Round Loofah Pad with Cotton Terry Back and Hand Strap

A round pad covers more ground per stroke than an oval one. At 16.5 cm across and 20 g, this disc has roughly a third more working surface than our oval pad — and on a shoulder or a thigh, that is the difference between four passes and three.

The front face is dried loofah — the fibrous skeleton left behind when a Luffa aegyptiaca fruit matures and dries out. The back is cotton terry, with a single diagonal cotton strap sewn across it. Slip your fingers under the strap and the pad stays put without being gripped; because the shape is circular, it works the same in either hand and at any angle you turn it.

A cotton loop at the edge is there for hanging. The whole perimeter is bound with cream cotton bias tape, which is what stops the cut edge of the loofah from fraying — the detail that decides whether a loofah pad lasts three weeks or falls apart in one.

Loofah works by abrasion, and it works with soap. Soak the pad in warm water for half a minute first: the fibre is stiff when dry and softens as it takes on water, so how firm it feels is up to you. Then work a bar of soap or a little body wash into it and use it on damp skin.

Turn it over and the terry face is a washcloth: lather, rinse, or a gentler pass over skin you have just worked. Two surfaces, one pad.

The larger face suits the broader areas — shoulders, thighs, chest, upper arms. If you want something smaller and more directed, our oval pad is 16 × 12.5 cm and sits along the palm instead. For the middle of the back you want length rather than a disc, which is what our back straps are for.

On first use it will feel firmer than you expect. Soak it longer than you think you need to, the first few times. Dried plant fibre takes a while to learn how much water it holds, and a pad that has been soaked properly feels like a different object in the hand.

This is a loofah, not a kese, and the two are used differently. A kese grips clean unsoaped skin and rolls the surface layer away in visible ribbons. A loofah abrades with soap and lifts that layer more gradually while it cleans. In a hammam they are two separate steps.

Care is simple and it is almost all about drying. Rinse after your shower, squeeze the water out and hang it by the cotton loop where air moves. Loofah dries quickly when it can breathe and slowly when it sits flat on a shelf. Machine washable on a delicate cycle. Replace every three to four weeks with regular use.

It comes with no packaging beyond a paper band, and there is no printing or sewn label anywhere on the pad itself.

Made by hand in Türkiye. The loofah is grown, dried and cut rather than moulded, so fibre density and the exact shade of the front face vary from one pad to the next. There is no plastic in it: no nylon mesh, no polyester thread, nothing that sheds microplastic into the drain. Undyed throughout.