Photo from the website clubsaun.ru The Turkish hammam steam room is one of the most useful and popular options for sauna relaxation in the whole world. This is where you can restore strength to those who are tired of constant stress and everyday hustle and bustle, get a powerful boost of energy, relax a little, get distracted and relieve physical fatigue. After all, this is not just a bathhouse, but a certain ritual and a whole philosophy, which is based not only on complete physical, but also spiritual cleansing.
Let's figure out what a Turkish bath is, how often you can visit it, and what is better: a hammam or a sauna.
Turkish steam room: what is it?
The first Turkish baths began to be built in the 7th century. Classic hammams are large buildings with several rooms, each of which maintains a certain level of humidity and temperature.
Photo from cocoony-domicile.fr
Such saunas are built according to the “palm” principle - there are several small rooms around the main steam room:
- Jamekian is a locker room where all visitors leave everything they need (clothes, shoes, belongings) and put on a loincloth made only from absolutely natural materials (cotton or silk fabric).
- Pestemal is a place where guests take a shower.
- Chebek is a room where you can warm up your body on a hot lounger, which is made of natural marble (“chebek-tashi”). It is quite comfortable to sit on it for a long time.
- Hararet is a steam room designed for deep cleansing of the skin. Here they perform intense foam and oil massage and peeling.
- A cafe is a room in which, after all procedures, one rests, eats or drinks healing herbal teas.
Features of the Turkish steam room
Hamam differs from Russian and Finnish baths in that all rooms in it are heated using a boiler placed under the floor covering or built into one of the walls. The steam generated in it is supplied through several small holes, which are located at a height of approximately 1.5 meters.
A distinctive feature of the steam room is the low temperature (30-50C), which is combined with 100% humidity. The steam in it is warm and soft. This allows you to visit it even for those who do not like very hot air or cannot breathe it for health reasons.
The interior of a modern oriental bathhouse is always made almost entirely of stone, mosaic or tile. Wood is not even used to decorate sun loungers. The ceiling of the steam room has a dome shape. This is done so that condensation does not drip from it and does not disturb visitors, but flows down the walls.
Harm
Any procedure can cause harm to the body. Especially if used incorrectly. And the hammam in this case is no exception. Visiting a steam room can lead to a deterioration in health and exacerbation of chronic diseases. To avoid problems, you must first consult with your doctor. It is also important to consider contraindications.
Contraindications
Visiting the steam room is prohibited in the following cases:
- open wounds and skin suppuration;
- epilepsy;
- inflammatory processes in the acute phase;
- oncology;
- serious heart disease;
- hypertension;
- liver and kidney diseases;
- diabetes;
- varicose veins;
- thrombosis;
- bronchial asthma;
- tuberculosis;
- fungal skin infections;
- demodicosis;
- pregnancy;
- menstruation.
After the steam room, you should not immediately jump into cold water, especially if you have problems with the cardiovascular system.
It is important to note that even a completely healthy person may suddenly feel unwell when visiting a bathhouse. In this case, you should urgently seek help from a doctor.
Hammam: visiting rules
Photo from the website golden-hammam.ua
To get only pleasant emotions and maximum health benefits from visiting a hamam, you need to know how to go to a Turkish bath correctly: how to steam in a chebek, use peelings or cosmetics, and how long you need to stay in the harare.
First of all, before starting various massage procedures, you should sweat thoroughly. To do this, lie down or sit on a lounger for 20-30 minutes, which is previously covered with a cloth. The body is steamed, and all the pores are opened, so after about 30 minutes you need to start various types of massage. In a real Turkish bath he is quite energetic and sometimes even tough. Strong movements accelerate the blood, rub the whole body, which allows you to restore flexibility to the joints and stretch the muscles well.
Photo from the site m.slovenskenovice.si
After such manual therapy, you can lie down and relax for a while, or you can do peeling. To do this, use a hard glove to cleanse all dead and keratinized particles from the skin. The stage following peeling is a light soap massage. A bar of regular soap is placed in a mesh bag and shaken a little, resulting in a thick and soft foam. They cover the visitor from head to toe, and then begin to massage. After this, you can go to the relaxation room - there everyone will be offered to relax and drink a cup of herbal tea.
When visiting a hammam, you need to remember that, unlike Russian and Finnish saunas, in such a Turkish bath, as a rule, there is no pool, since the Turks consider standing water unclean. Instead, there are several fountains in the steam room.
It is important to follow these recommendations:
- While visiting the hammam, it is prohibited to drink any alcohol or drink very cold drinks.
- It is better to limit yourself to tea, diluted juices, plain or rose water.
- There is no need to overeat before the bath. Ideally, more than 2 hours should pass after the last meal.
- Never make sudden movements in the steam room. This can be bad for warm muscles, as they are easily damaged in this state.
- It is not customary to go without clothes in such a bathhouse.
