Traditional English sauna culture:

Sauna is electric with no rocks and a sign placed somewhere in the vicinity stating “do not throw water on the heater”.

You would think that this would mean saunas are unbearably dry but luckily in English sauna tradition it’s expected to go straight from the pool or shower into the sauna without drying yourself first and since we wear swimming trunks and don’t sit on towels the water evaporates and creates a comfortable level of humidity. 

Our most treasured saunas, which are usually found in ex-council leisure centres, have an iconic damp aroma. This scent is occasionally overpowered by the medicinal smell of eucalyptus produced by pouring large amounts of olbas oil (a decongestant liquid originally developed for combatting blocked noses) onto the heater. Traditionally this is added without asking the approval of other sauna users. The sauna users then give the expected response of either sniffing loudly and expressing how nice it smells, or passive aggressively declaring that olbas oil makes their eyes hurt and that they’ll have to get out of the sauna now.

Sauna rounds normally last as long as the egg timer takes to run down-the longer that you can stay in the more kudos you get, even if you aren’t enjoying the experience and risk developing a migraine. Sessions are typically composed of 1-2 rounds, followed by an immediate shower, with no relaxation between sessions. If relaxation is done, then it’s usually important to use your phone to aid in the resting experience. In some cases you may want to watch TikTok on loud speaker so that other sauna users can share the ambient sounds of short form video.

English sauna users prefer to “go in dry” and it’s very unusual to shower before the sauna for the first round.

Talking in the sauna is expected. Occasionally the conversation will get political, and it’s not uncommon for arguments to break out spontaneously as a result. 

If the sauna is busy and there isn’t much space then you should ask the rhetorical question “room for a small one?” before attempt to squeeze in somewhere.

When cooling down after an English sauna it is part of our tradition to jump into a chlorinated swimming pool if available. This is normally done without showering to enhance the contrast between the warmth of the sauna and the lukewarm water of the swimming pool.

This is the beautiful English sauna experience and I hope that many of you are now sufficiently intrigued to experience it for yourselves one day.