The needle on the thermometer in the sauna hovered over 200 degrees. It was like being in a pizza oven. The next step was plunging into a freezing pool. Going from boiling hot to stinging cold is part ...

My first piece of advice about the Russian banya, or bathhouse, is that the cold dip pool is for cooling off. It is not for swimming. That’s a lesson I learned as a 16-year-old doing laps at a tiny ...

Health is wealth, and for London’s super rich the watchword for 2024 is the luxury of a private at-home sauna. Interior design studio Black & Milk has noticed a significant uptick in their well-heeled ...

Imagine being able to soak your cares away anytime, right in your backyard. As people prioritize wellness, they are finding ways to bring the spa experience home — starting with an outdoor sauna. As a ...

If I were to tell you I’d planned to attend a “wellness ritual at a bathhouse”, this would no doubt conjure a mental image of aromatic vapours wafting through steam-filled rooms coupled with an air of ...

I will admit to a little trepidation visiting Banya No.1 for the first time. Images of the near freezing plunge pool haunted me as we arrived, while thoughts of the banya staff (banschiki) lashing my ...

Simply sign up to the Style myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. It’s a Thursday morning in Brooklyn, and a young man in a bell-shaped felt hat is vigorously pumping a branch of oak leaves ...

I was in Moscow a couple of days ago and went to a real Russian sauna, known locally as a banya. Here is what I learned in three hours of sweaty insight into the Russian soul at over 100 degrees.