Scene by Laurie

One adventure you don’t want to miss when you’re in Morocco is a visit to the hammam. It’s unlike anything you’ve experienced before no matter how much you love spas (unless you’ve been to a Turkish bath house). You’ll come away with rosy red, soft, clean skin from the deepest body exfoliation you’ve ever had in your life, but no pain no gain! Here are some tips to help make the most of your Moroccan bath house journey.

First, get over your fears: Moroccans have used hammams for ages, originally due to the fact that indoor plumbing was scarce. Still today locals visit weekly and in addition to the cleansing it’s an opportunity for socializing. For westerners who are shier and unused to communal bathing, the hammam can seem a bit intimating, but don’t worry, it’s not and the results make it worth braving. Also in Morocco, you’re not completely unclothed; your lower region is covered unlike bath houses in Turkey, Japan and China where you’re completely nude.

Where to go: Some of the nicer hotels and riads (hotel with interior garden) in the bigger cities like Rabat or Marrakech have hammams but it’s just not the same as when you go to one in the medina (the medina is the original walled city within the city). While the medina hamman won’t be fancy like the hotel option, really that should be read as no frills, you’ll be with Moroccans rather than fellow tourists. The bathing rooms aren’t co-ed. Men and women have different areas in the hammam and different hours for visiting – women usually during the day and men at night.

What you’ll need: Bring a towel and your everyday shower toiletries with you. For maximum hammam impact, buy Moroccan beauty products at the souk, the market in the medina (you can usually get them at the hammam too):
1. olive oil soap: looks like black sludge and it’s sold in small plastic bags
2. black soap: herbed Moroccan clay used as soap and shampoo
3. a kees: black scrubbing mitt, P.S. buy extras to bring home with you, they’re way better than any loofa.

How it works: The hammam is like a steam room (although not as steamy as we’re used to in the US) and it’s more about bathing rather than spa treatments or hot tub soaking. After paying your nominal entrance fee, you’ll be given two buckets. Change and stow your clothes in the dressing area then head to the bathing rooms with your buckets and toiletries. Grab a seat and let the steam soak in. You’ll see other women sitting on the floor with their buckets in various states of the cleaning process.

A hammam assistant will come and help you. First you’ll be covered in the clay and left to stew a bit. The buckets are used to fetch hot and cold water from the fountains, then mixed together for the right temperature and dumped over you to rinse you off. Next comes the olive oil soap and the scrub of your life. Your attendant will give you a full body, extremely intense scrub down using the kees that will shed you of several layers of your skin, literally. More suds, rinses, a massage and you’re done!! Sounds crazy and it’s a bit of an aggressive assault on your body but your skin will be squeaky clean and feel fantastic….and believe it or not, you’ll want to go back!

Flickr: Ta7za, avoulot, ozziebackpacker