Loofa

I don't think anyone would get the smooth skin they desire if not for this invention. And I would not get half the deals I have if people were not staring at my skin

— Kay Yamoto

People are vain. If in Levis, all that mattered was cleanliness, there are and have existed more efficient ways of getting the body clean - but people want to look nice, to feel desirable, and a combination of the loofa and a hot sandbath leaves those that use this method smooth and shiny and soft.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

A Levis loofa for a sand bath is designed by taking the stub of the Loup-plant, slicing it into a hand size piece, then wrapping the circumference with the thin fibrous leaves, such that their edges will scrape at the skin as the user rubs. The stub is compressable enough that the loofa can get into every edge, and the material is pourous enough that fine grit from the bath can catch within the plant to add extra texture to the rubbing.

To clean the loofa, the leaves are unwound, and the stub tapped out of skin cells and sand. The loofa themselves are compostable, from leaves to stub.

History

While older loofa were made from a combination of rough bark and particulate matter - sandbaths having a history of occurring in places away from freshwater or saltwater; the proliferation of the loup-plant into one or two of the gardens of those inner Levis settlements meant that sandbaths could change from a make do type arrangement, into the preferred way of being for most of the communities around the region - and led to a stretching of the water usage.

The loup first came to be used as a loofa after the plant was transported for the beauty of the mouse-eared flowers. When it spread though the settlement as invading weed, those within the town had to find any way they could to utilise the plant or resort to burning it. After a particularly fierce wildfire season, a different town was searching for a solution and one enterprising want to be botanist found a binding on the loup plant plague. And so the loup plant rode again.

It is only recently that the loup plant has shown to have mild bacterial management properties - making it harder for non skin-native bacterial to settle and thrive upon areas scrubbed by the loofa.

The Loup plant is a small dune plant with thin, fabrous leaves over a stumpy hollow base. This base fills itself with seeds that carry away on coastal winds, leaving a dead husk perfect for collecting.

Foliad have been known to eat this plant but the human's guide to human-safe food indicates that many have described the effects of eating this like eating celery - more effort than nutritients will be given.

When used outside its area, lopup plants are often wrapped in a greshire cone, with only the mouse-like ears of its pink flowers poking above the greshire cone to be ready to be pollinated.