In modern life, many have only heard about the pleasures and healing effects of the Russian bath. When the opportunity to build one arises, it is difficult for such people to make a meaningful choice between a combined and separate washing and steam room. Here is collected information shared by knowledgeable people for whom visiting a bathhouse is a habitual procedure.
What to take to the steam room
To make bathing not only useful, but also comfortable, you need to have a certain set of bath accessories, which include the following items:
- hair wash;
- soap or shower gel;
- washcloth;
- a couple of towels;
- massage mitten;
- sheet or swimsuit;
- slates;
- special bath cap;
- various infusions or decoctions of herbs for inhalation and hair rinsing;
- Banya broom.
Accessories and hair and body care products for the steam room
Much depends on your preferences.
When is it better not to take risks?
Despite all the benefits of the steam room, not everyone can visit the bathhouse and plunge into the ice hole. If you have serious diseases of the circulatory or respiratory system, it is better to refrain from contrast procedures.
It is strictly forbidden for people with the following diseases to plunge into the ice hole:
- acute inflammatory processes in the kidneys or renal failure;
- hypertension, heart and vascular diseases, including atherosclerosis, thrombosis, hemophilia, consequences of heart attack or stroke;
- inflammatory diseases of the respiratory system, asthma in the acute stage;
- disorders of the central nervous system and epilepsy;
- diabetes;
- serious disorders of the thyroid gland.
Pregnant women and people under the influence of alcohol should refrain from swimming in a cold ice hole. Alcoholic drinks dull the reaction, and if you fall into an ice hole after a hot bath, a person can lose orientation in space and even drown.
Swimming in an ice hole after a bath is really useful, but you should properly prepare for the procedure. It is better for people with serious chronic diseases to refrain from such bathing altogether. It must be remembered that sudden temperature changes are a serious stress for the body and, without appropriate preparation, will do more harm than good.
Let's talk about brooms
Whisking a broom over the body of a steaming person is an old Russian massage tradition. Such movements enhance blood circulation, promote temperature contrast, increase sweating and accelerate metabolism in the human body.
A bath broom is an essential item!
Using a broom in a steam room helps open the pores of human skin and cleanse it of accumulated toxins and germs. When a broom is patted on a person's body, an antibacterial effect is created.
The fact is that broom leaves contain large quantities of volatile substances - phytoncides, which neutralize the negative effects of pathogens. It is also worth noting that in the process of light blows with a bath broom, essential oils get onto the skin. They speed up metabolism and slow down the aging process of the skin.
Experienced bathhouse attendants say that a broom made from fresh birch branches is considered the best. The price of such a product in specialized stores can be very high.
But you can do it yourself. Then you won’t have to pay at all.
Advice! If you use a dry bath broom, you need to know how to steam it correctly. Keep the broom in warm water for a while, and only then can you pour boiling water over it. Otherwise, the leaves on the branches may fall off.
Methods for using a broom in a bath
There are several ways to use a broom during bath procedures.
Can:
- fan, stroke, quilt and whip the skin;
- apply compresses to certain parts of the body;
- perform stretching or rubbing.
It is better to use these techniques in a single complex.
Regular bathing procedures are the key to good health
The fanning procedure involves lightly waving a broom without directly touching the human body. You need to walk along the body several times, starting from the feet and ending with the head, and wave the broom, which creates a pleasant hot wind.
In turn, stroking is a leisurely movement of a broom along the body from the heels to the neck and back. The procedure can also be performed several times and on both sides. And when the temperature in the steam room is not high, you can not tear the broom away from the person at all.
Patting with a bath broom must be done carefully, without causing pain to the person. At first, do not whip the body sharply. It’s better to lift the broom up and shake it well. This way it will warm up to the optimal temperature faster.
The next time you swing the bath broom, you need to try to bring the steam to the body. When the first drops of sweat appear on the body, the pats are intensified.
This procedure begins from the back. You can also add a green compress during this procedure.
Bath procedures strengthen the immune system
A green compress is another method of using a broom in a steam room. To carry it out, you need to wave a broom in the air, place it on your body, whipping another bunch of branches on top of it.
A steaming effect is created, which in its effect on the human body resembles a compress. It improves heat exchange, reduces discomfort and muscle soreness, stimulates sweating and warms up the skin thoroughly.
Separate bath
If the area is more than 15 m2 and you want to do everything according to the rules, then the individual rooms will turn out to be quite bearable. Tested by many people. Modern shower cabins fit in the required quantities into a small washing area. A washing room, arranged in the old fashioned way, will perform the same functions.
High humidity cannot be avoided in the washing room. The surfaces of walls, ceilings, floors are covered with tiles, porcelain stoneware and similar materials. If the bathhouse is a log house, then it is built from pine or larch. These rocks are resistant to rotting and deformation, which confirms their use in shipbuilding.
