Sauna: The Power of Deep Heat

A sauna revolution is sweeping the world. Design writer Emma O’Kelly headed to the Nordics and Baltics, where the tradition of steam baths originated, to discover the therapeutic and social benefits of this ancient ritual. She describes her revelations in her book, Sauna: The Power of Deep Heat.

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A huddle of horsebox saunas on a desolate stretch of Brighton Beach is not the sort of place you expect to find a dignitary. Yet on a crisp spring morning, the Estonian ambassador to the UK turned up, stripped off and settled into the steam. With him was an entourage of ‘sauna masters’, there to demonstrate to rapturous bathers just how sacred sauna is back in his homeland.

He came because there’s a sauna revolution sweeping the UK and beyond, and Estonia wants to be part of it. So does Finland, Lithuania, Norway and Latvia, and there’s space for them all. As cold-water swimmers continue to reclaim British waters, shoreside saunas are popping up from coast to coast to heat them up. For what could be better after a freezing dip in a lake, river or pond than the warm embrace of the steam? Especially when you can whisk yourself warmer with birch branches the Lithuanian way, or pour steam on the rocks the way the Finns do.

But sauna is about more than just getting warm; scientific studies show that regular sessions can reduce blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia, boost immunity and help with fatigue, depression and more. There’s a reason why sauna-loving nations such as Finland, Sweden and Norway jostle for the top position in the annual United Nations World Happiness Report.

With this in mind, when Helsinki-based photographer Maija Astikainen and I were commissioned to write a book about sauna and its health benefits, we knew exactly where to start. We plotted road trips to Finland, Estonia, Norway and Sweden, pinning our route to windswept archipelagos where saunas are serviced by an honesty box and a pile of wood, to dense Nordic forests where treehouse saunas are a thing and where raft saunas float on empty lakes.

Sauna building is a popular pastime during the long, dark Arctic winters and in the wilderness of Lapland. At nature’s harshest edge, we stumbled into ice saunas welded onto frozen waters and DIY-sauna contraptions made from Portacabins, army trucks, airplanes. We admired those talented enthusiasts with the skills to make their own and wished we could too.

Over the course of eight months, we clocked up 10,000 kilometres in Maija’s trusted camper van. Along the way, we found remnants of early ‘sweat houses’ - dug-outs covered in hides or furs, little more than a pile of hot stones heated by a fire. These evolved into smoke saunas - windowless wooden huts with an earth floor, no chimney, and a wood burning stove. For many, the smoke sauna is still the ultimate experience. (We tried it and we think so too.) It’s why, in 2014, Estonia’s smoke sauna tradition was added to UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Each year, this charter identifies esoteric traditions such as hand weaving in Egypt and grass mowing contests in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and declares them worthy of protection. Finnish sauna culture made the list in 2019.

In the countries we visited, important rites of passage – birth, death, marriage – were held in the sauna; spells were used to boost fertility, to bring good luck and love. In Finland, the sauna was known as the Poor Man’s Pharmacy and folk healers would perform blood-letting, cupping and deliver babies in its herb-infused steam. We met Finnish old timers who had been born this way, along with shamans, hipsters, office workers, heavily pregnant women, toddlers and gangsters and we shared beer, vodka, sausages and stories with them all.

We learned that when steam is involved, its curative powers are unquestioned. In its midst, psychological woes dissolve, physical aches and pains are remedied, conversation is restored and business deals are sealed. It lies at the heart of every ritual, the powerful companion to folk songs, chants and leaf whisking. It’s the gateway to ancestral wisdom and deeper, unspoken feelings. You could say that it is the protagonist of the book.

All the saunas we featured are open to everyone, for what is sauna, if not a place to gather with friends and family, to unravel internal conflicts and undo the knots? To turn off the tech and tune in to the moment? We tried and tested around 60 saunas, and after single every one we came out feeling restored, energised and happy to be alive.

Being Finnish, Maija grew up with the sauna. Being British, I didn’t, but, like her, I’m now addicted. As I scrub myself down at the end of each session, I wonder how long I will have to wait until my next. And it always feels too long.

Photography: Maija Astikainen