Several cultures combine bathhouses with elaborated cleansing rituals and bath attendants performing combinations of body scrubs and massage. In some traditions they are added to sauna rituals and in other traditions they are associated with soaking pools, but in all cases the assisted bathing includes a deep exfoliation of the full body; body scrapping might be a better description than body scrub.
Bathhouses might be my favorite kind of spa experience. Some are put off
by the idea of being touched so intimately be a stranger, particularly in the nude,
and they worry that the scrubbing will hurt - but I highly encourage anyone
who hasn’t tried one to give it a go. I promise no one in sauna cares what you look
like naked, and while the exfoliating is rough, it’s pleasurable and your skin
will never feel as good as it does after one of these treatments,
you'll be fresher than even a newborn babe!
Discussed in this Article
Turkish Baths Moroccan Hammams Korean Spas Arabic & Egyptian Rasuls
Ottoman Hammams
The most widely practiced assisted bathing ritual is the Hammam from the Ottoman tradition. They developed into sacred spaces where people both clean their bodies and nurture their souls. The hammam is often an ornate bathhouse with marble pools, pillars and sun roofs, and elaborate mosaic-tiled walls. They are now popular all over the Mediterranean, Middle East, India, Asia and into Europe. (They've become particularly popular in England.)
Todays hammam are similar to the ancient Roman steam baths with the addition of the assisted bathing ritual. (They traditions likely combined after the conquering of the Romans - many even use the Roman terms for their bath rooms; the hottest called a caldarium, the warm room called the tepidarium, and the resting room called frigiderium.)
These rituals weren’t always assisted, at many local hammam you preform the ritual on yourself, perhaps with some help from fellow bathers, but the popularized spa version have bath attendants that used to only be available to the wealthy in the Ottoman empire, and it is a completely different experience!
Hamman are separated by the sexes, and are usually conducted either in the nude or with small disposable underwear. (Smaller hammam that don’t have the space to separate by sex will have different operating hours for each gender.)
The most well known version of the hammam is the Turkish Bath which can span from 30 minutes to more than an hour.
It starts with relaxation in a dry heat room to prepare the skin by sweating, followed by a dip in the communal pool room. (These are often elaborate marble structures.) Sometimes there’s a short rest in a warm steam room before the hot room to ease into the heat.
Then the cleansing ritual starts with the application of traditional black soap; a molasses or crude oil-like paste made from olive oil and infused with fragrant eucalyptus. It’s applied like a mask all over with a crêpe glove known as Kis. The glove is exfoliating and the scrub is aggressive, sloughing off layers of dead skin and leaving no inch untouched (including between butt cheeks - so be prepared to be touched!)
Some fancier hammam split the exfoliation process into two steps - a gentle the black soap scrub, followed by a rinse and towel dry and then the second more extensive exfoliation treatment/ body scraping.
For women the exfoliation can be followed by a ghassoul, a full body clay mask full of minerals. When they clay has dried you're bathed again with black soap to remove it.
At some point in this process there's a full body massage. It can be administrated during the cleansing or scrub itself or afterwards as a separate process with oils (usually olive based.) A traditional Hammam massage is a vigorous muscle kneading with extensive joint cracking.
The treatment concludes with drinking the local spring waters or tea, (and possibly further bathing back in the pool or additional sessions in the dry saunas.) There are even napping rooms in some hammam.
There are also ritual hammam for special occasions. A bride doing a hammam represents cleansing and preparation for marriage. She holds a lit candle while she is gently bathed in pure, nourishing milk and henna designs are painted on her skin.
Morocco has its own hammam ritual: It’s very similar to its Turkish cousin but it utilizes
wet saunas with steam, and various levels of heat & humidity, rather than dry heat, and it is common for both men and women to wear swimwear bottoms or underwear.
The Moroccans use a kessa glove for the exfoliation and follow it with a relaxing soapy massage, with an olive oil based soap that soothes the raw fresh skin.
