Moroccan Hammam: Everything you wanted to ask about the hammam experience!

Sarah Steiner

4 months ago

One of the most iconic things to do on holiday in Morocco is to try a Moroccan hammam. The experience really is one of a kind.

Not only are you going to leave feeling refreshed and cleaner than you have ever felt before. But speaking as a female, the entire opportunity to be a part of a Moroccan hammam feels quite like a privilege to be able to experience.

Moroccan women, and especially in Islamic culture, are traditionally conservative. But not so inside the hammam.

If you’ve done some research or started searching what it really is like in a Moroccan hammam then let me say that I’m glad you’ve found this post. Albeit there are those that exaggerate the drama of a hammam experience to borderline alarming.

But it’s not like that.

Moreover I would describe the whole process of a Moroccan hammam as an honour to experience this centuries-old tradition.

And perhaps because all modesty (and most of your clothing) is left outside it truly feels more humbling than anything, to be a part of.

So read on. And go ahead. Leave your modesty at the door and try something totally different.

The experience of a Moroccan hammam will leave you feeling refreshed, cleaner than you have ever felt before, and very glad/pleased you did it.

It feels good. It’s good for you. And as far as things to do in Morocco; this will be your most uniquely memorable experience. Guaranteed!

History of the Moroccan hammam

The tradition of a hammam started from back when homes didn’t have public water. The hammam originated in Islamic culture as a place to prepare for prayer. And thus, bathhouses were commonly found next to mosques and medinas.

As well as providing for the needs of ritual ablutions, public bathhouses also provided for general hygiene in an era before private plumbing in homes.

A hammam was where people would go weekly to wash and bathe.

What is a Moroccan hammam?

A Moroccan hammam is very similar to a Roman bath or Turkish hammam.

As well as for ritual ablutions and hygiene, a hammam was historically and culturally an important social point of gathering for men and women (separately) in the community.

Typically, a Moroccan hammam is designed with three connecting rooms.

hot steam room;
a warm room for washing and bathing; and,
a cold room for changing, rinsing and dressing before leaving.

In Morocco you will come across a range of hammams. Some are traditional and historic hammams laid out with the three connecting rooms.

There are also public hammams like the hammam in Hassan II Mosque which is designed for ablutions before prayer.

And there are Moroccan hammams that are designed more for tourists and that are much more akin to a spa experience.

Hammam Mouassine in Marrakesh. Which Moroccan hammam to try in Marrakech, Morocco? — Hammam Mouassine since 1562.

About the Moroccan hammam process

Whether you are visiting a traditional Moroccan hammam in Marrakech or a local style Moroccan hammam in a smaller city somewhere off the tourist trail; the process is pretty much the same.

Part 1 – Reception and the changing room

First you will enter and pay someone at reception.

Depending on whether you are using a local hammam or a Moroccan hammam in Marrakesh, there will be different means of storing your personal belongings.

Apart from the reception room, the first official room of the hammam is framed with long benches where you can change (remove your clothing).

Tip: Put your towel or robe on and take your personal belongings back to the front reception area to store in a locker.

Then proceed back into the hammam for the next stage.

This is the more official start of your Moroccan hammam experience!

Is there a toilet in the hammam?

Yes. There will be a toilet to use in the hammam.

The hammam in Marrakech has a toilet in the reception area you can use before heading inside to get changed.

In a local Moroccan hammam there will be a much more simple toilet (squat) off to the side as part of the procedure before entering the steam rooms.

Part 2 – enter the first warm room; the Moroccan hammam SCRUB

Assuming you have made the executive decision to have the full Moroccan hammam experience and paid for a scrub (often called ‘massage’) your time starts now.

You will be assigned to one of the female hammam staff.

Wearing your towel, follow her into the warm room.

Tip: Expect to find a warm, steamy room with an area of the wall with taps and large buckets of water, and other ladies lying, sitting and scrubbing or being scrubbed.

Likely with accompanying instructions in Moroccan Arabic, follow the gestures of your assigned lady to hang up your towel, tie up your hair and sit down on the rubber mat.

She will guide you to sit and turn or lie down and roll over as needed while she first covers your body with black soap and begins the traditional scrub…

Tip: Expect the scrub – with the exfoliating mitt to be firm; bordering on rough. And debatably bordering on painful (especially in the more sensitive areas).

But the clean is unreal. (That needs to be in bold and underlined).

It really is a complete body scrub that will have you questioning whilst laying there with all out to see; whether you have actually in fact EVER been so clean before?!

To say the scrub is ‘productive’ is an understatement.

Note: I don’t know how much detail to go into but to take the lead from other explanations of the Moroccan hammam experience, the exfoliation really does remove layers of dead skin.

Once again, I lay there silently feeling deathly apologetic to the lovely lady with my scrubbing mitt).

