Superficial grooming is the natural way to remove the crust of dead skin cells that develops at the top of your epidermis.
No masks, abrasives or treatments can compare with your sensitive nails to accomplish this delicate operation.
If the cells aren't dislodged, they pile up and form a coat that thickens all your life, making your skin look dull, unattractive and old-looking.

The goal of pressure grooming is to unfold the skin.
While the objective of superficial grooming is to remove dead skin cells from the top of the epidermis.

Superficial grooming covers only a few aspects of your needs and should not represent more than 5% of your grooming activities.
Your skin is deeply folded and only pressure strokes can open up and flatten the folds.
However, for your nails and fingertips, your skin is immensely vast; it's your body's largest organ.
Superficial grooming lets you cover large areas quickly and detect areas that need pressure grooming.
You will find that you get faster results when you group up to four fingers together and use both hands.

Every day, at the bottom of your epidermis, millions of new skin cells are produced, through mitosis or cell division.
These cells get flattened and hardened as they get pushed up the epidermis by new ones.
The process, called desquamation, takes close to a month.
When they reach the corneal layer, the top of your skin, the cells are dead.

At that point, the dead skin scales are supposed to detach themselves, cell by cell, flake by flake.

Regrettably, the process gives imperfect results and dead skin cells pile up and harden here and there.
Your skin thickens and ages, your folds deepen.

The top of the corneal layer of the epidermis (the one that you see) has to be removed using superficial grooming techniques.

Scraping your skin with your nails, with light to moderate pressure, rakes off the dead cells from the surface.
The cells that you remove are those that show your age and make you less attractive.

Grouping four fingers together to superficially groom your skin goes four times faster than using single-finger strokes (see below).

•1 Align your nails, except the thumb, so that their extremities line up and that they put relatively equal pressure on the skin.

•2 Rake your skin with a back and forth motion.

Only apply a gentle to moderate pressure on your epidermis, mostly during the pulling phase of your gesture.
Vary the pressure depending on the type of skin you meet.
Only pass a few times over a given sector of skin.
Move your grooming hand so that you continuously work on a different area.

Though this stroke resembles scratching, it is much slower and you apply less pressure on your skin.

Some parts of your body are too uneven, small or hard to reach to permit four-finger grooming; so use only one.
Using one single finger is more reliable and safe, mostly when working on delicate or damaged skin.

• Rake your skin with your nail, while moving your hand to cover all the area you want to groom.
• Put very little pressure on your nail; its passage on the skin should be just enough to dislodge dead skin cells.

You generally use the finger you feel the most comfortable with, but sometimes, another finger may be stronger or better angled to do the job.
Though it makes sense to stay longer in problematic places, you might damage the skin if you groom the same sector for too long.
Groom every inch of your body.
The skin under your feet is very sensitive and ticklish. You may prefer using pressure grooming techniques in that area.

You can double the speed of your grooming by using both hands.
Any area large enough to fit two grooming hands side-by-side is a good candidate.

You'll get better results by placing your hands close together and moving them back and forth jointly as a synchronized pair.

Since your body is symmetrical, it makes sense to groom similar locations on both sides at the same time. 

Symmetry occurs when you groom the same places on each side of your body simultaneously.
Groom your left side with your left hand, while grooming your right side with your right hand, except for your arms.

Resort to symmetrical two-handed grooming as much as you can, because it's very effective and easy to execute.

In large, open expanses of skin, where your nails can glide unhindered, you can lengthen your superficial grooming strokes.
Instead of using a short back and forth motion, extend the distance your nails travel by several inches.

Grooming superficially from head to toes is a challenging endeavor.
You can spend several hours doing it if you have enough free time, but for most of us living a regular life, the task has to be done quickly.
Some will prefer grooming their body section by section, when they feel the need to do so.
In the end though, some areas may be practically forgotten and left ungroomed.
My recommendation is that you carry out speedy whole-body superficial grooming sessions.
In order to cover such a large surface, you will have to use broad covering techniques, such as four-finger and two-handed grooming.
Afterwards, you will feel your skin tingle with pleasure for several minutes.

Grooming your skin superficially should become an activity that you perform often.
Reducing the thickness of your corneal layer is a long-term undertaking and it needs to be continuously redone.

Since this work is time consuming, try to;
• Groom while doing something else,
• Find specific times in your daily schedule,
• Use two-handed and extended strokes.

I advise against grooming another person using pressure grooming techniques, but superficial work is OK.
Some portions of the body allow for simultaneous grooming by both performers, but many areas will demand that you take turns.
Make sure the grooming time remains equal for both participants.

While grooming superficially, you rake up dead cells from the top of your epidermis and it only takes a few minutes before the space between your nails and fingertips fills up with the skin you've removed.
This unsightly goo will bear the same color as your tan.
It accumulates and, at some point, it starts hindering the effectiveness of your grooming.
Even if your nails look disgusting, I've not encountered any hygienic or health problem linked to this condition.
The only solution is to periodically visit the nearest sink to wash off the grub.

As you pass your nails over every part of your body while grooming superficially, you will encounter cutaneous problems in many areas.
You may find bumps, holes, folds and all kinds of skin deformations.
In some places, you'll discover pain.
You can switch to pressure grooming and take care of them right away or you can make a mental note of those areas so that you can attend to them later.

Previous page

Next page