Body wraps designed to help you lose weight and condition your skin are a popular service offered at many health and day spas. However, having a body wrap performed professionally can be prohibitively expensive. You can purchase at-home body wrap kits or prepare the body wrap solution yourself and do the wrap in the comfort of your home -- alone or with a few friends -- for a fraction of the cost and with comparable results.
Aspects
During a body wrap treatment, cloths or towels that have been thoroughly soaked in a body wrap solution are wrapped snugly around your legs, arms, stomach, chest and neck. You are then covered with a plastic sheet, blanket or heavy cloth and left to rest for approximately an hour. The sheet and cloths are then removed and the wrap mixture is washed off in a warm bath or shower. Body wraps are performed for a number of reasons -- to tighten loose skin, improve skin tone and texture, draw toxins and impurities out of body tissues, improve circulation and boost your immune system -- but the most popular reason is to help you lose weight and inches, especially around your waist, thighs and abdomen.
How it Works
Body wraps are thought to cause weight loss and give you a slimmer, sleeker appearance in three ways. First, the tightly wrapped cloths and the herbs, essential oils and clays used in the body wrap mixture are believed to stimulate toxic substances -- often accompanied by excess body fluids -- to leave the body through the skin. Second, the body heat trapped beneath the body wrap cloths causes you to sweat and allows you to rid your body of the fluid trapped between your tissues and cells, a non-essential fluid called interstitial fluid. Lastly, the pressure of the wrapped cloths pushes your cells closer together, reducing the appearance of cellulite and giving your body and limbs a more compact, thinner look.
Body Wrap Kits
To perform a simple and relatively inexpensive body wrap at home, you can purchase a commercial body wrap kit. These kits, such as the ones provided by the Wrap Yourself Slim site, can range from containing everything you need for the body wrap to just the body wrap solution. For instance, comprehensive body wrap kits may contain a tub of body wrap mixture, elastic cloths, a skin brush for exfoliation before conducting your body wrap treatment, a body suit to wear during the wrap and a fill-in table to track your body measurements before and after the wrap. One of the most prominent benefits of purchasing a commercial body wrap kit is that each kit provides reusable cloths and enough body wrap mixture for a number of wraps. Since the weight loss and slimming results of a body wrap diminish over time without repeated body wraps, a commercial body wrap kit is an affordable way to maintain your results. Typical kits at Wrap Yourself Slim cost about $140 to $170 plus shipping.
Homemade Body Wraps
Although commercial body wraps are less expensive than professionally performed body wraps at a spa, making your own body wrap solution is even cheaper. Body wrap formulas usually consist of three main ingredients -- clay, water and an additional herb, essential oil, oil or salt -- but an infinite variety of wrap mixtures can be blended into the basic clay and water concoction. The clays used are either bentonite or green clay and the most commonly used powdered herbs include chamomile flower, calendula, rosehips, basil, fennel seed, rose petal and alfalfa leaf. Essential oils such as sage, lemon, lavender, grapefruit, rosemary and lemongrass are also popular additions. Sea salt or Epsom salt may be added to aid detoxification, and you can swap the water for another fluid such as milk, buttermilk, glycerin or witch hazel, if you wish.
Considerations
Realize that conducting an at-home body wrap is inexpensive but can also be time-consuming and messy. Before having your do-it-yourself spa treatment, be sure to set aside ample time to prepare the ingredients and items you'll need and to lay towels or plastic sheeting on the floor of the rooms you will perform the wrap in and on the bed or couch where you'll rest after the wrap is applied.
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