Saunas are a wonderful way to look after your beauty needs in a very natural way. The benefits of regular sauna use are significant, and what better way to spend some time with the family?
Regular sauna use opens pores and allows the natural perspiration to give them a deep clean. The process isn’t just affecting the surface of your skin, but scraping dirt away like cleansers and scrubs do. Sauna heat gets deep down into your epidermis and flushes out toxins and improves the blood supply, which in turn helps to oxygenate your skin so that it looks cleaner and healthier.
In addition the sauna heat is also beneficial for unclogging swollen sinuses. Saunas can prevent a full-blown illness such as a cold or flu. Red noses and weakened systems are never a pretty sight – , regular sauna use can contribute to the beauty of the face and entire body by preventing illnesses.
To get the most out of your sauna session in beauty terms, here are a few insider tips.
- Always go into the sauna as clean as you can – take a shower before using a sauna to remove dirt, oils and cosmetics. This will allow your skin to reap the benefits of the sauna as quickly as possible.
- Drink a glass of water before and after your sauna session. A sauna will make you sweat – which is good – but you need to ensure that your skin stays hydrated.
- Adding a few drops of essential oils to the water that you ladle over the sauna coals – for normal skin, add mandarin or lavender. Oily skin would benefit from lemon or eucalyptus oil and dry skin likes rose oil or camomile.
- Always take steps to protect your hair from the heat – wrap your hair using a cool, damp towel. Putting conditioner on your hair beneath the towel will work well too. You can also go into the sauna with clean, washed hair under your towel and then use warm oils such as olive, grape seed or almond to condition and gloss your hair after the sauna session.
Cleansing and refreshing your skin in a sauna will take a little while. The first 15-minute session will open your pores; the next session or sessions will encourage perspiration and really get the process moving. So you will be in the sauna for some time and that time can be well spent simply relaxing on your own or quietly chatting with friends or family.
A great benefit for both mom and dad – sitting in a sauna is another way to potentially reduce the appearance of wrinkles, though the effects are temporary. Saunas help relax your muscles, but they can also help your skin get rid of toxins that may contribute to wrinkles. As the steam from the sauna penetrates your skin, it may help plump up wrinkles, which can diminish their appearance.
When it comes to kids, they can safely enjoy a brief sauna session; however, until puberty, kids cannot regulate their body temperature through sweat production as efficiently as adults can. This means that children under twelve are more vulnerable to the heat effects of saunas. For this and other reasons, kids do not follow the same guidelines of sauna use as their parents.
It is recommended that kids under the age of six avoid sauna use. Sure, carrying a little one into a sauna with you for a few moments is fine, but small children and babies cannot express their needs specifically and cannot handle temperature extremes well. Healthy older children and adolescents can use the sauna under supervision with an adult who is experienced in sauna use and safety (Keep an eye out for next week’s article on how to use a sauna safely).
Research has found that kids tend to suffer from contact burns in conventional saunas. This happens when kids accidentally touch or fall on hot parts of the heater assembly. Infrared saunas are constructed with grilles over infrared heaters and cannot produce this type of burn.
If you’re going to bring your kids into the sauna with you from time to time, you might want to think about buying an infrared sauna that is big enough for the whole family.
A sauna is a healthy practice that helps the body sweat and perspire, which in turn contributes to both inner and outer beauty.
