Scrubbies!

Oh man.... the Scrubbies!

My mother LIVES by these rough little beasts! For those of you that didn't grow up Point.Five.Korean, or didn't have a Korean Mom at your daily disposal, let me explain.  Korean moms use these to exfoliate their skin in the bath/shower.  Their mitten design (it's like a tiny hand sized pillow case) and rough texture (sandpaper, asphalt, gravel...) allow them to scrub off the top 3 or 4 layers of skin.  The goal is to get as much "dead" skin off as possible to reveal "new" skin that is smooth and soft and red from irritation.

My earliest memories of these so called "Italy cloths" was when I was young enough to share a bath with my older sister -- so YOUNG.  Bath time was at LEAST daily -- as Korean mom's love clean things -- and was a terrifying time.  I dreaded it.  Not that I like to be dirty -- anyone who knows me will know that I love clean, obsessively so -- I dreaded it because it HURT! *cringes at memory* Imagine being plopped down into water that was just a few degrees shy of LAVA HOT.  The water is so unbelievably hot that you can't breath!  You pant like a doggie trying to cool off and don't sit down in the bath -- instead you do a sort of stand/squat combo to find cool relief! 

As if being boiled alive wasn't enough, you were then (even as a small child) asked to offer up a limb at a time to the scrubbie.  You stick out your arm and your Korean Mom latches onto it and started scrubbing and sanding and buffing until your entire arm is red and slightly swollen.  The entire time you're wincing and cringing and huffing and puffing from the combination of scorching water and scrubbie pain! 

Only when the Korean mom is fully satisfied that all layers of skin possible were completely scraped off would she relinquish your arm... only to start the process all over again with another limb -- leg, arm, face... you name it, it's getting SCRUBBED! The sickest part is that now that I'm an adult, I'm a self-inflicting scrubber!!!  

I actually take SCALDING hot showers and SCRUB SCRUB SCRUB until I feel that baby soft skin beneath the first several layers.  I do prefer the long ones though, instead of the mitten ones... I have a yellow one and a blue one like this.

Same sandy texture, only LARGER so you can scrub MORE!

I can't explain it!  My Korean mom's good... real good.   Not only did she pass on her love for scrubbing and all things clean, she did it super ninja sneakily so that I wouldn't even know it was happening until it was too late! Hi I'm half Korean and I'm addicted to scrubbies...  Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

Any other scrubbie addicts or clean freaks out there?  Leave a comment/reply and let me know I'm not alone

Has anyone else suffered through these Korean mom bath time routines?  

Surely, I can't be alone in this...

Leave a comment/reply and let me know  ^_^