do you ever give someone a compliment in the sauna?
'Sexy six pack!' Compliments in sauna? Bad plan
Blog from Peper Hofstede from RTL news, (translated)
That you have to sit neatly on a towel and not have your neighbor unsolicited, is well known. But can you actually give someone a compliment about his beautiful body? And what do you do if someone wants to squeeze in an already full bubble bath? We ask three saunas: Lianda van Dam from Thermen Bussloo, Edwin Kempes from Spa Zuiver and Cees Aalders from Sauna van Egmond.
A wonderful day of sauna is the ultimate form of relaxation for many people. Especially now that it is so cold outside, you can warm up completely from the inside. Just no phone, news or obligations, but a few hours completely dedicated to soaking, massages, tukjes and good food. But yes, you are (almost) naked. And all the other people around you too. And sometimes it is smooth, or very busy. This increases the chance of an uncomfortable situation.
Fortunately, our sauna experts tell us that most visitors do have some kind of internal radar for this environment. Very often it is about good manners in general. But to be on the safe side we write down these unwritten rules; you will find five of them below. And that you will never be able to cover yourself against all embarrassing situations, the stories of Tamara and Marianne prove.
1. Bob! You here too?
"Funnily enough," says Edwin Kempes, "it almost never happens that people meet at the sauna nearby. If it does happen, it is almost always away from home at a sauna. That's where they all go to meet no known people. "Lianda van Dam recognizes that:" Especially for people who come all day. For an evening of sauna you do not go back and forth for another hour. "If you meet each other, it is customary to greet each other briefly and then politely ignore them. Good to remember, is that you really do not walk all day in your face. Kempes: "Most of the time you still have a towel or your bathrobe on." In his 30 years at Sauna van Egmond, Cees Aalders experienced only once that someone left because he met a friend: "That was a regular guest of ours. , a teacher. He met two students. That was apparently a bit uncomfortable. "There are people, incidentally, says Van Dam, who do not mind meeting each other:" They just go into the steam bath afterwards. And why would not you? You are also in the shower after exercise? You go to the sauna to relax, not necessarily to be naked. And nothing actually changes when you've seen each other naked. "
2. Fringing couples
Not done, find all three. Most rules state that even desired intimacies are not allowed, but also innocent cuddling and kissing is not really the intention in the sauna. It does not happen that often, they say. Cees Aalders: "We are a relatively small sauna with a lot of social control. And our staff is also very present. They really pay attention to that. "The same applies to the larger Spa Zuiver. "We often see that visitors also correct each other. I really do not think it's possible, the sauna is not the place for that. "Can not these two people stay away from each other? Just say something about it.
Tamara van de Beek (38):
"Normally I always go to the sauna on my own. Quite often, once every six weeks I think. I then completely relax, because I am very busy and extrovert. It went wrong when I was with a group of friends. We were somewhere near a sauna in the back corner, cozy a day chatting. We were also busy doing that when we walked into the steam room. You do not see a hand there anyway and the layout was not convenient either. I was so engaged that I completely overlooked the step to the first floor and so writhed. And with my head almost in the cross of a strange gentleman ended up. My friends did it in their pants - except that we did not wear them, of course. And that, unfortunately, is not. Fortunately, he and his wife, who sat next to him, laughed. "Normally I always introduce myself first," I said. And then I and my girlfriends quickly walked out again - such a bunch of women with the limp smile obviously does not help with the peace in the sauna. "
3. Everything is allowed on bathing suit day
Sauna Egmond does not do swimwear days. "That attracts a different kind of people, the pool audience say. That does not suit us. "At Spa Zuiver they have two swimwear days per week. There is indeed a different audience, says Edwin Kempes, but that is not to shave. But in general: "Young people are often more prudent than the elderly, so they will appear in bikini or swimming trunks. And in Amsterdam, of course, we are reasonably international.
4. What a wonderful six pack!
A compliment is always nice, right? Lianda van Dam of Thermen Bussloo thinks it is possible: "If you think someone has a nice tattoo for example, you can say that perfectly. That someone has put as decoration, so you can make a compliment about it. As long as you do it with respect. "Both gentlemen are more reserved. Aalders: "At a party you will not comment on each other's appearance either, so not in the sauna either." Kempes: "It's definitely meant to be good, but it does not add anything." But do not congratulate your handsome neighbor with his six pack or that beautiful lady with her rounded buttocks.
Marianne Notschaele-den Boer (56):
"I have been an avid sauna traveler for years. I go at least twice a month and in all that time I have rarely seen anything weird or embarrassing about. Something quite dramatic once. I was at Thermen Lucaya in Oss, now it does not exist anymore. I stood quietly in the general shower room. Suddenly a man standing next to me fell with a huge slap to the ground. I am small, 1.60 meters, and this giant was at least 2 meters long and was now stretched on the tiles. From his head a stream of blood flowed into the shower pit. He had gone out and hit his head with a crane. There I was, kneeling in my nose next to that big, naked man. I called for first aid, but it took a while before someone came. In the meantime I kept talking to him in the hope that he would join. Eventually he was taken away with an ambulance. I just finished my sauna day, but with a very restless feeling. I still wonder how it ended with him. I hope he got rid of it with a bond and that nothing worse was going on.
Another time I can remember well, although that was not so bad, but just a little crazy. I was warming up in the foot bath when suddenly I heard a strange noise. Really a sound that does not belong in the sauna: steel that knocks on steel. I looked around, but did not see where it came from. But then I spotted it: there was a naked gentleman with a piercing through his head. And on that piercing he had something that looked like a bunch of keys. He walked around perkly with that. It looked rather painful, but I quickly looked away again. "
5. Excuse me, can I still join?
Edwin Kempes: "This really seems to me a case of general good manners. If you see that the bubble bath is already quite full, it is not a good idea to put yourself in between. You then force everyone to sit closer together than they easily find. "That's what Lianda van Dam agrees with:" You have to have a bit of respect for each other's embarrassment. But luckily most people have that too. "At Sauna van Egmond there is a tile:" Civilization does not require clothing, undressing calls for civilization. "That means, says Aalders, for example that you do not shave your legs in the shower or , says Kempes, that you do not even enjoy sitting on the legs of the heat. Another one: do not stare at someone too long. But that is also very rude outside the sauna.
By Pepper Hofstede