I have keratosis pilaris rubra, and the red dots have always been a much bigger problem for me than the bumps themselves. After about 7 years of searching for something that would reduce the inflamation of my KP, I have finally found something that is working. I have tried just about every lotion on the market, from drugstore brands, to dermatologist prescriptions, to specialty formulas like Pearson's Promise and KP Duty. None of these have ever done anything but make my KP look more inflamed and pronounced. I sincerely believe that those of us with KP rubra suffer from a different condition than those with normal KP, as moisturizing seems to exacerbate the appearance of our condition rather than improve it. I'm also sure that as many as 4 out of 5 people with KP rubra would prefer to eliminate the redness in place of the bumps if they had a choice to treat just one or the other. Well, good news. I have finally found something that is treating both. Let me start by saying this is not a cure and it will not eliminate your KP completely, but it has improved the appearance of my arms by at least 50%, and I have only been doing this for 3 weeks. I recently purchased a large book on The Definitive Guide to Alternative Medicine, which is a great read for anyone interested in an alternative approach to modern Western medical practice. In the section on detoxification, the author mentions body brushing as a way to stimulate the lymphatic system and increase the skin's ability to eliminate toxins. The skin is our largest orgin, and it has to work hard to eliminate as much as 2 lbs. of toxins from our body a day. Unfortunately, we typically overload our bodies with more toxins than we can handle due to the nature of our modern lifestyles (processed foods, excessive use of antibiotics and prescription drugs, chemically unsafe hygiene products, environmental pollution, etc.) So I thought, what the heck, maybe the inflammation of my KP is the result of a build up of some specific toxins in my body that my skin is having trouble dealing with. While the liver and kidney cleanses sound like they might do a lot of help, these really require the assistance of a medical professional. The skin brushing, on the other hand, is as easy as it sounds. Use a soft bristle brush (I started with a normal brush with hard plastic bristles) and gently stimulate the skin by making counterclockwise motions across the body. I do this twice a day, once in the morning after my shower, and once again in the evening. I pay special attention to the KP-affected areas of my arms. Within a week, I had noticed significant improvement! The redness of my KP had become visibly less distinct in all areas. In some areas, I could hardly make out the faint red dots. To my surprise, the bumps also are under control, even without the use of any moisturizer whatsoever. That's right, I completely discontinued the use of moisturizer. I still exfoliate in the shower with Neutrogena Pore Reducing Cleanser, but I no longer apply any lotions or creams at all. There's one other thing that I did to accompany this regimen. I stopped using normal deoderent. Most normal deoderents contain aluminum and other nasty chemicals that are quickly absorbed into the skin underneath our arms. I couldn't help but assume that even if this has nothing to do with my KP, it's probably not good for me overall anyway. So, I purchased a natural deoderent with no aluminum or other harmful chemcials in it. There are many brands to choose from, but I am using Nature's Gate. I truly believe that people with KP rubra suffer from the condition due to an excessive amount of unnatural toxins being built up in the body and the more we can do to eliminate the toxins, the less inflamed our KP will become. Maybe this won't work for anyone else, but after 3 weeks, i have seen great improvement. Hope this helps some people!

I think that is awesome! And I agree with you about toxins & the lymphatic system. Often in facial & massage services, lymphatic drainage is done to improve certain physical problems.

I love your idea. My fiance has started using my coconut oil for deoderant and because he had really bad chaffing under his arms because he works so hard. I didnt think that it would work but it does. He doesnt have any oder or wettness. I am wanting to try it because I have heard many times that ingrediants in deoderant have been found in breast cancer lumps. I am wanting to try it but I am going to wait for a day that I do not have to be anywhere in case it doesnt work for me.

I forgot to add that I can see how this would help because it would increase circulation. Now that my kp is starting to go away I can see that it is not red bumps under my skin but the reddness is blood vessels that are very close to the surface of the skin. I can see the little tiny veins around the clogged pores. Can anyone eles see the same thing on the arms? I can see it best right when I get out of the shower.

Yeah...I have heard that too about deodorant being a factor in causing breast cancer. I never would have thought that coconut oil could be used as deodorant. But I am like you...I would do it on a day that I didn't have to go anywhere . I wish I could be like my father...he has never had to use deodorant & never smells, even after working outside. Freaky!

I'm going to try 2x daily brushing on my left leg. I have red dots only, every single hair follicle :-( I'd like to see if it improves compared to my right leg. Thanks for the tip!

I started trying this today and I will keep you updated, I figured why not, it doesnt even cost any money.

Diniega, on a scale from one to ten how bad was your kp to begin with, and what would you rank it now?

Also, how long do you spend working on each area?

On a scale of one to ten, mine was easily a nine (for the upper arms area). It is less pronounced on the backs of my legs and my buttocks. I would say it is now a five or six, which is such a nice improvement after having KP as bad as mine for so long. Also, I spend about 2-3 minutes per arm, as well as doing it for the rest of my body. The whole thing takes about 8-10 minutes. And yes, the best part is it's free (minus the cost of a good soft bristle brush if you don't have one). Finally, this doesn't work in conjunction with moisturizers. You really need to stop using them altogether from what I've found. Exfoliation in the shower, however, is still a good idea. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice, I am currently using extra virgin coconut oil and I really like it so I may try using the EVCO and body brush on one arm and just the body brushing on the other because I am hooked on EVCO.

