You may still think you need to join a gym or hotel spa to experience steam rooms, saunas or hydrotherapy baths. Not so. Wellness products have become readily available for the home, and some can be retro-fitted, so you won’t have to wait until you are refurbishing your bathroom before you can install them.
Nor do they cost a fortune. “As manufacturing costs come down, so products that just a few years ago were really only viable for people with large bathrooms and large budgets have become available across the market,” says Carl Syres of Bathtek. “We’re seeing exciting products hitting the market which many home owners can afford.”
Sally Cutchie, designer at UK bathroom company CP Hart, cites steam treatments as a luxury that could soon become the norm in UK bathrooms: “Thanks to new innovations, people can now enjoy the luxury of steam integrated into their shower enclosure, eliminating the need for additional space.” And she adds that similar developments have seen more affordable saunas being introduced to the domestic market.
Whirlpool Baths
Whirlpool, or hydrotherapy baths, are popular and have proven health benefits in terms of relieving back pain or muscle aches. They’re also very relaxing and enjoyable to use. They work by water from the bath being sucked in by and then pushed back out through whirlpool jets. The result is buoyant effervescent water that which massages the body. Jacuzzi is perhaps the best-known manufacturer, but other companies are adding whirlpool baths to their collections, such as Duravit and Roca. While baths in fitness centres are large, products for the home are much more compact, and many won’t take up any more space than an ordinary bath.
And if you don’t have space for a bath, or you’ve decided to forgo a bath in favour of a large shower, you can enjoy water massage by installing body jets in the shower walls. Alternatively, buy a shower tower, which has integral jets.
Steam Cabins
Steam cabins offer a warm wet heat. Sweating in steam opens up the skin’s pores, allowing for a deep cleanse, while steam can help relieve respiratory problems by loosening mucous in the lungs. And because heat increases the heart rate, it’s argued that steam treatments offer some of the benefits of exercise…not that sitting in steam should take the place of going for a jog or swimming 50 lengths.
Choose from elegant, contemporary and very high-tech steam rooms that are built to order by manufacturers such as Klafs, Effegibi, Duravit or Teuco. These are beautifully styled, and are at the most costly end of the scale. Alternatively, buy ready-to-fit cabins from manufacturers such as Aqualusso, which look like a traditional shower enclosures, but which have a steam option, not to mention extras such as surround sound and comfortable seating. The price tag for these products is pleasantly surprising, starting at around £1,500.
Carl Syres says fitting a steam cabin “isn’t much more complicated than installing a normal power shower enclosure. You need hot and cold water, a 13 amp power supply, and plumbing waste is the same as for any bath or shower.”
Saunas
If you don’t like the wet heat of steam, nor sitting in mist, you may well prefer to sweat in the dry heat of a sauna – long reputed to be a key factor in Scandinavians’ good health, along with their copious consumption of herrings.
Traditional saunas use hot stones to heat the temperature of the air inside to between 70-100 degrees C, while humidity is kept low by pouring cold water on the stones. However, most modern home saunas have electric heating elements with thermostats to maintain safe temperatures. Saunas offer similar health and relaxation benefits as steam, but you should consult a doctor before using one if you are pregnant or have a health condition.
Sauna manufacturers include Villeroy + Boch, Helo, Di Vapor, Vi Spa and Inca UK.
Infra-Red Saunas
Unlike traditional saunas that heat the air, and so heat up your body, infra-red saunas have infra-red heaters which emit radiant heat that is absorbed directly into your body, causing you to sweat. The experience is compared to sitting out in the sun. Infra-red saunas run at lower temperatures than their traditional counterparts and so are more easily tolerated.
Chromotherapy and Aromatherapy
Chromotherapy uses changing colours to affect mood and promote relaxation, and many whirlpool baths, steam cabins and saunas come with colour-changing LED lights. Aromatherapy oils in your bath water or steam can also enhance the spa experience.
And if you win the lottery, you can go to town by commissioning your own dry salt room, snow room, hamman or rasul. Cleanliness is, after all, next to godliness.
