What do you wear in a sauna?

The short version: in a traditional sauna you go naked, with a towel underneath you. In a public sauna in the Netherlands that is the norm. At home, you decide.

Why naked is the standard

It is not tradition for tradition's sake, it is practical. Clothing traps moisture against your skin, which makes it harder to shed heat and turns the experience stuffy. Wet fabric on a hot bench is also unhygienic, and synthetic material can start to smell or even degrade at 90 degrees.

The towel underneath you is mandatory everywhere. It keeps your sweat out of the wood.

In the Netherlands and Belgium

Most Dutch and Belgian saunas are mixed and textile-free. Swimwear is usually not allowed, precisely for hygiene reasons. Some venues have separate times or rooms where swimwear is permitted, often signposted as a swimwear day.

Elsewhere it works differently. In many British, American and southern European saunas swimwear is actually required. So check the house rules when you are abroad.

What to bring

• Two towels: one to sit on, one to dry off
• Slippers for the walkways
• A bathrobe for between rounds
• Water or tea

That is all. Leave jewellery and watches outside: metal gets hot and can burn you. Glasses can come in, but they fog up and get warm.

At home in your own sauna

In your own garden there are no house rules. Most people go naked with a towel, exactly as in a public sauna, simply because it is the most comfortable.

If your sauna tent sits in a garden that is overlooked, wrapping a towel or a thin cotton wrap works fine for the walk between the tent and the house. Cotton and linen handle the heat well, synthetics less so.

What not to wear

• Synthetic sportswear, which traps moisture and starts to smell
• Wet swimwear you have just been in the pool with
• Metal jewellery, watches and piercings
• Contact lenses, which dry out quickly in the heat

Afterwards

Only put clothes on once you have fully cooled down and are dry. If you keep sweating into your clothes you stay clammy and the relaxed feeling disappears fast. Give it a good ten minutes.