I used EVCO and it worked nice to smooth the bumps for awhile, but it just made my redness twice as apparent, so I stopped with that. How has it helped your redness?

It has greatly reduced my reddness, by a little over 50%, and has reduced my bumps by about 70%.

i definitively have the kp rubra,,,the bumps is not my problem..is the red spots and redness
I have been without using moustirouzing almost all time since this came to me 3 years ago(with 20, now i have 23), so u can imagine that my problem was not the bumps... but my kp is terrible, red spots in arm forearm chest and back
I use a horse hair thing ( i dont know how to say it in english, i am spanish), and i am just 2 days doing it...and i think its working a bit !!! i dont know if it is becouse of that but these 2 days look better !!
PD: when this came to me...that was the FIRST thing the dermagolist tell me to do, but se told me without knowing what i had(what a dermatologist, i cant understand how can say that from something that 50% has...), but i didnt do it much, and in those days i just had in arms and chest and i didnt care much, so i quit doing it...but every year got worst..and now i re started doingo it becouse of this post and i think its working
Good idea for the ones who have the rubra one.

i have 3 questions:
1)What is a body brush?
2)where do u buy one?
3)what kind of routine to you do with it?

what i use is a horse hair glove, in spanish thats the name i dont know in english, is like a mmmm kind of rope?. the thing is that soft your skin couse drag or pull the dead cells out of your skin... where ti buy it? mmm maybe in a pharmacy, i dont know exactly, and i just massage the kp areas with that in shower...and if i have time in nigth again

I have only just discovered this post and my theory for KP rubra, and even the other KPs, is pure toxicity. I am very excited that someone has brought this up as I feel very strongly that this is a significant cause. A few things have led me to this conclusion:

I am 24 and for 10 years have suffered from KP rubra on my arms and also from hyperhidrosis (extremely excessive perspiration) under the arms. So both conditions started in puberty, when i was 14. I am getting married in 4 months, and very recently started researching on what i could do about my problems - and discovered a information from a young man who had suffered hyperhidrosis for a long time and had recently done a great deal of research and formulated his own plan to stop it - simply stopping the use of soaps or body washes or ANYTHING, EXFOLIATING the armpits with a loofah under running water only, and using a completely natural deodorant with no aluminium and NOT an anti-perspirant. There were hundreds of testimonials from people who said their chronic sweating had stopped completely after two weeks.

This theory made complete sense to me. I would say that i have always had sensitive skin, and for 10 years every day, sometimes twice a day , i was spraying on extremely harsh chemicals that my body obviously considered toxic, on a very porous and sensitive area. So what happened? My sweat glands went into overdrive to pump out and wash away as much of the toxins as possible. Thus making me sweat bucketloads, thus making me spray on MORE chemicals. And the more i sweat, the stronger anti perspirant i would apply. I'm talking hardcore men's 24 hour sports antiperspirants. All i was doing was making my problem so much worse. Such a vicious cycle, and i had no idea.

I have been using this deodorising method for just under a week and while it hasn't stopped yet, it has markedly decreased. I wouldn't expect it to stop straight away, that's 10 years of chemicals in that area that i need to help remove by using the loofah every night.

I'm going to rewind to 3 years ago when i went to Singapore and visited an amazing doctor there with every qualification under the sun, who could look at you and tell you what your problem was without asking a single question. I went for an unrelated issue, and turned out i had extreme lymphatic blockage caused by an overload of oestrogen (my pill had too mcuh and had obviously built up in my system for 3 years). He also said to me to stop using any chemicals on my skin like spray antiperspirants and perfumes - they were making my body toxic. I completely forgot about this until my sister mentioned it the other day when i told her about my sweating breakthrough. It's funny, as kp has also been linked to both lymphatic and hormonal issues.

I really feel now, especially in this last week, that our bodies are extremely sensitive to such chemicals and perhaps other things and hence the redness. It's an inflammatory response which is basically caused by a sensitivity to something. I am sure these two issues of mine are related, especially as they are in such close proximity (i am yet to have the kp on other parts of my body) I am stopping the use of any chemical product on my body, instead i am washing with EVCO and using only the natural deodorant. I am also trying the oil pulling, i started it yesterday. So it's all still new and haven't noticed any improvements with the KP but like i said, that is years worth of toxins my body has to get rid of so i don't expect miracles overnight. I will definitely try the brushing now, as i am sure my lymphatic drainage has never been the best, esp since my 'blockage' 3 years ago. This is all really starting to make sense to me. I am also going to take a whole bunch of supplements and while my diet is more or less sugar and gluten free i will be more regimented about it.

As someone mentioned, this rubra is definitely an INTERNAL problem. Our skin is like a window into our body - something here is out of balance, something is making our body upset and our skin is showing this.

In saying that, i feel that this is the answer for MY body as all the pieces of this bizarre puzzle are starting to fit together for me. KP seems to be such an individual thing, which is why all these different things are working for different people. But if you have similar issues to mine, ESPECIALLY the hyperhidrosis, please consider the chemical factor - this could be the cause of kp for YOU, and it seems that by eliminating the above factors, perhaps it might eliminate KP also.

Let me know what you all think of this, especially if anyone has a perspiration problem ASWELL... i am really interested to know if there is a correlation here.

Cheers everyone