For most mixed-gender public saunas in Finland though, bathing clothes are mandatory and nudity is prohibited. Also, nobody cares that much what you are wearing
and you can wear your swimsuit to a single gender sauna, too, if it makes you feel comfortable.This is quite opposite to Germany, where regular sauna goers might very well tell you that clothes are prohibited and that they "pose a hygiene problem". I even heard people saying stuff like "This is a Finnish sauna, you don't wear clothes here!" in a German mixed gender sauna. Well, the opposite is true for a mixed gender sauna in Finland 🤷🏼.
Edit: My experience is limited, so I guess I was wrong about wearing bathsuits to single-gender saunas. Thanks for pointing that out @kadotux@lemmings.world !
Jaa mitähän ihmettä? I've been to many public saunas in Finland and almost all of them, if not all, prohibit the use of swimsuit/-pants. At least the ones that are in public pools/swimming halls. And the reasoning being as you said, hygiene.
Edit: whoops my bad, you were talking about mixed gender Saunas. You might be correct after all
Hygiene and chlorine
Can confirm re: Germany. It's often explicitly framed as a hygiene issue. That said, there are saunas where you may wear stuff, it's usually designated. Plus you have "women only days" in a good number of public saunas.
In Russia it's also common to eat dried fish and drink beer/sometimes vodka in the room next to the sauna.
In Germany it's often framed as a hygiene issue, because that's easier to sell to randos. The real issue it that it's uncomfortable to be nude when there are clothed people all around you. And the sauna itself is more comfortable when nude.
It's kina like a prisoners delemma, where the pareto solution is when everyone else is nude, and the nash-equlibrium is when everyone is clothed. Because of this, some people will want to defect (i.e. wear clothes), so we need to apply outside pressure to enforce the pareto-efficient solution (i.e. by asking people to remove their clothes).
Sometimes there are also men-only days. Tho they kinda suck.
Woman only day:
- Start with a sparkling wine
- Get a few skincare things for the sauna
- Nice smelling infusion
- A bit of after-care program in the water
Man only day:
- We put FUCKING BEER on the hot stone and add some BBQ scent. FUCK YEAH, MANLY.
I wish man only days where also a bit more "care" focused instead :(
A swimsuit is quite common in Norway. Basically you ask yourself the question "am I going to make anyone uncomfortable". If it's single gender and people are not extremely shy, you generally go with only a towel, but nobody is really going to care. If you're a gender mixed group of friends that don't know each other that well, you might prefer putting on a swimsuit in order to make sure people feel comfortable and included.
From my experience the Swedes are the same.
This is based on private saunas with friends. In public mixed gender saunas I don't think I've seen anyone go naked, but I'm sure certain Finnish tourists would and nobody would mind.
Can confirm the german part: In my gym there recently was an outrage because a Muslim member went to the Sauna with bathing clothes multiple times, which in the end resulted in his contract being terminated. Being naked in the sauna is almost the law here (but in the end nobody cares if you wear your towel or put it below you. Just remember: No sweat on wood!)
And Great Britain should be orange. Everywhere here would be 100% fine with you wearing a bikini or swimming shorts in a sauna as long as you aren't completely nude.
yeah I was gonna say...have been to a few saunas in Britain and people always wear bikinis or shorts
Posting Reddit links to lemmy feels wrong
Not only wrong - I can't look at the image without turning off my vpn
Replace www with old.
I consider it as a glorified Imgur. If you want to upload the images to catbox.moe or anything else and share the link, feel free, I would update the post!
Why not just upload the image to Lemmy as you make the post
In my experience, the U.K. doesn't do nudity in saunas - or anywhere else.
My experience is that the UK is about as prudish as the USA.
Every sauna I've ever been in you leave your towel outside and keep your swimming costume/shorts on. Festivals are an exception lol, but UK should be blue.
Feel free to scrape your sagging scrotum along the floor, or hell bend over at the worst possible moment and show us all your grey squirrel roadkill anus, but for the love of the gods please put a towel down before you go sit on stuff.
People who don't put a towel down should be shot.
Agreed. I don't need the sweat infused into the wood and me sitting on top.
There may be rules to shower beforehand but some will forget to choose to ignore it.
