Hamams and barbers

As some of you may know, I am a big fan of going to the Chicago Sweat Lodge – a Russian and Turkish sauna.  My city in Turkey, Bursa, has been famous since the early 600’s for its hot springs.  This being the case, I headed to Eski Kaplıcı or Old Hot Spring for a day of bathing after class.  To contextualize this, it was 95 out and I walked about a half mile up hill, so when I arrived I was sweaty and hot.  But that only made the experience more typical since Turkey is a dusty and hot place.

The main difference between the Chicago baths and a Turkish bath is that the Chicago Turkish Sauna is a wet sauna, whereas a Turkish Bath really is a bath.  In Bursa, there is a hot spring that enters a small pool at around 80C and filters into a larger pool that is still hot.  Around this there are ledges to sit on where you can rinse with warm or cold water.  And in a cold room, there are ledges to cool off.  I got a vigorous scrub with a mitt that felt like steel wool, and then hopped in and out of the pools for the next three hours.  It really is a different kind of clean than the Russian style I’m used to.  Islamic culture stresses cleanliness – I’ve learned the proper way to ritually wash before entering a mosque – and the importance of cleaning dirt and grime from the skin is important in Turkey. Russian style saunas stress the importance of flushing impurity from the body.  The Turkish bath lays the importance on what’s on the body.

But differences aside, the experience was very good.  I saw a part of the city I hadn’t before.  And the bath itself dates to the 600’s and Emperor Justinius.  The current building is a 14^th century building that is just amazing.  I plan on going to another Hamam next week to compare the experiences.

But after the Hamam, I decided to make my version of a spa day and get a shave.  I could see my own mustache which isn’t good for me haha! But I went to the berber in my town and got a very good shave.  There is something exhilarating about sitting while another person holds a razor to your throat.  There is a human bonding experience as he doesn’t pull a Sweeney Todd on you. 

But the shave is not just a shave.  You get a straight razor shave plus a head massage.  I kid you not, I got a head massage.  It was delightful.  And in the city if I pony up an extra 3 Liras, I could get any stubble burned off with a kerosene torch.  Look it up on youtube.  And after warnings from my host family that the berber would be prohibitively expensive, I paid the equivalent of $2US.  This came after the warning that the Hamams were all seething cesspools of filth (they weren’t by the way.  Perfectly clean).  Though I did heed the warning that this particular berber was very bad at haircuts after seeing his bowl cut of the man in front of me.

ü  Go to hamam and have Turkish Bath experience

ü  Get a Turkish shave

Good me-day.