By Sara Fabek Zovko
The Casa Hammam Spa
A thrilling experience every woman should experience.
Entering a Hammam Spa means being greeted by the strong scent of oud, a soft light and a door that separates the cold winter air and the outside world from a warm, feminine safe haven. No men are allowed behind this door; that’s where the relaxed femininity of a Hammam spa begins.
Having grown up with black soap and kessa scrubbing gloves scattered around my bathroom, I was somewhat familiar with what to anticipate from the Hammam experience: a thorough scrub that leaves one feeling like they are occupying an entirely different body to the one they entered with. The Casa Hammam Spa, however, goes beyond this.
The Casa Hammam Spa
While walking down the stairs in an unfamiliar Se environment wearing nothing but underwear and a small towel, it’s easy to feel vulnerable. However, as I am generously slathered with black soap, I realise the women working there couldn’t care less about the fact that my underwear set is ancient, the scar on my right thigh or the shape of my hips. Their job in this moment is to cover me in soap and send me off to the sauna, where the hot steam makes it practically impossible to see.
It doesn’t really matter; eyes closed and head hanging back, the steam begins to fulfil its purpose of relaxing every single muscle in my body. As other women enter the room, a quiet hello with a smile in their voice is enough to create an atmosphere of comfort and safety. Some women enter in their underwear, others choose to go topless, although that’s the last thing that matters, as the room’s silence is broken only by the whirring of the steam machine.
Time doesn’t exist in the sauna, so as I continue to bask in the hot steam, one of the lovely women working at the spa comes in and grabs me for the main event: scrubbing me into another dimension. I am then ushered into the room and told to lay down, and it begins. Despite the harsh nature of a kessa glove, there’s a tenderness to the way my skin is being scrubbed down. A flip to my back and a body-round cleanse later, I am asked if I want my face scrubbed, too, with a gentleness that reminds me of the way my mother and grandmother have held my face throughout my life.
The Casa Hammam Spa
After a shower and a hair wash, I proceed to the intimate room next door where I help myself to some mint tea, covered in nothing but two towels. I see women coming down the stairs, ready to embark on the experience I have just wrapped up, and I hope they not only enjoy it, but appreciate the intricacies of it all. The safety, the calm, the feeling of leaving their insecurities at the door, the effortless tenderness with which the women of the spa welcome them.
Every element of a Hammam spa visit is a reminder and an emphasis on the gentle femininity it is so easy to forget in our day-to-day lives. The Casa Spa is a luxurious Hammam spa located on Edgeware Road in London.
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