Yes they are rough. When I first started to use mine it was not feeling too good. However, the body does get used to it and will actually start to crave it. When I was looking for my brush in my favorite health food store, there was a young woman there looking at some thing next to the brushes...she looked like she was into health things....so, being the forward person that I am (ahem, *LOL*) I asked her if she knew any thing about these brushes. She promptly felt all the brushes hanging up, and she chose the roughest one. She then grabbed me and took the brush to my arm !! She gave it a good scrubbing. We were both laughing. She told me "Here is YOUR brush". I bought it ! I love my brush now.
I started out gently. Now I can do it a lot harder. It does taking getting used to. It is worth it. When I use the thing regularly, my skin looks a lot better and feels better too. I fell better all over. I think I will go have a skin brushing soon ! The only place I do not brush is my face and......the other tender private parts. *LOL*