There is no alternative to shower for being fresh. It not only removes dirt and impurities but also eliminates stress and fatigue. An effective shower acts as a recharger for every man and woman.
And to make a shower effective some shower tools are necessary such as loofah, brush, scrubber, sponge, and lots more. All these tools make us confused because we cannot decide what should use for a bath or shower especially when we need to do exfoliation.
Anyway, today I tried to compare the popular body scrubber natural loofah with other shower tools. Hope this post will help you to pick the right exfoliating tools to make your shower effective.
Let’s scroll down.
Natural Loofah
Loofah is a well-known vegetable in Asia. This plant is commonly known as the loofah gourd. Usually, we are familiar with two types of loofah. One is Luffa acutangula commonly known as an angled loofah.
Another one is Luffa aegyptiaca commonly known as sponge gourd. Angled loofah has some vines from top to bottom and the sponge gourd is rounded. That’s why the sponge gourd is used for exfoliation.
Natural loofah is collected when it is fully mature and ripe. A loofah fruit mesh gets stiff when ripe. Then the loofah mesh is extracted from the dry loofah, seeds are removed from inside, washed and dried properly, and finally cut into different pieces to use.
Usages
There are countless usages of natural loofah. We usually used it to exfoliate the body. Different type of loofah is available to exfoliate different part of the body. It includes facial loofah, body loofah, back scrubber, and more. You should not use one loofah for another purpose.
Besides body scrubbing, loofahs are also used for other purposes including dish cleaning and bathroom floor cleaning. But don’t use the same one. Do you have any greenish buildup at the bottom part outside the building? You can use a loofah to remove them as well.
Loofah is a natural scrubber, and you can use it to scrub almost anything.
Benefits of Using Loofa as Body Scrubber
Great Exfoliator
Loofah is a nice and effective tool to exfoliate your body. You can easily remove dust, dirt, dead skin cells, excess oils, etc. to keep your skin fresh and breathable. It also stimulates blood circulation and helps to rejuvenate skin.
Promotes Healing on Skin Conditions
It prevents acne formation by opening up the skin pores and eliminating bacteria. It also works great on some skin conditions like psoriasis, eczema, breakouts, and cellulite.
Safe for Skin
Natural loofah is completely skin-friendly as it doesn’t contain any chemicals and toxic elements. It is not too hard for skin, even it swells up and turns soft when wet. That’s why you need to wet it first for 2-3 minutes before use.
Eco-Friendly
Nowadays plastic is an alarming threat to our environment. And artificial loofah isn’t out of that list. When anyone through artificial loofah after use, it causes harm to the environment. A synthetic sponge takes 52000 years to decompose. Can you imagine how horrible it is?
Demerits of Natural Loofah
As a natural and biodegradable product, it lasts less than synthetic loofah. You can use one loofah maximum couple of months. You can also increase the duration a little more if you clean and dry it properly.
Another problem of a wet natural loofah is it is prone to bacterial attack. If you store it in a damp place, there are chances to develop mold on the loofah. To avoid this always dry under open sun after use.
Hope, this information help you have a clear idea about natural loofah. Now I will tell you the difference between a natural loofah and other shower tools. Let’s see.
Natural Loofah Vs Hands
Sorry, hands are not actually a shower tool. We use hands to apply soap, body wash, shampoo, and do exfoliation. It is unusual to hear, but you can use your hands to clean your body.
It is a common practice in Asia and its surroundings where the weather is warm and humid. Here people use their hands to rub some parts of the body to remove dust and dead skin cells from it.
To do so, you need to wet your body first and wait for five minutes to let the impurities soft enough. Now rub the skin with hand palm and fingers. You need to put some pressure while rubbing.
Within a few moments, you will see some ashy substance come off the skin surface. It is a combination of dead skin cells and dust. This method works on some specific body parts like the upper side of hands, arms, shoulders, neck, chest, belly, ankle, and forefoot.
But, it isn’t possible to exfoliate the entire body with hands. Also, it doesn’t clean your skin pores. So, for deep exfoliation and cleaning, you need to take help from loofah and natural loofah is great in this task. I will suggest you use both hands and loofah for exfoliation.
Read Also: Best Exfoliating Loofah for Men’s Tough Skin
Natural Loofah Vs Body Brush
A body brush is another great tool for a shower. Another common use of body brush is dry brushing. It is available with or without a handle. It is usually made with soft bristles mounted on a wooden base.
