The Down & Dirty - Baths & Wraps in Mud & More

The same minerals which enrich spa waters are also in the ground around them, so it's no surprise a tradition of bathing or wrapping up with the mud grew up near mineral springs. The mud is believed to detoxify, exfoliate, and invigorate the skin. And muds aren't the only natural substances rich in minerals; seaweed, salts, sand, wood-mulch and even wine offer nutrients for the skin and soul.*

I can't swear to the claimed health benefits of the mineral portion of the treatments but the weighted blanket-like sensations and deep to the bone body warmth are worth experiencing, at least once, even if the service seems pricey for 'just laying in something dirty' - I don't know if my nervous system has ever felt as instinctively safe and at peace as it has while I was buried in a cedar mulch bath.

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Mud, Mulch & More Potable Baths Body Wraps

Bathing in Mud, Mulch & More

True mud baths are fairly self explanatory. Different than a mud-pack, where mud or clay is applied to the body before entering a sauna or having a wrap, a true mud bath is the full body immersion into a natural mud pool or a man made tub filled with mineral muds. (Though many applied mud treatments also advertise themselves as 'baths.')

Muds and clays are both heavy and an incredible retainer of heat, so mud baths offer the calming sensations of warmth, weight and gentle compression. Depending on the bath venue they might be enjoyed in the nude or in swimwear.

Many resorts have mud baths built along side their saunas, and temperatures in contained baths actually build quite quickly, so there is often a time limit to how long one can safely soak in one at a spa, so as not to over heat. Natural mud baths are rarely as deep and not as hot, but often really fabulous scenery.

In Colombia there's an active mud volcano which you can bath in. (The local legend is a traditional lava volcano was turned to mud by a local priest with holy water as he was banishing a demon.) Bathers climb to the top of the volcano and descend into the mud filled crater. Local attendants are available for massages and there is a lagoon nearby used to rinse off and swim.

In Saint Lucia there are mud baths inside a dormant, actual volcano, the Soufriere, (last erupted in the 1700s.)

Vulcano island, just off the coast of Sicily in the Aeolian Islands, has muddy pools at its

base and natural jacuzzis near by.

Vietnam is full of natural mud pits.

The Dead Sea is also a popular place to do an application style 'bath' and in Rotorua, New Zealand, known as Hell's Gate, you can soak in warm sulphur mud pools.

In addition to muds of various viscosity and mineral make up, health resorts have been known to offer 'baths' in various other natural substances. Like the mud, these other material hold immense amounts of heat and offer various beneficial minerals that create very pleasant bath environments.

Surprisingly not all 'baths' are even liquid, like mulches or wood chips. The Oasis spa in California has a cedar enzyme bath in hot cedar mulch/chips that might be the most relaxed I have ever felt in life - I never wanted to get out!

You can take a hot sand bath (buried up to your neck) In Japan's black sands of Ibusuki Beach or at the Siwa Oasis in the Sahara desert. It's like a spa version of being buried at the beach as a child.

In the Mediterranean you can bath in algae from the sea and in Ireland you can soak in seaweed scooped from the Atlantic , which is actually an old tradition, not a new age quirky spa trend.

Estonia has a tradition of using honey and Muhu hay (from Muhu Island) to cure ailments which the spa at Padaste Manor has turned into a hay 'bath' where the pile heated hay over your blanket covered body combined with a honey facial. And in at the Hotel Heubad in Völs am Schlern in Italy you 'bathe' directly in fresh, warm and damp hay from the unfertilised Alpine meadows.

Potable Baths

Most people have heard of milk baths, and even milk and honey baths, but the list of drinks you can bath in doesn't end there. (Though made with potable liquids, none of the baths should be drunk once a body had been in them!)

Other than milk, beer might be the oldest variety of drink (drunk) bathing. The yeast is supposed to be good for the skin.

Alternatively wine is sometimes used as a luxury bath base. (I don't know if there is a real health benefit to any of these, and they certainly require a second bath the clean off from the first boozy one but if nothing else these alcoholic baths will leave the body fully disinfected, lol.)

In Kanagawa Japan there is a theme park resort, Yunessun Spa, that offers Coffee Baths that claim to be both relaxing and invigorating based on the beverages anti oxidants. I don't know if the bath would be very healing but the aromatherapy must be divine!

Body Wraps

A wrap is essentially an adult swaddling practice, which sounds ridiculous, and slightly claustrophobic, since it seriously inhibits movement, but is incredibly comforting. It's usually combined with a scrub treatment or body mask before being wrapped essentially in plastic wrap to hold in body heat and then a warm, tightly wrapped blanket. I am always asleep with in 5 minutes after being wrapped - which is an amazing feat since I have pretty bad insomnia.

The variety of scrubs and masks is endless - using muds, clays seaweeds, salts, honey etc... Usually spas will feature substances the region is know for like Manuka honey in New Zealand or Aruban aloe, or even chocolate at the Hershey Spa in Pennsilvania, CocoaJuvenate Spa at Hotel Chocolat, Soufriere, St. Lucia or the After The Rain in Geneva, Switzerland.

The warming and calming effects plus mineral treatments are similar to being immersed in the bath versions of these substances but can be administered in any spa without having to travel to far off mud pits.

Natural (particularly free) mud pools and clay baths are something I'm always on the look out for, but I enjoy the heat and compression of a wrap so much I will spring for one from time to time if I am in a place that has a particularly interesting version.

How about you? Have you had any unusual or just very satisfying bath or wrap experiences? Let me know in comments which was your favorite? Would you let yourself be buried to the neck in sand or mulch?

*Those with open wounds or skin infections should avoid bathing in anything other than water.