reaching those…well…hard to reach places! They come in different forms—some are made up of lengths of fabric, often dual sided so you can choose between a good stimulating scrub or a softer, more gentle approach.
Other back scrubbers consist of an exfoliating material attached to a long wooden handle which makes it easy to reach your back. These also take different forms—they can include boar bristles and other natural or synthetic fibres or wooden nodules.
As for fabric back scrubbers, some of these handle style back scrubbers are also dual sided. For example, a boar bristle brush on one side for skin brushing and exfoliation and wooden nodules on the opposite side for a more gentle massaging effect.
Who Needs a Back Scrubber?
Really, unless you have super-mobile wrist, elbow and shoulder joints, you need a back scrubber—it’s really hard to reach your entire back without one. No matter which type of back scrubber you use, all of them make it much easier to reach every part of your back and ensure you give it a really good clean.
Most back scrubbers have an abrasive surface that does a really good job of exfoliating the back. This is great for everyone, but is especially useful for people who suffer from ‘bacne’—the buzzword for acne breakouts on the back.
Why Use a Back Scrubber?
Exactly as happens on the face and other areas of the body, pores get clogged up with dust, dirt and tiny flakes of dead skin as part of everyday life. This means that the oil in pores, which normally seeps out and helps to moisturise the skin gets trapped inside. This can lead to inflammation, zits and blackheads.
Regular cleansing and exfoliation helps to keep the skin on your back clean, removing any dirt and debris and allowing the pores to operate normally. A couple of weeks into a good back scrubbing routine, many people notice a significant difference—fewer breakouts, and beautifully soft skin that anyone would be proud to show off in a bikini at the beach.
Other benefits of regular exfoliation can include improving the effectiveness of topical medication and increased collagen production, which helps keep skin looking younger.
Below you can see an entertaining, practical demonstration of how to care for back skin, including the use of one type of back scrubber in combination with skin cleansers:
Precautions for Use
According to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), regular exfoliation to remove the debris and dirt is a great way to improve the health, look, and feel of your skin. They also note, however that the various types of exfoliation might not work for everyone. In fact, some types of exfoliation can actually make matters worse for some individuals.
So when planning your exfoliation technique and considering which type of exfoliation you’d like to use, it’s important to consider your particular skin type, and monitor what happens to your skin when you start to exfoliate.
If your chosen method works for you, and you start to notice improvements in the quality of your skin, then great—you found what works for you. In contrast, if your skin seems to be irritated, inflamed or generally more sensitive than usual, it could be that you haven’t picked the right method for you.
In this case, if using a back scrubber is the only change you’ve made to your skincare routine, stop using it and see whether or not your skin improves. Give your skin time to settle down and recover, then consider trying a different method of back scrubbing.
The AAD recommends that if you’re really struggling to find the right method for you, or if you have a specific skin condition which affects your back, the best plan of action is to consult a board-certified dermatologist for advice.
What Is the Best Back Scrubber?
We’ve been going backwards and forwards and round in circles—a bit like a back scrubber, really—to have a good look at all the different back scrubbers currently on the market.
All the research and investigation wasn’t in vain; we’ve come up with what we think are five of the best products to get your back squeaky clean and glowing with radiance. All five have been put through their paces in the bathroom, and we’ve listed the pros and cons of each so you can find the best back scrubber for you.
Our Choice
Unless you’re a contortionist, one of the challenges nearly all of us face is how to get to those hard to reach places when we’re in the shower or the bath. Commonly, it’s the back that’s one of the hardest places to reach and get a really good scrub.
Thankfully manufacturers have come up with some different options that we can use to cleanse and exfoliate the skin on the back. All of the different products we reviewed had lots of positive points and advantages. Nearly everyone had something positive to say about every product.
This made it quite a task to choose the overall best back scrubber. The one that really stood out and got people talking was the Salux Nylon Japanese Beauty Skin Back Scrubber Wash Cloth. Consumers were surprised at how big this cloth is, and many thought the level of abrasiveness was great for using not only on their back, but also on sensitive areas like the face.
In terms of practicality, performance and ease of care, this abrasive cloth impressed a huge amount of people. Users felt that the cloth would last for a long time, and almost everyone thought that this was the best back scrubber as well as fantastic value for money.
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