‘Black soap’ and everything you need for your Moroccan hammam.

Part 3 – the steam room, soap and shampoo

Once you have been completely scrubbed (with ‘complete’ being a very apt descprion) you will be rinsed using the water scoop with a bucket of steamy hot water.

Your attendant will rub another layer of black soap or Moroccan Rhassoul clay on your body.

And you will be guided to stand and make your way to the hottest room (sauna), following your attendant with your mat and the small bucket containing your now-well-used kess (mitt) and shampoo and soap.

Tip: At the hammam in Marrakech this part is different. This is now the suana-style part of the experience.

You won’t be alone, but here you can lay down and relax for around 15 minutes and take it all in.

This by the way was plenty of time to silently reflect and not-so-secretly smile to myself as I considered how on earth I ended up lying like this in a room of pretty-much naked women and complete strangers in a city on the exact opposite side of the world from home!

Reflections aside, the last step in the steam room is to be rinsed, soaped, and shampooed.

Tip: An attendant will wash out your hair and give you one final rinse all over before handing you your towel and leading you back out to change.

Squeeze past the firewood stacks that are heating your hot water inside the hammam.

What to expect at a Moroccan hammam…

So there you have it. That is the process of a Moroccan hammam. (I told you it was an experience!).

And with a few slight variations in service and options available, the hammam process is pretty much the same whether you go to a hammam in Marrakech or a local hammam in a smaller city.

Still, there are a few questions that I too wanted to know before leaping on the Moroccan hammam bandwagon. (Namely, what to wear to a hammam in Morocco).

And a few other wonders about the hammam-unknown…

What do you wear to a Moroccan hammam?

Are you fully naked in a Moroccan hammam?

Maybe.

Most likely you wear just your underwear. (No bra; just your underwear).

But it ultimately depends on how comfortable you are. And you need to be comfortable to enjoy the hammam experience.

The slightly confusing thing about visiting a Moroccan hammam in Marrakech is that you will find yourself amongst a mixture of local women and tourists.

Local women visit the hammam routinely and scrub themselves and bathe themselves. So don’t get a surprise when you enter into the steam room and see other women that are in fact totally naked.

Some Moroccan hammam will give you a disposable underwear. Or you can just wear your own. (Make sure you bring a change).

It’s really up to you.

Tip: As a heads up so it doesn’t come as a shock; it is worth noting that not only are you nearly naked and in your underwear but so is the lady who scrubs you…

Again, it depends on the hammam, but to answer the question of what you wear to a hammam …

Without sugar-coating anything; the answer is not much, I’m afraid!

How much does it cost to experience a Moroccan hammam?

There are two options for how you want to experience a Moroccan hammam.

Depending slightly on the hammam and whether it is a hammam in the main cities of Morocco, you can either bathe and scrub yourself or be scrubbed with an exfoliating massage by a hammam attendant.

If you to bathe yourself it costs 15-20 Dirham (depending on the location).

In Asilah or Tamraght it costs around 50 Dirham (5 EUR) for a scrub and massage.

A scrub and massage at a Moroccan hammam in Marrakech costs 150 Dirham (15 EUR).

150 Dh for an experience dating back to 1562?!

What do you need to bring?

A complete change of clothes for afterwards
Underwear you don’t mind wearing during the hammam
And you can bring your deodorant, razor, moisturiser and any toiletries you would normally use during or after bathing

You also need:

savon beldi (a thick black traditional soil made with oil)
kess (an exfoliating mit)
your regular soap and shampoo
shower slippers / jandals / flip-flops
a towel
soft, bath mat for the floor
large water bucket (for hot water)
small water scoop

But read on, because it really depends on the hammam experience you are after. And the location of your Moroccan hammam as to what you need to be prepared with.

A Moroccan hammam in Marrakech is much more used to and prepared for tourists and you don’t actually need to bring anything except a change of clothes and underwear for afterwards.

Some *kess* (exfoliating mitts) for sale in the Medina.

What is included with the scrub/massage? What do you get?

Depending on the hammam, the bathing items will likely be included in your hammam experience.

Included in your hammam experience:

towel
savon beldi (Black soap)
small bottle of shampoo and body soap
Kess (a new exfoliating mitt they will unwrap in front of you)
waterproof slippers

If you have chosen a massage and scrub you will be given the items in a small bucket to take into the hammam and hand to your assigned attendant.

In a smaller town or if you are bathing yourself you can bring your own hammam items. These can easily be found at shops nearby the hammam.

In Marrakech there are rows and rows of shops selling mitts, black soap and all other pampering toiletries.

And at the local hammam you can purchase black soap and kess (exfoliating mitt) at the small kiosk where you pay for entry to the hammam.

