If you want to be treated like a Greek Goddess, then you need to get a Turkish hammam.
What it is: This treatment is basically when you have someone bathe and exfoliate you from neck to toe. It's derived from ancient Greek and ancient Roman bathing practices, where a person is washed and massaged by another person in a super-hot room. With that in mind, and the fact that it's kind of the must-try spa treatment right now, I decided to get my hammam on at the Trump SoHo Spa.
When I arrived, I was given the option for water, tea, or champagne. You know what I chose. With my glass of bubbly in hand, I was led to the locker room where I then stripped down—taking everything off. I threw on the fluffy spa robe and slipped my feet into the slippers provided. Once I was ready, I was escorted to the bath.
The bathing room was really hot. I'm talking Bikram Yoga hot. My washer (is that the proper title?) handed me a disposable bra and thong to put on. She left the room, and I put on my new skivvies. I then looked down and gasped. I hadn't had a proper wax or groomed my vagine in months. When it's cold, I tend to let things go. Whatevs.
Once I was in my proper attire, I laid face down on towels that were placed on a heated marble bed. The washer started throwing what felt like borderline boiling hot water on me. Ah! I asked her to make it a little cooler. She did, but it was still burning hot. I was warned that if it wasn't hot enough, I wouldn't be properly exfoliated. I wanted to remove as much dead skin as possible, so I sucked it up and eventually got used to the scorching temperature.
With my bare ass in my washer's face, she got to work. Buckets of water were thrown on me. Sometimes she poured the water on me, and other times she tossed it really hard on my backside. Was this supposed to be relaxing? Because right now I felt like I was being slapped by water and I couldn't calm my mind. After I was all soaked, she started using a special exfoliating glove wash cloth to scrub my toes, legs, back, neck, and arms. She got in between all my crevices, getting really close to my butt crack and vagina. I jolted the first time she got all up in my business, but hey, this was a full-body experience.
After my backside was fully exfoliated and rinsed, my whole body except for my head was covered in soap suds (like in the photo above). I was then massaged, rinsed, and turned over to repeat the previous process.
At the end of the whole treatment, I was doused with warm water and then cold water. I watched the stream of warm water glisten on my freshly buffed skin and then screamed in horror as the cold water poured down my body. The cold water was necessary so my body wouldn't go into shock once I left the bath.
Post-hammam involved me going into a room to relax, drink more champagne, and admire my now smooth-as-a-baby's-butt skin. I'm not sure if I would do it again, but I definitely think the treatment is worth one try.
Have you had a Turkish hammam treatment?
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Photo: iStockPhoto
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