When Hammam is lavish

An old tradition has now turned into a luxurious and even lucrative commerce. While many old traditions are weathering away, the Hammam traditional steam bath, is now featuring on the spa list of luxurious hotels and resorts. The price of this treatment in hotels varies from place to place, with an average of $100 per session. 

In Iran of old times, many homes did not have a dedicated bathroom. There were only toilets and people used to go to a public bath once a week to bathe. I did not live in Iran, so I had this experience only once during a summer holiday visit. I found it interesting. 

On the Hammam day morning, my aunt with whom we were staying, asked us to bring along a clean set of clothing we were going to wear after the bath. She prepared everything else that included, soup bars, shampoo and the loofah. She also prepared a topple ware with some food and a flask of cold water. It looked like we were going to a picnic and not a bath. Fortunately, when we got there, I found out that there are also private bath cubicles and that we did not have to undress in front of others. 

Once inside our cubicle we wrapped ourselves with towels and sat for half an hour while the steam was tenderising our body. 

Then, came the mother’s part, she had white substance made from different ingredients that when rubbed on the body, this helps to get rid of the excess dirty skin. A sort of exfoliation method which proved quite painful with the application of the tough loofah. 

A couple of hours later, we were really ready to have a bite and cold water. While all the other Hammam rituals were done, it was another couple of hours before we went home. The feeling of cleanness was indescribable. 

Now with such standards, entering the modern Hammam is challenging and while many consider the experience quite intense, I find the way it is done is a mere scrub on the surface of the skin. This is not a real scrub.

Traditional Hammam is still found in countries such as Turkey, Middle East and Morocco, with the latter being one of the best in the world. I thoroughly enjoy the Moroccan bath with Argan oil and with the right therapist, you are in for a wonderful “clean” outcome.

One particular experience will forever stay with me. While I was attending a wedding in Libya some years ago, we went with the bride to the Hammam and as a special guest, I was assigned one of the best masseuse. The woman looked like a Sumo fighter. By the time she finished scrubbing me it was knockout/KO!