Tip: The oldest traditional Moroccan hammam in Marrakech is Hammam Mouassine.

Here a hammam experience including a body scrub massage costs 150 Dh (approx. 15 EUR) and includes locker storage with a key, a basket with the bathing items and a Moroccan mint tea afterwards.

How long does a hammam take?

The experience of the exfoliating scrub and steam room takes around 30-45 minutes.

But you need time to change before and likewise to slowly change and relax afterwards.

Tip: Allow yourself a good hour for a hammam.

And even if tea isn’t included I recommend the full (extended?) Moroccan hammam experience of sipping a sweet, mint tea afterwards.

What about my personal belongings/change of clothes?

At the hammam in Marrakesh there are large lockers for your belongings. You will be given a basket with a towel and shower slippers in along with a key.

The basket will fit your handbag or small backpack, and your change of clothes inside the locker. And you will be given a key on an elastic wrist band to wear into the hammam.

In a local style hammam in the smaller cities you can hand over your bag to the person in reception (for females, this will be a lady attendant) and they will stash your bag along with many others behind the counter.

What about communication? Will I understand?

The chance of a language barrier is perhaps a blessing in (rather little) disguise as you sit in your underwear in a room full of strangers.

At a Moroccan hammam, even the more famous ones in Marrakech, the chances are the hammam staff won’t speak much English.

And you might be wishing you had more grasp on Moroccan Arabic or French as you are taken by the hand and led into the steam.

But language barriers aside, the hammam staff are welcoming and their ease in their job will make you feel instantly comfortable.

I definitely remember sharing more than one laugh with the lovely female attendant to whom I had been assigned. Albeit it was something more like disbelief muffled in a laugh as she tried for surely the seventh time to guide me to roll over and face the other way on my side.

But that kind of shared humour is the best ice breaker and I felt eternally grateful for her confidence, ease and professionalism!

Can kids go to a hammam?

Again that’s entirely up to you. We have two boys (aged 8 and 10) and from our experience of touring Morocco for six months with our kids we found they really appreciated the hammam experience.

Speaking from the female side, each time I’ve been to the hammam there have been kids there.

In the smaller Moroccan cities there were young kids just playing and splashing in the warm water while their Mother’s washed. And in Marrakech, Gavin took the boys to the mens hammam.

By the time I came out they were shaking hands with the staff and drinking mint tea in the waiting area.

They charged half price for the kids and really looked after them.

Heading home fresh and clean from the hammam.

Choosing a Moroccan hammam in Marrakech

The concept of visiting a hammam in Marrakech is definitely not new.

There are numerous Moroccan hammams in the old city inside the Marrakech medina. And there are a range luxury spa-style Moroccan hammam attached to hotels and just beyond the medina.

The oldest and most popular traditional Moroccan hammam in Marrakech is Hammam Mouassine. This hammam was established in 1652 and just the experience of being part of something so historically and culturally significant is incredible!

Hammam Mouassine is nothing like the images of private-room luxury spas. But it must be the wonder of age-honoured tradition there for more than 350 years that makes it so popular and the traditional Moroccan hammam experience that we recommend in Marrakech.

Moroccan hammams in Marrakech:

Hammam Mouassine
Les Bains de Marrakech
Marajah Hammam
Les Bains de Orient
Heritage Spa
Spa at The Royal Mansour
Spa at the Mandarin Oriental

The small square outside Hammam Mouassine in Marrakech.

Finding your Moroccan hammam

One last tip before your Moroccan hammam experience. And that is the heads-up that often hammam aren’t easy to see from the street.

Traditionally this is because bathing is a private past-time and with entrances to the hammam separated by gender, the female entrance was often not publicly marked.

In Asilah for example, the male entrance to the hammam is on the street front. The building is unmarked except for a small plate-sized sign in Arabic and the small painted outline of a male head. (It looks more like a barber-shop symbol, right?).

On our first visit to the Moroccan hammam in Asilah we assumed it only catered to men.

When in actual fact, around the corner of the street and connecting by the back of the building was the female hammam.

At Hammam Mouassine in Marrakech the entrance to the male hammam is directly off a small square in the medina.

But to access the female entrance you need to enter the hammam and squeeze past the stacks of firewood for fuelling the sauna and tap on the unmarked door to enter the steps down into the female hammam.

Walking past the entrance to the female side of Hammam Mouassine in Marrakech. Did you spot the sign?

So the verdict? Should you try a Moroccan hammam?

Absolutely.

We totally rate it as one of those unique travel experiences that we will be talking about for a long time to come.

I’m pretty that anyone who has been can confirm – and confidently guarantee – that you will leave having never felt cleaner or with softer skin in your life.

And not only that, but you will leave with the confidence and knowing that you have experienced one of the most unique and age-honoured traditions of Morocco.

Enjoy!