Why we steam before we scrub

Ask any of our therapists for one tip and most will say the same thing: spend twenty minutes in the steam hall before your treatment. It sounds like a small detail, but it changes how the next hour feels.

Warm skin is soft skin

Moist heat relaxes the outer layer of the skin and loosens tight muscles. When the salt glow begins, the crystals glide rather than drag, and the oil that follows sinks in easily. Guests who steam first nearly always tell us the scrub felt softer.

You cannot rush a body into relaxing. Steam simply gives it a head start.

How to do it

• Arrive thirty minutes before your booking
• Sit on the lower bench for ten minutes, then move up if you like
• Rinse under a lukewarm shower and wrap up in your robe
• Sip water on the way to the treatment room

If steam is not for you, a warm soak in the garden pool does much the same job. The point is simply to arrive warm, loose and unhurried.

Your therapist will notice the difference, and so will you.