So You Want to Do Lymphatic Drainage at Home?
A year ago, my pre-gym morning routine included skin care, an LED light mask, and journaling. Over the past six months, I’ve added one more step: shaking my body up on a vibration plate. I’ll admit, social media sucked me in. Vibration plates are just one of the many at-home lymphatic-drainage trends we’ve seen on TikTok. My FYP is constantly showing me before-and-after images of people using lymphatic facial brushes and recommending the best lymphatic massages in the city.
By now, I’ve deemed myself a lymphatic-massage obsessive. Whenever I fly to Los Angeles, Flavia Lanini, masseuse to Hailey Bieber and Kim Kardashian, is the first person I see. I’ve even gotten a lymphatic massage in South Korea that left me without cellulite for an entire month. I’m so deep in my fixation with lymphatic drainage that I recently did a form of liquid lipo on my body at Renuev Sculpting Spa, which has been my go-to for massages lately.
Of course, I do my due diligence at home to support those professional treatments whenever I can. If you can’t always make it to a professional but want to take lymphatic drainage more seriously, I’ve rounded up a few tools I’ve personally tested and found effective with consistent use, along with answers to some frequently asked questions.
Best Dry Brushes
Brushes are an effective tool for drainage, not only for the face, but for the body too. Dry-brushing is great for the skin because it works as an exfoliator, and the pressure of the bristles also stimulates the lymphatic system and promotes circulation. Even Tracee Ellis Ross dry-brushes her body while flying.
Light pressure works best with this tool. “The biggest mistake is using too much pressure. The lymphatic system is a superficial network of vessels that sits just beneath the skin, unlike deeper muscles. Lymphatic drainage is designed to stimulate these surface vessels with slow, light, rhythmic movements,” VanHall explains.
More Tools for the Body
Renuev Spa founder Andrea Velez follows her manual lymphatic massages with wood therapy as her signature technique. It’s a skill I usually trust only a professional with, but there are simpler contouring tools I use to massage my body at home. Gentle massages along lymphatic pathways release fascia restrictions while relieving muscle tension (a game changer post-workout) and improving circulation.
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