Celebrities and bizarre beauty treatments go hand in hand - remember Kim Kardashian's vampire blood facial? Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina steam clean? Simon Cowell and his sheep placenta skin-tightening regime ?

So it's only natural that while Shirley Ballas is in Los Angeles, she takes advantage of all the mad beauty procedures on offer out there.

The Strictly Come Dancing head judge has been visiting her home in California, and decided to take herself along to the salon for a wet cupping procedure.

Cupping - also known as - is a type of alternative medicine in which special suction cups are set alight then stuck to the skin when the flames die out. The act of cooling air creates a vacuum inside the cup, which sucks up the skin into the vessel.

Shirley has been taking full advantage of the baffling beauty treatments in LA (
Image:
shirleyballas/Instagram)
She shared a look at her painful back (
Image:
shirleyballas/Instagram)

After wearing the cups for a few minutes, the therapist then nicks the skin with a scalpel and repeats the cupping process to draw out small amounts of blood.

Devotees of the strange beauty ritual claim cupping helps with inflammation and pain by drawing out toxins from the skin.

Shirley certainly seems to be a fan, as she cheerily stripped off her clothes and climbed up on her therapist's table to be cupped.

"Wet cupping for my back. Painful," she captioned a shot of her becupped back on Instagram .

Cupping is derived from an ancient form of medicine and massage (
Image:
shirleyballas/Instagram)
Shirley admitted it was painful (
Image:
shirleyballas/Instagram)

"Getting myself all sorted to come home. I've seen Dr Sheigh @rejuvayou for my skin tightening , sun spots etc Dr David for my back wet cupping. And today gone to see Dr Assandra to make sure all my hormones are in place. @asandramd , he also put me on a vitamin drip and checked my well being," Shirley told her followers.

"Also packed up my home took all week with @alanate11 , thank you to them both. Now ready to ship my belongings to Great Britain. So it's been a very busy week. I'm excited to come home and see my mum oh boy do I miss her she's my partner in crime. My mum my friend my snuggle bunny.

Shirley said she can't wait to be back in the UK (
Image:
SWNS)

"Exploring new beginnings with new friends with exciting times ahead. See you all soon. #health #happy #gratitude #journey ."

Shirley isn't the face famous face to have undergone cupping.

Gwyneth Paltrow had the acupuncture-type procedure done to her in 2004, sparking a craze when she turned up to a film premiere with angry red marks all over her back.