Spa Body Treatments Massage Waxing

The hammams of Morocco are a unique and privileged place, devoted to physical and spiritual well being, to calm and serenity. In Marrakech there are countless hammams that offer an enormous range of services and beauty treatments, as well as health and relaxation cares. If you want to have a complete Marrakech experience you cannot go without a visit to one of its charming hammams.  

 

 

Etymology

 

Hammams are also called “Moorish baths”, in reference to the Spanish Muslim Al-Andalus, or “Turkish baths”, as they are known in most Western countries. The word “hammam” means “hot water” in Arabic and refers to a steam bath that finds its origin in the Roman thermal baths.

 

 

History

 

Hammams, as we know the nowadays, emerged and developed during the Ottoman Empire, although they find their origin back in the Roman thermal baths. From Turkey they spread throughout the Middle-East all the way to the Maghreb, thanks to the expansion of Islam. The hammam was indeed adapted to the precepts of the Muslim religion, which proposes a meticulous hygiene and frequent ablutions, especially before the ritual prayers.

 

Turkish baths were first introduced in the West in Ireland in 1856, due to the influence of the diplomat and politician David Urquhart, who made them popular in his book The Pillars of Hercules, where he described his experiences through Spain and Morocco. Less than a decade later, Turkish baths crossed the ocean in order to settle in the United States, where in 1863 the first Turkish baths of the continent were inaugurated in the Brooklyn Heights neighbourhood of New York City.

 

 

Description

 

Usually hammams consist of three interconnected rooms, similar to their Roman predecessors and having different temperatures: the first room is normally the cool room; then one enters the intermediate warm room and, finally, we find the hot room, equivalent to the Roman caldarium, which performs the function of the absorption of the steam and where the scrub massage is performed. The warm room is used for washing with soap and water, and the cool room is for relaxing, getting dressed, having a refreshing drink or, sometimes, even napping in private cubicles.

 

Recently hammams are flourishing throughout the West in relation to the new culture of relax and cult of the body, just as the fashion for spas and beauty resorts in many capital cities.

 

 

Treatments and services

 

The most modern hammams and spas offer all kinds of services and cosmetic treatments. The scrub massage is without a doubt one of the fundamental elements of the traditional treatment and is preformed on the skin spread with the typical and aromatic black soap, a creamy product extracted from boiled and pressed black olives.

 

There are various kinds of scrub massages, from the vigorous scraping with a special glove called “kessa” that is used to eliminate dead skin, to the softer and therapeutic massages often given with natural oils and essences, like sesame, orange blossom or argan. In any case, massages in the hammam are always invigorating and relaxing and leave the skin extremely soft and smooth.

 

Among all the services offered in hammams there are all sorts of beauty and cosmetic treatments, such as face packs with “ghassoul” cream, a mineral clay that softens the epidermis, reduces the secretion of grease, regenerates the skin and balances it by making pores narrower.

 

The creams and cosmetic products used in hammams are often applied following ancestral rituals and methods and use an enormous variety of essential extracts, such as olive, rose, argan, eucalyptus, marjoram, orange and lemon blossom, algae, jasmine, etc. Moreover, many hammams offer additional services, such as waxing, henna tattoos, and manicure and pedicure, and even hairdressing, gym, meditation or reflexology.

 

 

So, I strongly recommend you to visit a hammam while on holidays in Marrakech in order for you to delight in the pleasures of its services and treatments. There are many kinds of hammams, from the more popular and traditional ones to the more luxuriant and modern ones.

Most hotels in Marrakech have a hammam and a spa, and even many riads in Marrakech offer at least the most basic cares.

David Gonzalez-Company is a writer, journalist, educator and translator who has traveled extensively and has lived in several European, North American and African countries.

DYANNA SPA BODY WRAPS & SCRUBS TREATMENTS.ANTI-CELLULITE.MASSAGE.MANHATTAN NEW YORK NY

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