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Sweat is the best bet for many Gen Z and millennials, who are ditching the bars in favour of saunas and other communal health-centric hangouts.
Communal spaces for relaxation, physical and mental therapy, and socialization have been staples in many cultures around the world, including Scandinavia’s saunas, Indigenous sweat lodges, Japan’s onsens and Turkish baths.
The steam is rising elsewhere these days, the New York Post reported.
“Now try finding someone and sit back-to-back with them,” sauna-master Oliver Beryl suggested from a small sauna room in east London where a dozen men and women recently congregated in 90C conditions, as lavender-infused ice blocks melted over hot stones.
“Or, if you want, maintain eye contact with the person sitting next to you.”
Sauna-bathing has taken London and elsewhere in the U.K. by storm, fashionable among trendy 20- to 30-somethings more keen on health than getting wasted at the bar or pub.
Among the more popular saunas offered are those emphasizing community and “connectedness,” or something a bit more unique.
“I loved the feeling of losing yourself. It’s a 15-minute detachment from normal life,” said Jess Carmichael, per the Post, while emerging from her first “aufguss” at Community Sauna Baths in Stratford, east London.
She said the exhilaration she felt was like running into the freezing sea with hundreds of others on New Year’s Day.
“I think people need this right now — this warmth coming from the outside and feeling that you’re sharing an experience with others,” she added.
Community Sauna Baths co-founder Charlie Duckworth said the group started in 2022 when he and other “sauna nutters” installed a pair of small saunas, including one in a horse box in a former parking lot.
The not-for-profit’s social experiment proved so popular that it has expanded to four sites across the capital. Two more are slated to open soon.
A major part of the appeal for participants is that saunas serve as “a place of communion,” much like a pub or a church, Duckworth said.
“Sauna lowers inhibitions and also gives you a feeling of mild euphoria,” not unlike the effects of social drinking, he said. “I think it’s an excellent place to socialize.”
The British Sauna Society said the number of public sauna sites has jumped from 45 in 2023 to 147 this year.
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Unlike elsewhere where tradition plays a bigger role, the booming sauna culture in the U.K. has a clean slate of sorts, allowing providers to “have a bit more fun with it and be more creative,” Duckworth said.
At Peckham Sauna Social in south London, for instance, weekends feature relaxed ambient sauna nights with resident DJs and a non-alcoholic cocktail bar.
Aside from reducing stress and igniting ideas, some swear by saunas and cold plunges for helping sooth joint inflammation and improving heart health and sleep.
“Authentic sauna done well should be as regular as the gym, and doing it regularly is what offers the reported health benefits,” said Gabrielle Reason, secretary at the British Sauna Society.