An Unplanned Year

After the first, slightly brutal introduction to the world of hammam, you’d think we’d have been deterred from hammam forever.

Not so!

Our time in Tangier is for rest and relaxation, and what better way than to be beaten up with water again! However, this hammam experience whilst wet and scrubby like the first, was a much more sedate and gentle experience.

We went solo this time as there was only one lady working this afternoon. Entering the room, there is a domed, plaster roof, beautiful moroccan mosaic fountain at the end of the room, some marble benches for seating, a marble bench for the scrubbing, subtle under-bench lighting and a number of buckets.

The hammam started seated on the bench with a water sample offered to gauge temperature suitability. When happy, a bucket was used to douse you with warm water a few times. Front, back, left, right, head.

Then invited to the marble bench. This one did not have a plastic non-slip mat on it, and it was at waist height, with no steps to get up. Nothing could go wrong right? Right! With the elegance (no doubt) of a sealion, you slip onto the bench on your stomach.

Good news, the bench is not a marble barbecue! It is gently warmed and as comforting as a slab of wet marble can be.

Another couple of buckets of warm water are sloshed over you and the Beldi soap (an olive based soap) is applied and gently massaged in to your skin from top to toe. The massage continues as if there is no rush.

Eventually the scrubbing with the kessa glove. It is as rough as the last time, as kessa gloves are, but today it doesn’t feel like the hammam washer known as a kessala is trying to scrub down to the sub-cutaneous tissue layer. A good going over is given. Twice. Then a few more buckets of warm water.

Then you’re invited to roll over and the process repeats.

Then you’re invited to sit up and the process repeats again.

None of this hurts!!! SOO much more enjoyable than the previous/first hammam!

Another couple of buckets of warm water as I sit there admiring the tile work.

Then the scrubby masks begin. Rhassoul clay with eucalyptus and argan oil for the face. Gommage with coca oil and almonds for the body and then another that felt salt based (a bit sting-y) for the back. Another couple of buckets of water. Then invited to get off the big bench, and sit on the small bench. From waist-height wet bench to wet floor? Nailed it.

Then you sit on the lower bench, thinking this is quite a nice ritual, and how much would it cost to install a hammam at home whilst it is time for hair washing, combing with a scalp brush and another couple of buckets of water. Then foamy soap for a final clean before another couple of buckets of warm water to rinse.

Then it’s on with your towelling robe and thongs as you’re now as clean as you’ll be for a while!