You can even visit a centuries old hammam in Marrakeck, built in the Saadian period by Sultan Abdellah al Ghâlib between 1562 and 1563.
Jjimjilbang - Korean Bathhouses
Anyone who's watched Korean television will know of the 24 hour community Korean Spa, or Jjimjilbang (jjimjil from a word that means essentially heating, and bang= room.) Every show has at least one scene set in theses 24 hour cultural gathering spaces, usually the communal resting space. But off camera, Koreans Spas have incredible assisted bathing rituals.
The Korean baths can be traced in the written record to 1427, with references to Korean bathing culture as far back as 1123. But the first modern, comercial jimjilbang actually didn't open in Seoul until 1992. They are a combination of the traditional Korean bathing traditions with a modern Western spa.
The spa is split into two areas the wet, Mogyoktang and the dry communal area.
When you enter you go to the wet area first. (These are separated by gender and require full nudity.) After changing in locker room, spa goers shower thoroughly and then may choose to use any number of wet amenities; steam rooms, vagafacials,* hot tubs, cold pools and sometimes even infrared saunas.
The dry area is mixed and spa goers wear pajama like cotton uniforms while they take advantage of the many dry saunas or kilns.
The dry area often also includes amenities like gyms, DVD rooms, golf courses, beauty parlors, dining, reflexology and traditional massage services. They even have sleeping cubbies and spa goers can even spend the night.
But what really sets the Korean sauna apart from other multi-treatment spas is the body scrubs in the wet area. Set in the same open area as the pools are slabs for massage and body scrubs and bath attendants, called ajumma, vigorously exfoliating spa goers with loofa like gloves, scraping all the dead skin away, leaving no crevasse un-scrubbed. (These amazing treatments, like all others in the wet area, are done nude.)
In Korea hotels spa are generally just
for men, so women have to venture out to find local jimjilbang where Brazillion waxes and tattoos will attract some attention from the local woman in the wet area but don't worry, being inked won't prevent you from attending like it might in a Japanese bathhouse.
Korean Spas to try...
Rasuls - Arabic & Egyptian Spa Traditions
Egypt is unique in the Mediterranean in that they have their own ancient spa rituals practiced for thousands of years; from bathing in the Red Sea to sand baths in the Sahara to an ancient Egyptian version of cupping (found inscribed in hieroglyphics.)
They are, perhaps, best known though for the Rasul Bath; a treatments of a special Moroccan clay that Cleopatra was said to have attributed her beauty to.
Rasul (or rhassoul - from Arabic) literally means rubbing with mud, and Arabian sultans had Rasul treatments practiced in their harems, using highly a acidic mud specifically sourced from the Greek island of Limnos.
Today, a variety of muds and clays are used including a Moroccan mineral clay (with binding properties making it adhere with organic and metallic substances, believed to assist in detoxing the skin) and Dead Sea mud. The Baths can be self administered or may be enjoyed with a partner, but they rarely have a spa attendant or masseuse.
Rasul start with a shower before the clay is applied and allowed to dry. Sea salt is also often applied to the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. The ritual then takes place in the Rasulraum, a small round room which begins in dry heat of 100°F (38°C) and slowly heats up to 122°F (50°C) while the humidity is raised to 80% as the room fills with herbal infused steam. The treatment last about an hour, during which the clay is massaged into the body, the minerals acting as an exfoliant.
The moisture in the rasularuam then transitions from hot steam and a cool mist and finally a rain shower washing away the clay all without you having to even leave the rasulraum ( the water falls directly from the ceiling, sometimes without warning.) The participant then rests with tea and pastries.
Rasuls have become popular even outside the Middle East and surprisingly, it's easier to find a spa that offers one in the UK than it is in Egypt.
Egyptian Spas to check out...
Have you ever had bathhouse body scrub? What did you think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and if you've found a great bathhouse I should try!
*Be cautious about using vagofacials, (vaginal steam treatments.) Vaginal skin is particularly susceptible to bacterial infections, the risk of which is only increased by the steam and communal nature of a bathhouse.
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