Rules for visiting the hammam

Hammam is one of the varieties of baths known throughout the world. You can take a steam bath in a Turkish bath not only in the eastern resort. She had fans in Europe and Russia, where similar pairings also began to meet. In addition to receiving hygiene procedures, in Turkey a visit to the hammam is often accompanied by meetings with friends or relatives. The company spends almost the whole day, in compliance with certain rules and traditions.

The Turkish bath differs from the Russian one in its very high humidity and lower temperature indicators., which makes it soft, comfortable, gentle compared to other types of saunas. In the domestic steam room, the dry air temperature can reach up to 70 or 80 degrees, in Turkish - an order of magnitude lower. People suffering from cardiovascular diseases are not forbidden to come to the hammam, just their presence in the hall with relatively high temperatures is limited to half an hour. A similar category of people cannot visit a Russian bathhouse.

To visit the hammam does not require special additional items (such as brooms, hats), which are attributes of a Russian steam room. All that is needed is given out in the Turkish bath itself. However, having studied the rules of visiting, you can understand that full nudity while in the hammam is not welcome, so you may need a swimsuit or sarong to cover up.

In the bathhouse visitors are given special wooden slippers (cash), but those who have a custom size or those who prefer to use only personal items can grab their bath shoes. The same applies to towels: the attendant will surely give out one for the body, and the second (large sizes) - to cover the bench on which you have to lie. Those who wish to have an individual towel can take it with them. If there is a need for a personal shower gel, you should also grab it from home.

The frequency of visiting the Turkish bath and the time you should spend there will depend on your health, traditions, availability of free time and personal preferences. If you take the average, then once a week will be enough. Muslims believe that the hammam cleanses the soul and body, so the husband leaves his wife in the bathhouse once a week without unnecessary conditions.

Beginners and people with poor health can stay in hararet (the warmest room of the bath) from 30 minutes to an hour, with the following visits, time may increase. In other rooms there is no time limit.

For eastern residents, the bath is associated with ablution, purity of body and thoughts. HIn order for the impression of visiting the hammam to remain pleasant, certain rules of conduct should be learned.

• Do not rush, do not fuss, relax, taking the opportunity to think about the wise and the eternal.
• Do not expose yourself completely, cover your body with a towel or sarong.
• An hour or a half before visiting the bath should not be eaten so as not to experience nausea.
• You should come to the hammam sober and not take alcohol during the whole visit.
• Before you sit down or lie down on a stone bench, you need to lay a towel. This is done not only for hygienic reasons, but also protecting the body from a prolonged stay on a hot stone.
• During massage procedures, it is recommended to keep the legs raised above the surface.
• After the massage and complete relaxation, you can not get up from the bench abruptly, this can lead to dizziness.

In order to use the Turkish bath properly, you also need to know its structure, what rooms it consists of. Then it becomes clear what can be done in each of them. The hammam is divided into three large halls.

• Jamekan. The first room where the visitor gets. There are cash desks for paying for services. Outerwear can be left here. According to Turkish tradition, this room is decorated with a small fountain.
• Sogukluk. This preparatory room is not too hot, it does not exceed the temperature of the human body. There are showers and toilets.
• Hararet. The third room relates directly to the bathhouse. The temperature of the surrounding space is 50-60 degrees, and the humidity is 100% maintained. There are stone benches in it, often made of marble or onyx, on which you can sit or lie. If the room is endowed with large space, in the center is installed chebek-tash. The Turks call it the "abdomen stone", it is a stone table for wellness massage treatments. There is also a kurna in the hall - a special sink that receives hot and cold water. Visitors scoop it with copper dippers and doused it as necessary.

In a hammam there can be two types of pool:

• some large hararets include a shallow but spacious pool: nobody bathes in it, it only serves to preserve humidity in the room;
• the second pool is functional, it is dipped after massage to close the steamed pores and cheer up after relaxing procedures.

You can come to the hammam just to wash, visit the jamekan and sogukluk - it will be cheaper and faster. But if you need an extended program, for which they go to Turkish baths, you should count on a massage procedure.

If you have to go through the full ritual of visiting the eastern bath, you need to remember that all actions and procedures have been worked out for centuries, and for the sake of gaining health benefits, you should not break them.

So, in the jamekan, the visitor leaves the clothes in the locker room, takes the issued bath accessories with him and goes into the sucker. This room is maintained at a low comfortable temperature of 30-35 degrees, here you should spend at least 20 minutes to fully acclimatize. Here, a shower is taken, which helps to free pores from dust and dirt, to prepare the body for further procedures.

Sitting on a stone bench in a room with a temperature of 50 degrees and high humidity, you can well steam out the entire muscle system. The masseur-attendant monitors the visitor, and when he is fully prepared, proceeds to the following procedures.

1. The whole body is peeled using a kese gauntlet made from coarse goat hair or coconut fiber. It thoroughly cleanses the skin of dead keratinized particles, while freeing the pores. The same procedure improves blood circulation.
2. Cleansed skin is prepared for a massage with soap oils. The attendant in a cotton bag manually whips an unusual black soap with peach, olive or argan tree oils. In some saunas, a soap foam generator is used, this allows mechanization of manual labor. Pretty quickly the visitor is covered with a lush cap of soapy water. With the help of massage, the remains of keratinized particles are removed from the skin surface.
3. The next step is to go through the wrapping procedure. Visitors are coated with a mixture of healing clay, sea salt, olive oil and honey, wrapped in a towel. Twenty minutes later, a shower is taken.
4. After massages and beauty treatments, you can relax in the lobby.
5. At the last stage, another massage session with aromatic oils is proposed. This procedure tightens and rejuvenates the skin, improves cell metabolism.
6. Having a rest, take a warm shower or take a dip in the pool.
7. After going through all hygiene and wellness procedures, visitors go to the relaxation room, where you can chat with friends, have a snack, and drink a few cups of tea. After the bath, the body will need to restore water balance.

To visit the hammam, you do not have to go to Turkey. You can search for an oriental bath at large sports clubs. It is noticed that after training and heavy physical exertion, staying in a Turkish bath quickly restores strength. The stone in combination with hot steam has a relaxing effect on the muscular system.

The Turkish hammam is distinguished from the rest of the baths of the world by a special oriental flavor, a persistent smell of incense and a kind of music that sounds throughout the visit. Often, bath attendants use salt fog. They create it with the help of special equipment, thanks to which a healing fine cloud of saline solution rises into the air. All this hypnotically falls in love with an oriental bath.

About what is a hammam, see below.