Hammam: Public Bathing

I went to the Hammam today and it might be my new favorite activity. What is the Hammam you say? The Hammam is a public bath. Before you get all grossed out about communal nudity, read the rest of the post so I can tell you how awesome it is.

Things to bring with you to the Hammam:

·         Towel

·         Clean underwear

·         Scrubber( it is like a mitten, without a thumb, and is very abrasive)

·         Small bucket with a handle

·         Mat

·         Shampoo and conditioner

·         Black soap and henna mixture

·         Regular body soap

·         Razor and shaving cream if needed

You start out in a room with benches all along the walls. This is similar to a locker room, except there are no lockers. There are women at a desk that put your things in a cubby and guard them all for you. This is room number 1. In room number one you strip down completely, for women underwear is optional, but as my friend and I quickly realized, you might as well do without. This is the part that a lot of us Americans might have issues with. Yes you are naked, yes everyone else is naked. You accept it and move on. Focusing on the nakedness, feeling awkward or trying to cover up will only make you stand out more.  After stripping down, you get all your stuff together. You receive a large bucket in Room 1 and all your bathing supplies go inside; scrubber, small bucket, mat, soaps and shampoos. Your clothing goes in whatever bag you brought with you and gets handed to the women behind the desk.  You then carry your towel and your big bucket to Room 2.

For now we are just going to skip Room 2 and walk straight through to the final room. Room 3 feels like a sauna when you walk in. It is hot and steamy and there are naked people all over the place. (side note, the Hammam is segregated by gender of course. There are certain times for men and certain times for women). All along the walls of the room are sets of faucets, low to the ground. Each set has one hot water spout and one cold water spout and they are all about 2 feet apart. You walk in, pick a spot on the wall, run some clean water on the spot and then lay your mat down.  Sit down on the mat, get comfortable, empty all your shower things onto the small ledge that runs around the wall. There is a ledge all along the out edge of the floor as well. The room is like a hill with the top being the center of the floor so that all the water runs down, over the ledge and into drains.

 After you’ve emptied your bucket you begin to fill it with hot water. Using your small bucket, you slowly get your entire body wet, including your hair. All of this is very relaxing and not to be rushed. You’re just supposed to take everything in. There are women all around washing themselves and their children, no one is in a hurry. The next step is mixing your black soap and henna with water to make a paste. The black soap and the henna are amazing. You rub the paste all over your body, covering every inch. It took us about 15 to 20 minutes to get completely rub it in everywhere. Your neighbors will help you cover your back and you are expected to return the favor.  After your covered , you rinse it off with bucketfuls of hot water. Your skin will already feel different, the soap and henna mixture gets into your skin and helps remove the dead cells.

Now comes the really fun part. In the center of the room are two older women. For an extra 25 Dirhams, they will scrub you from head to toe. You lay down on your mat, you head is in the lap of one of the old women, she takes your scrubber and just starts attacking your body. She scrubs absolutely every inch of you. She moves you around, rolls you over, lifts your arms, scrubbing the entire time. This is when we realized underwear wasn’t really necessary because even though we were wearing them, she moves them out of her way. The combination of the black soap and henna and the scrubbing causes your skin to just roll off. Layers and layers of skin, coming off in clumps. Sounds disgusting, I know, but it feels amazing.

After the scrub down, you go back to your spot. You rinse off the dead skin, using cold water this time. You wash and rinse your hair. Use conditioner. Shave if you need to. Once you are all done with whatever hygiene things you need to do, you wash your body one last time with regular body soap. Rinse yourself a few times and now you are ready to go. You can stay and relax for awhile if you like or just grab your towel and head on out to Room 2. Before you leave though, you are supposed to wash the area under your mat; just a quick rinse with new water is fine.

Room 2 has faucets all along the walls, but this time it’s only cold water. This is mostly just the cool down, relaxing room to get you ready to head out into the world again. You don’t stay in here too long, once you’re almost dry, you head back into Room 1. There you get your stuff back, return the large bucket and get dressed. If you need lotion, you put it on in Room 1 before you put your clothes back on.

I have never felt this clean in my life. My skin is so soft and wonderful. I have constantly dry skin, I have to put lotion on like three times a day, but now my skin doesn’t feel dry. It is smooth and soft and clean. If you ever find yourself in Morocco, the Hammam is an absolute must. I am going to go back next week.

The Hammam is all about community and getting clean. This used to be one of the very few reasons women were allowed out of the house. Once a week, they would go to the Hammam and spend 3 to 4 hours just relaxing and talking. It is where they got caught up on all the latest gossip. The Hammam is also where they would pick out wives for their sons. The mothers would spend hours in the Hammam just watching all the young girls, listening to them talk, seeing if they had beautiful bodies and would then pick out the one they liked best to recommend for their son. The mother’s opinion was highly valued because, as a woman she had the opportunity to see what the girls were really like when they had their guard down.  The Hammam is still a community event. There were about 25 other women when I went. Some of them were old, some of them had their children with them, and some of them were my age. Everyone was talking, helping each other bathe and just relaxing. I can’t wait to go again.