The right way to take a sauna

If you spend more than a few days in Finland, odds are you’ll come across a sauna. You’ll find one in almost every house, summer cottage, hotel, and apartment building, and of course at swimming pools and other well-equipped swimming spots.

Written by roope Lipasti transLated by Christina saarinen

The sauna is one of the world’s finest inventions, but the concept can be strange at first if you aren’t used to it, and there are many unspoken conventions that apply. Here’s a short guide to sauna etiquette.

Nudity. Yes, people are naked in Finnish saunas, though usually women and men go to sauna separately. There are exceptions, however, and depending on the situation, swimsuits may also be worn – for example, in mixed-gender saunas at ice-hole swimming spots. As a general rule, however, you go to sauna naked, though it’s not as if it’s written into the Finnish constitution. So you won’t wind up in jail if you decide to wear a bathing suit or wrap yourself in a towel. However you go, the most important thing is to enjoy it.

Most swimming halls explicitly forbid swimsuits in the saunas, but if you use a pefletti, it’s hard to see what harm a swimsuit would do. A pefletti is a disposable, single-use bench cover. They are generally available at public saunas for you to use.

Whisking. In the summertime, in particular, it’s traditional to make sauna whisks out of birch branches. The branches are tied into a beautiful bundle. The whisk is kind of like a sponge, or perhaps a medieval torture device, depending on your point of view. The idea is that you use it to beat yourself on different parts of your body – or, perhaps, your benchmate’s back (it’s a good idea to ask permission first). The whisk is softened by soaking it in water, so it not only gets your skin clean, but it makes the sauna smell nice too.

Throwing wAter. In a Finnish sauna, water is thrown on the hot stones of the sauna stove, or heater in case it’s an electric one. The resulting steam momentarily makes the sauna very hot. The hotter, the better. However, if you aren’t alone in the sauna, it’s good to ask the others how much steam they are comfortable with. If the heat is too much for you, you can move to a lower bench. Finnish men are unlikely to do so, however, because it would be a sign of weakness. That kind of attitude is unfortunate and old-fashioned and has even led to deaths.

If the bucket of water is empty and you are about to leave the sauna, it’s polite to fill the bucket and return it to its place.

Cooling off. After taking a sauna – or between turns in the sauna – it’s good to cool oneself off from time to time. So step outside for a moment to cool off. During the winter, you can jump into a snowbank and make snow angels or take a dip in an ice hole – a large opening made in a frozen lake or sea, sometimes large enough to swim in. It’s nicer in the summer, though, when there’s no option to do either of those stupid things, and you can settle for something like a cold drink.

SociAlizing. In Finland, going to sauna is often compared to going to church, meaning that taking a sauna is practically a sacred event, during which people are happy to sit quietly. Or at least to show restraint while chatting. On the other hand, Finns may take a sauna as an opportunity to talk, and even to discuss big, important topics. In the sauna, when everyone is naked, even titles and status are left in the dressing room.

S A unA night. It’s a very Finnish tradition: going to sauna somewhere with a group of friends. It often includes having dinner and some drinks. In other words, for Finns, taking a sauna is both intimate and social. While Finns don’t generally talk more than necessary, if you’re naked in the sauna, talking is okay, even with strangers. s

From holes in the ground to apartment buildings

The sauna is not a Finnish invention, but it tells you something about Finns’ sauna madness that there are an estimated 3 million saunas here, in a country of only 5.5 million people. Though perhaps it’s not surprising: up in the northern latitudes, it’s quite a luxury to have a warm place where you can bathe.

The earliest known Finnish saunas are earth pit saunas from the Bronze Age, about 3,000 years ago. However, these saunas probably existed already 10,000 years ago. The idea was simple: stones were heated in a pit, and when they were hot enough, a kind of tent was spread over the pit and a sauna could be taken. Starting in the 6th century, dedicated buildings were constructed for saunas, usually from logs.

Nowadays, there are many types of saunas. The rarest, but perhaps the most valued and atmospheric, is the smoke sauna. A smoke sauna has no chimney at all. Instead, after the big pile of stones has been heated, the smoke is aired out of the sauna. Heating up a smoke sauna takes time and is somewhat dangerous – smoke saunas have burned down often enough. However, the steam in a smoke sauna is uniquely soft, not to mention that smoke saunas are usually beautiful. A small downside is that you usually come out of a smoke sauna a bit dirtier than when you went in, due to all the soot on the walls.

Traditional wood-burning sauna stoves are common, especially in older detached single-family houses: the steam in these saunas is also good and soft, and they can be heated as hot as you like.

Nowadays electric saunas are the most common and easiest to use. They don’t require a chimney and can fit into small spaces, making them suitable for apartment buildings, for example. They’re also effortless, as all you have to do is switch them on. On the other hand, they use a lot of electricity and the steam generally feels quite dry. And they’re not at all as atmospheric as a wood-burning sauna.

Public saunas can be found in all the big cities, so go ahead and give it a try!

Written by roope Lipasti transLated by Christina saarinen