Traditional Moroccan hammam and body care ritual

Traditional Moroccan hammam has already become a synonym for pleasant pastime and quality care for the body, although in the West it became known not so long ago. Relaxing and cleansing procedure of steaming, exfoliation of dead skin, finishing a special massage eventually give the effect of a newly born person. Due to its therapeutic effect, the hammam was actively used in the West as a preventive and curative procedure.

Traditional hammam in Morocco

Who happened to visit Morocco, he knows that the traditional Moroccan hammam is completely different from the spa procedures in modern salons. And the difference begins from the very moment of getting there. Hamam is a common bath, where many, often completely unfamiliar men or women are "floating" together.

In Morocco, you will not find mixed baths - there are three options: either only for women or only for men, or men are allowed on certain days of the week, women - in others, or the hamam allows representatives of one sex at one time of the day, and representatives of another - in others. Moreover, in the East it is not just a bath - here people talk and rest.

This is especially true of women - in the past many of them left the house very rarely, and Moroccan care in the hammam was an opportunity not just to put the body in order, but also to see friends and relatives, talk and gossip. Yes, and just trivial to take a break from the home environment.

Moroccan care in the hammam

A visit here begins with a payment at the entrance. After the person gets to the locker room - a room where all visitors can change into a bath dress and leave their clothes. Then the Moroccan hammam, in most cases, is arranged so - a cold room, after it warm, after - hot. They connect with each other in small aisles or a corridor, in the rooms themselves from the walls go out the taps, from which the water comes.

Traditionally, the procedures start with a warm room - here the visitor gets used to the temperature, washed, then returns after a stay in the hot room to finish the cleaning. The dressing room and the cold room are often combined in the same room, and here you can not only change clothes, but also drink tea, getting used again to the usual temperature.

The Moroccan hammam and Berber care for the body include the use of black olive soap, peeling with a special glove box, massage with argan oil.

Massage and peeling can make each other friends, or you can pay for the work of a bathhouse attendant - for a quite moderate fee there in many hammams provide the possibility of massage and peeling by the efforts of bath attendants and bath attendants.

Customs and rules

First of all, the Moroccan hammam is accessible to everyone, so there are usually a lot of people of the same sex. If it happened to go to such a place (and did not try the exotic exotic in the European spa center), one should keep in mind some customs and traditions, the non-observance of which can upset and offend Moroccans.

First of all, this is water saving - it should be used carefully, as much as necessary, avoiding splashing around and around. The second is respect for decency. In the men's hammam you can be dressed in swimming trunks or something like that. To change clothes also follows, having rolled up hips in a towel or covered by it. Full exposure, even when changing clothes, is considered offensive, and this should not be done.

However, in the women's bath - another situation: in many of them you can wear a swimsuit or underwear, but there are also those where women undress completely - here one should be guided by Moroccan women. Of course, a European can stay in a swimsuit or underwear, even if the local women are naked, but do not take off everything if others have not.

Spa analogues in Europe

Moroccan spa-hammam in the European version - often one room, often performing the role of a warm, or under this name hiding a Turkish steam cabin, designed for one person. High-class hotels and salons, of course, offer a "full cycle", adapted to European tastes, but incorporating all the traditional procedures and even more.

There is such an "improved" hammam, of course, is also much larger, however this is compensated by increased comfort, exclusively by "our" company and additional procedures to choose from.