The main element of the steam room is a stove, preferably a heater. The shelves are equipped in several levels to suit all tastes. The temperature under the ceiling is higher. The shelves should be facing towards the oven. A container of cold water is needed to add steam by splashing on the stove, or to pour over for invigoration. Birch, oak, and cedar brooms will be needed for massage and ambience.
Everyone will make a decision in accordance with their material capabilities and desires. It should be noted that the humidity of the sauna is ≈20%, and the humidity of the washing room is 70%. Therefore, you will not be able to enjoy dry steam in a combined version. Washing at a temperature above 60°C is not comfortable: you will immediately sweat again. In summer it is debilitating. But still, each option has its own advantages.
Getting ready and steaming
How to wash in a bathhouse? If you have already entered the bathhouse, be sure to take a shower first. Rinse with warm water for hygienic reasons.
Although it must be admitted that many experienced bath attendants neglect this procedure, assuring everyone of its uselessness.
But steaming with a wet head is highly not recommended. The fact is that you can overheat if you go into the bathhouse with wet hair. Therefore, you need to take a shower before the steam room wearing a protective cap.
When you are finished showering, you can remove the cap.
Instead, wear a special bath cap or simply tie a towel on your head.
Original head caps for baths
Advice! You should steam without rings, earrings or chains. It's no secret that metal products heat up when exposed to high temperatures in a steam room and can cause burns. But many still forget about this.
- When you find yourself in a steam room with high air temperature, it is better to breathe through your nose. Nasal breathing cools and humidifies the hot air inhaled by a person. This is a simple instruction, following which you will not be in danger of increasing your body temperature.
Advice! If you doubt whether you can take a bath during your period, then know that doctors do not advise carrying out such bath procedures during this period.
- And so, you have achieved moderate sweating, now you should sit below for a while;
- Then, if you feel strong, you can lie upstairs. Your muscles should be in a relaxed state. You should close your eyes;
Children love this procedure too!
- If the internal arrangement of the bathhouse does not allow you to lie down, sit as comfortably as possible so that your legs do not hang off the bench, since the temperature difference at the level of your head and legs can reach 15 degrees. This can negatively affect your well-being.
Advice! It is better for a beginner to stay in the steam room for no more than five minutes. But experienced bathhouse attendants can pamper themselves with half-hour treatments.
Steam bath treatments improve health
- After you have warmed up thoroughly, you can give yourself a five-minute rest in the dressing room. And only then can you proceed to procedures with a broom;
- Of course, steaming together is more comfortable. You can take turns patting each other with a broom. After all, in order to perform whippings with a bath broom, you need to have a certain physical skill. You can persuade a friend or boyfriend to join you in the steam room.
Steaming is very useful and pleasant
Many people are interested in the question of whether it is possible to wash in a bathhouse with a sore throat. Experienced bathhouse attendants say: it is not only possible, but also necessary. After all, the bath helps to warm up the whole body, which increases its immunity.
We used to wash together
If for modern residents of Russia, when visiting a public bathhouse, the main taboo is that you cannot enter the section where members of the opposite sex wash, then for residents of Rus' such a ban simply did not exist. As indicated in the book “Bath. Essays on ethnography and medicine" (St. Petersburg publishing house, 2020) researcher of Russian antiquity Andrei Dachnik, foreign travelers were extremely embarrassed that men and women were almost not embarrassed by their nudity while washing. Stiff Catholics and Protestants paid particular attention to this fact. For example, the ambassador of the Roman Emperor Augustine Mayerberg wrote in 1661: “In public baths there are also women of ordinary rank in large numbers... mingling with men and not at all considering it important to expose their nudity to their impudent glances, which arouses lust.” Although none of the numerous sources says that washing men and women together in Russian baths led to debauchery. Foreigners note that people calmly accepted other people's nudity, only allowing themselves jokes on this topic. In villages, families often washed together, primarily for reasons of economy: the bathhouse cools down quickly in winter, and if you heat it twice, you won’t have enough firewood. However, religious leaders, and then the secular authorities, sought to eradicate this custom, which seemed immoral to them. The corresponding ban is contained in a collection of decisions of the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1551, called “Stoglav”. But ordinary people almost did not comply with this instruction of the holy fathers, so in 1782, Empress Catherine II signed the “Charter of Deanery,” prohibiting men and women from washing together. By the beginning of the 19th century, according to historian Andrei Dachnik, a clear gender division had already occurred in Russian steam rooms.
Washing after the steam room
First, you need to thoroughly rub the body with a terry mitt and soap. This will remove the dead skin layer.
A mitten made of natural material will help remove dead skin layers
If some areas of the skin are covered with acne, you can use tar soap and salt:
- Lather your skin with soap;
- Next, pour a little salt onto the washcloth;
- Lightly scrub your body with a washcloth. Do not overdo it, otherwise you can damage the skin and get an inflammatory process.