Why isn't Estonia covered? Saunas are like a rule here, like I haven't lived in a place that doesn't have a sauna in a 5km range and like every house has a sauna, even my last 3 work places had saunas. The rule here is naked with friends and family and cover all the naughty bits with strangers and coworkers.
I agree that Estonian sauna culture deserves respect. As for naughty bits covering, is there any difference between genders of friends and family and coworkers, or is one gender per sauna session the implication?
Depends on the crowd. Public saunas are usually gender segregated but for private ones it depends on who is comfortable with what but a mixed crowd is not uncommon from my experience.
What is the allowed yellow icon? Beanie and diapers?
Sauna hat.
https://finnmarksauna.com/en-us/blogs/sauna-news/sauna-hats-why-you-should-wear-one
So I was half right. Sounds like an Onion story.
What about the diapers? I was joking initially but now all bets are off.
Signed,
"Uncultured" AussieSo your scalp is more private than your privates? Fascinating
it's mainly Russia so I guess it's a gallon of moonshine
In Czech Republic & Slovakia it is usually a towel to sit on & being naked. Optionally you can wrap yourself in a larger towel or something like that. Most people respect it, but I did experience one woman being told to not wear swimming suit or leave the sauna area.
How is it in Denmark? I've seen beautiful saunas there, where you just jump to the sea to cool down. I NEED TO KNOW!
What's going on in Russia and Latvia? What does that symbol mean?
I think its a towel on a head?
My guesses ranged from hat, to acorn, to boob cap. Thing is I wouldn't put all of those past Russia
Polen was machst du?
Wenn man allgemein so schaut, also auch in die Kommentare hier, scheinen die anderen Europäer ganz schön prüde zu sein.
Zu viel Ammi Propaganda gesehen.
In hungary from my experience you only wear the towel and no clothes. In some places they even tell you that its mandatory to take it off.
Weird, my experience in Hungary was the opposite. No one nude and I think people would have been really weirded out. This was my experience from several thermal baths in the country, although always mixed gender. Maybe if there’s single gender days it may be different.
Did I miss something, did Iceland secede from Europe?
Nah. It melted.
Sorry...
That's so weird. How can you be naked in front of strangers?
By not wearing any cloths.
By not caring stupid things like that. Being naked is completely natural but somehow humans developed this thought that being naked is sinful or something
If your culture has taught you to "hide your shame", you probably can't.
If your culture has taught you that being nude is nothing to be ashamed of, it's as simple as breathing.
I was raised by the latter one and I cannot understand the first at all.
As the Irish comedian Dave Allen, talking about Adam and Eve, once said: "That's what happens when you eat apples."
Wouldn't it be even more weird to be the only one wearing clothes?
Everyone has seen naked people before.
Sorry for the downvotes. To be able to be naked in front of strangers you need to be able to appreciate yourself, your body and your sexuality and you must be able to give yourself a feeling of security. If any of these points are lacking – as with most people – clothing will help you to compensate this lack.
Weird and counterintuitive as it might be, being naked not in front of, but together with strangers is a good way to bolster self-esteem. It can be very wholesome to experience firsthand that your body is 100 % avarage and are not body shamed despite of nudity.
What a strange question
In the late 16^th century, a German pastor, Salomon Schweigger, accompanied the ambassador of the HRE to Istanbul and wrote an ectensive report about his visit.
One of his examples of (perceived by him) moral superiority of Germans over Turkish culture was, that in Türkiye public baths were single gender with obligatory clothing "to avoid sexual arousal", while back in Germany men and women were happily sharing the same bath butt naked without being sexual aroused.
So – German Freikörperkultur is far older than it's name.
In the Netherlands towels are optional in single gender saunas, or at least you have to bring one to sit on but you don’t have to cover your self. That’s my experience with men’s saunas though. Not sure how it works in women only saunas.
I've never seen single gender sauna/spa there, although some have ladies only days. Usually it's mixed and everyone is naked all the time, if they want (if it's cold out people tend to wear their bathrobes when moving around). And you sit on a towel except in the wet saunas. Swim clothing is not allowed, except on certain days.
In countries shaded with light blue, there are no uniform rules.
purple rules
