Moroccan Bath, Kuwait Times

Moroccan bath: Relaxing, refreshing and purifyingPublished Date: July 13, 2007By Nancy Oteifa, Staff writer

What could a woman need after a long and tiring week of work assignments and home chores? The most relaxing and comfortable way for women to pamper themselves after an exhaustive week is a Moroccan steam bath followed by a relaxing massage.The Moroccan bath, known in Arabic simply as hammam is a tradition spread across the Middle East. It has also been known as the must-do ritual before a girl gets married. Farida, a salon owner in Salmiya, explained that the Moroccan bath serves various purposes. "The Moroccan bath is done to clean, whiten and soften the skin," she said explaining that it also helps to relax and helps blood circulation, the veins and joints in the body. It also releases all the pain from the body and the stress of the wholeworking week.

The Moroccan bath could vary in styles and settings. Moroccan bath is usually taken in a room which looks like a regular bathroom the only difference being the pipe with steam, the basin and the ceramic bench for customers to lay on. The Moroccan bath is quite a big room where two can be seated. "The room is always humid and wet even if the pipes are not on," explains Farida, "It's slightly dark inside to make you feel more relaxed and sleepy.She went on to explained that in her salon they only do Moroccan baths for women. I have many customers who come and ask for Moroccan bath especially on the weekends because they want to feel relaxed, refreshed and energetic for the new week, she says.Farida guided me through the steps of the Moroccan bath. Firstly, customers have to wear some sort of bikinis as they cannot go into the Moroccan bath naked. "Then we turn on the steam pipe and when the bath is full with steam, the woman stays inside for around 10 minutes.Next, enters one of the girls working in the salon and covers the customer with Moroccan soap. The soap which is black looks like a liquid thick jell. When it spreads all over the body the customer has to sit for 10 minutes inside the steam bath. The customer is seated on a special ceramic bench waiting for the body pores to open from the steam. This is the zenith moment when the soap starts to work, and cleans and softens the whole skin, Farida said.Then, we wash the customer and put another powder. This Iranian white powder is used for whitening the skin. The whitening powder stays on the skin for around five to 10 minutes depending on the sensitivity and the color of the skin. Then it is washed off. "After washing the body from the powder we start scrubbing the skin with a special luffa or {leefa} as we call it," Farida said. She then explained about the process of scrubbing. "We start from the feet and then up to the upper part of the body. While scrubbing the dead skin and other dirt from the body is removed," she said. Then, apparently the customer is guided to take another shower with a special whitening soap {whitening saboon}. Then we use a shower jell to give the skin more softness and to make it smell nice. After the many-stage process the customer is toweled off. To finish the Moroccan bath there is another cream that we apply to customers, Farida said. "After all the stages of Moroccan bath customers feels relaxed and fresh," Farida assured.Having finished with the bath the next step, which customers prefer, is a relaxing massage. It is still very important and gives a real different feeling and sensation. Some customers go only for the Moroccan bath, while others take the whole package of the bath with the massage. The massage is done after 20 minutes from the bath in order to give effective results.Farida concluded, "The Moroccan bath takes 40 minutes and the massage around takes another 35-40 minutes." She then advised women to take this Moroccan bath twice a month to keep them all the time relaxed. "..because even with the regular everyday shower the skin still needs to be cleaned in a more professional way. Total cleanliness is only achieved through a session of Moroccan steam bath as it works on a deeper skin level".