Body brush provides softer exfoliation compared to all types of loofah including natural loofah. The key benefit of a body brush is its pore cleansing capacity. Its soft and needle-like bristles remove impurities from deep pores.
You can use a body brush for dry brushing. It removes flaky skin and loose dirt from the skin surface. Dry brushing is also recommended for cellulite reduction. On the flip side, loofah either it is natural or artificial, is not suitable for dry brushing.
For overall exfoliation, natural loofah is great. But, for deep pore cleansing, there is no alternative to brush. Now it is your choice what to use. For me! I will use both of them separately.
Natural Loofah Vs Bath Pouf
The efficacy of natural loofah and bath pouf is almost the same. And the term ‘loofah’ is usually used for both of them. They work well to buff away the dead skin cells from your skin. If you love to shower with huge lather, bath pouf is much better than natural loofah.
But, in terms of skin safety, natural products are appreciable. And it is also environment-friendly. Another drawback of bath pouf is dead skin cells and skin dust may be stuck inside it which is very hard to clean, almost impossible.
Sometimes the stitching of the bath loofah may tear up which makes it unusable. Natural loofah is safe to use but you have to dry it properly after use. Otherwise, there are chances of bacterial attack.
You can use anything between a natural loofah and bath pouf, your choice is always appreciable.
Natural Loofah Vs Sponge
A bath sponge is a great shower tool for softer exfoliation. It creates a huge lather with a minimum amount of soap or body wash. The sponge helps to make your skin soft and supple. It also gives your skin a moist feel.
Natural loofah is recommended to use twice a week. You can increase its frequency thrice if you want, but not more than that. Otherwise, it will damage your skin surface.
In the case of exfoliation, the sponge is comparatively safer than loofah. You can use it daily without any hesitation. It washes away the daily dust from your skin. But, if you want to remove the dead skin cells and stubborn dirt, you should move to the natural loofah.
Another drawback of the sponge is, it is not eco-friendly. Don’t worry, if you want to use an eco-friendly sponge, use a sea sponge. It gives you the exact same benefits that you get from a synthetic sponge. The only thing sea sponge can not pass against synthetic sponge is the durability.
Natural Loofah Vs Washcloth
In the case of exfoliation, both natural loofah and washcloth give it differently. I think a washcloth is a better cleansing tool rather than exfoliation. It gives you light exfoliation suitable for the face, neck, and decollate.
A unique point of a washcloth is it works well with bar soap than any other shower tool. It helps the bar soap to create a rich lather. Also, you can use shower gel or body wash with a washcloth.
A washcloth is much easier to clean and lasts longer than a natural loofah. But for a full-body intense exfoliation washcloth isn’t as good as a natural loofah. So, you have to decide first when should use them.
Natural Loofah Vs Body Scrub
There is no doubt that body scrub is awesome for exfoliation. Its tiny granules easily remove the toughest impurities from your skin. It works really great on whiteheads, blackheads, and clogged pores. Besides exfoliation, body scrub delivers essential nutrients to the skin to improve its overall condition.
Using body scrub once or twice a month for a spa bath is OK. But, compared to a natural loofah, if you want to use a body scrub twice a week for full body exfoliation, you will lose all your money very soon. Because you need to use almost a jar for full-body exfoliation once. That’s why natural loofah is cost-effective compared to body scrub.
Another drawback of body scrub is, you can not use it to exfoliate your back by yourself. On the other hand, a handled natural loofah can do this job very easily.
Natural Loofa and Pumice Stone
Pumice stone is a hard, porous, and abrasive rock piece. Usually, it comes in an oval shape. Pumice stone is great for scrubbing the hardest skin part of the body like heels and bottom of the feet.
It effectively removes the heel cracks, corn, callused skin, etc. But it is not suitable for complete body exfoliation, even you should not use a pumice stone to scrub forefoot.
On the flip side, a natural loofah is a nice tool for full-body exfoliation. You can also use it to exfoliate the feet and heels, but the result would not be as good as a pumice stone. For foot care, pumice stone or foot file is much better than natural loofah.
The Last Words
Hope this post will help to distinguish between the natural loofah and other shower tools. Now you have to decide which shower tool you need to use to meet your specific needs. Because, after everything, only your comfort gets the highest priority.