Bath etiquette
This option is suitable for those who like to relax and feel the beneficial effects of air scented with herbs and essential oils. In such conditions, oriental women love to engage in spa treatments and have leisurely conversations. Traditionally, they spend the whole day in the bathhouse, but a couple of hours is enough for hygiene procedures and relaxation. To get maximum benefit, it is important:
- Do not hurry;
- Follow the rules;
- Do not break the sequence of steps.
Before visiting the steam room, first enter a room with a temperature of + 35°C. Staying in a warm dressing room prepares the heart for thermal stress. After adaptation, they go to the hararet - the washing room. In the round marble hall in the middle there is a gobektashi (belly stone), on which procedures are performed. Below it in the basement there is a firebox with a boiler, from where steam is supplied through pipes.
The benefits of a Turkish steam room
Oriental saunas are, first of all, complete relaxation of the body. This means that every visitor will have improved sleep, neuroses, anxiety and severe headaches will disappear. But what else is a Turkish bath useful for women and men? First of all, because it really effectively cleanses the skin, improves metabolic processes and accelerates tissue regeneration. By regularly visiting it, you will slow down the aging process, and using natural oils for massage, you will be able to perfectly moisturize and saturate your skin with useful substances.
Photo from the site aquatec.biz.ua
The benefit of hamam for women and men is also that it helps:
- eliminate stagnant processes in various internal organs;
- normalize blood circulation;
- increase immunity;
- lose excess weight faster;
- get rid of salt deposits;
- improve blood microcirculation in the brain;
- eliminate pain from diseases and inflammation of the joints, as well as diseases of the spine.
It is recommended to visit the hammam even if you have a cold. Steam even helps cure bronchitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis, tracheitis, pneumonia, laryngitis, since warming the body for a long time allows it to more effectively resist various infections. In addition, in hot and humid air, all harmful microorganisms die immediately, so the likelihood of infecting others is zero.
Photo from meydanhamami.com
Sometimes coaches advise athletes to use Turkish baths as often as possible. But what exactly is hammam useful for after a workout? It quickly eliminates pain from muscle pain caused by heavy training by gently and deeply warming them up.
Treatments for rejuvenation
It’s just the right time to apply nourishing products to pristinely clean skin, instantly penetrating through open pores into the deep layers of the dermis. It is not forbidden to carry out:
- Massage with coconut oil;
- Rub in the honey-vitamin mixture;
- Wrap with Moroccan clay, chocolate, seaweed.
Select procedures from the list or limit yourself to applying peach, grape seed, or olive oil.
Treatments in the hammam are not only pleasant, but also useful for rejuvenation and health promotion.
- Decay products and salts are removed from the open pores along with moisture.
- Tissues and blood are saturated with oxygen.
- Cell division and blood flow increase.
- The keratinized cells of the epidermis are removed.
- The skin texture is evened out.
Contraindications to visiting the hammam
It is contraindicated to go to a Turkish bath for those who suffer from:
- cataracts;
- diseases of the endocrine system;
- infectious diseases;
- mental disorders;
- inflammatory processes occurring in internal organs.
Unfortunately, hammam has a negative effect on asthmatics and those with severe lung diseases. Air with high humidity provokes an exacerbation of the disease and the person will begin to choke. Such a sauna can also harm people suffering from any skin diseases. People who have ever been diagnosed with cancer will also be at risk. Due to sufficiently high temperatures, tumor formations can progress.
Photo from guidemarmaris.com
People with hypertension should not go there. It is not so hot in such a steam room, but a sharp increase in pressure is possible. It is not forbidden for pregnant women to go to the hammam, but before visiting it, the expectant mother should ask the attending doctor whether this is possible, since overheating is dangerous in some cases.
For varicose veins, traditional Russian baths are not beneficial. But you can visit the hammam, but only by observing the following precautions:
- In the steam room, lying on a stone lounger, your legs should be slightly raised.
- When sitting on a lounger, your legs should not hang down.
- When cooling down after a massage, you should not stand in one place for a long time; you must move, walking slowly.
In conclusion, I would like to say that Turkish baths are popular all over the world today. You can visit a real oriental sauna at many resorts. Do not deny yourself this pleasure, because it will give you unforgettable impressions and sensations!
A little history
The structure of a traditional hammam
Although exact information about the origin of the hammam has not been preserved, it is believed that such procedures first appeared in the Byzantine Empire. The peoples of the East who communicated with the Byzantines adopted this tradition. However, the use of hot steam in combination with dousing with cold water came a little later. It was believed that visiting the hammam affects the body and mind, female attractiveness and male strength.
The specific architectural style of the hammam was formed by the 12th-13th centuries. Like the Roman baths once upon a time, the hammam became the center of public life. Today there are hammams in almost every town in Turkey; in Europe, Turkish baths began to appear in the 19th century.
