On hammams
A good long sweat helps boost the skin’s natural cleansing processes and chills us out, says Caroline Sylge
I often sweat out my stress in a steam room, for when it comes to keeping me sane, sustained sweating is up there for me alongside Vedic Meditation and Yoga. I am lucky enough at my local in Devon to be able to jump in the sea after, and emerge feeling practically human again, but wherever you get to do it, a good long sweat helps boost the skin’s natural cleansing processes, getting rid of dead cells and the unwanted toxins in our system.
Like any cleanse, it also calms busy heads and clears negative minds. There’s a sense of ritual to it. Go in dirty, aching, angry and indecisive — emerge clean, soothed and a tad more in control.
The most effective place I’ve found to sweat is in a hammam. Arabic for ‘spreader of warmth’, these vaulted, marbled steam bath-houses date back to the Romans and Byzantines and they really are the business.
My first experience of a public hammam was with my friend Vanessa, who was living at the time in Istanbul. She took me to a tucked-away little outfit where local women would sweat and chat on a daily basis. After heating up nicely in the sicaklik (hot room), I lay stark naked on a toasty stone slab to be lathered from head to toe by a strong-handed, smiling masseuse. She used a 100% natural black cleansing bar, which doesn’t lather, but instead turns to a cream as soon as you add warm water. It cleanses and hydrates the skin and helps to strengthen hair. No part of me was left uncovered.
After a ten-minute rest I got the mitt treatment, watching through the steam as tiny rolls of dead skin were stripped away. Like skin brushing or an assisted stretch, being scraped with a rough mitt by somebody else gives you that exquisite feeling of ‘good’ pain followed by the pleasure of relief when it stops. My masseuse, still smiling, then chucked buckets of water over my head continually for a good five minutes. This felt just as great – if you’ve got hot enough in the steam, you’ll find it a welcome refreshment rather than a feat of endurance.
The whole process had the effect of a chemical peel without the chemicals, and later, in the sogukluk (cool room), my skin felt as soft as a banana smoothie, my mind as sweet.
After that visit, I graduated to the hammams in hotels, which were always smaller, more sweet-smelling and 100 times the price. Vanessa treated me to a luxurious sea salt and olive oil version of the traditional scrub at a hotel in Bodrum which had two beautiful hammams with skylights. Chiva Som in Thailand had a giant and gorgeous hammam I rather liked, and no hotel with a hammam I’ve ever been to in Morocco has ever failed me. My favourites? The back-to-basics, romantic Kasbah du Toubkal, perched above the village of Imlil, which has a rough and ready hammam that uses rubber tyres as water buckets, with the coldest plunge pool I’ve ever teeth-clenched my way into. And the exquisitely designed Riad El Fenn in Marrakech where, after a scrub, an attentive therapist split an orange in half and squeezed its juice over my body, then poured a stream of divine-smelling rosewater from an elegant jar all over my head and face.
Sipping sweet mint tea afterwards, sitting beside a pomegranate tree, I knew that the power of the sweat would always get the better of me. Next time I get really stressed though, I’m going to head to Siwa in Egypt, where for over 400 years locals have been experiencing the ‘hammam ramal’, burying themselves neck-high in desert sand to sweat out their ailments in a bizarre and highly uncomfortable-sounding ritual. That should sort it.
RETREATS WITH HAMMAMS
Many retreats across the globe integrate hammams and steam rooms into their rejuvenation practices. Unwind in a hammam after an exhilarating YOAS hike in the Atlas Mountains, or letting go of stress with a hammam on an Adventure Yogi retreat at a bougainvillea-clad hotel near Marrakech. Detoxify beneath the canopy of a towering rainforest tree at The Sanctuary in Thailand, or immerse in the holistic ambiance of Greece’s Euphoria spa which has a gorgeous sauna, steam facilities and marbled hammam. Wherever you retreat, a transformative hammam or steam experience awaits you.
