Naked woman in sauna

[DyslexicScientist]

This just happened, local leisure center a young woman walked into the sauna naked. Someone else immediatly said to her "you can't be in here like that love, its not allowed". She replied I'm German, this is sauna, does this offend you?. The other woman said no, but it is the rules. The naked woman then went on about how she always does it, sauna doesn't work unless your naked and everywhere else in Europe does this.

Some young men opened the sauna door, and closed it immediately when they saw her. She laughed and said back " its OK you can come in". She clearly heard people telling her it wasn't allowed and was enjoying the attention she got.

I kind of see her point about prefering to be naked, but there are rules in place and she was obviously making other people uncomfortable.

Was I bu to tell reception on the way out?

Barbara, nobody gives a stuff usually. The attitude is that we all come into the world naked, we all go out naked (more or less) and it's just bodies. Also it is very levelling as you are used to seeing that no human body on this earth is 100% perfect, so you are happier in your own skin. I think everyone should have a good dose of public nekkid regularly.

It is quite funny when you are in a hotel sauna, everyone has their kit off, and an English person literally comes in for five minutes and sits there primly in a swimsuit looking awkward, before zipping out again. As if anyone cares what they look like

Yes, even in an all-female sauna, everyone is there naked and it might be bloke that comes in (all dressed in white, usually) and does the whole Aufguss thing. Nobody bats an eyelid.

I love saunas, me.

SheWBU for insisting on being naked when it is not the social norm to be naked.

It ItotallyU to have a social norm that disallows nakedness in a sauna.

My DB once was almost physically thrown out of a university gym sauna for sauntering in naked - in ignorance of the rules, not deliberately flaunting them, mind!
It is the social norm all over continental Europe (and certainly in Skandinavia where the sauna originate from) to be naked. In fact it is required as wearing swimming costumes is considered unhygienic.

Im uk expat and started off awkward in the EU saunas but have become a lot more comfortable.

far as I can see, there's an etiquette.

You keep your eyes firmly at head level. If you peek, which you stop doing rather fast ime, you do so when you can't possibly be detected. Awkwardness with relations/fil/whatever - well the 'look at the head' unspoken rule covers that and after a few visits, you're so used to it that the rest doesn't matter. You actually feel more awkward with clothes on.

Some places seem to have a strictly-no-clothing rule, in others a tastefully draped towel is ok if you're walking around outside the saunas themselves.

As a bred briton, it doesn't feel entirely 100% comfortable in truth but it's come to feel way more natural and sensible than swimwear. Native Germans seem just fine with it ... though I suspect it's something that comes with age, as you don't see many 21 yo females. Plenty of 40+ females though. Rather refreshing.

You do get saunas where under 12's can come in, but those sessions are clearly marked. People still wander around entirely naked though.

In Germany you take your kids into the sauna as well. It's quite normal. the little ones stay for about 60 seconds before going out and waiting for you, and as they get older they stay longer.

Even my big boys will get their kit off in a sauna now, and in the summer we used a friend's sauna and swam nekkid in the lake. They would never do that in the UK!

xposts

Barbara, I've been swimming & gymming with all of my bosses so all the female ones saw me naked (and vice versa, obvs.) I don't suppose it's any different for mixed sexes in counties where they do that.

Sigh....another one.

Oh, wait a minute, Karoleann - nobody's said "parading" yet

Or 'bending over'

Having never seen the point of saunas before (UK), is it wrong that I now really want to go to a German sauna?

Mind you, I did do a Japanese bath thing in New Zealand, with a rule/etiquette list as long as your arm, but luckily DH and I were the only ones there so our protocol breaches went unremarked...

Many many moons ago I used to go to a public swimming baths ( pool)

The saunas were single sex and it was the done thing to go au natural.

One day this woman came in with a mug of hot water; bottle of conditioner and a razor.

She proceeded to slather her legs with conditioner ,dunk her bic( razor) in the mug and shave her legs.

Was somewhat taken aback by this until ...she parted her legs and did her punani region too.!

This was long before the landing strip was popular, however she was very thorough with her degree of epilation and proceeded to give the other sauna users a very graphic view of her ample flappage and labia piercing.

Until that day I never knew such a thing ( piercing) existed.

If my memory serves me correctly we pretended not to notice and discussed the then pole tax debate.

Looking back I reckon she must have got a thrill from this public display.

Only the british

I'm so glad I read this as now I know never ever to go in a sauna when I'm abroad. It's bad enough trying to cling to your towel when the masseuse is trying to get it off you when abroad, without having to look/not look at other naked people. I guess you must have to be bred for this naked stuff very early on.

I get self conscious at sale time when there's a communal dressing room. Am I in matching non-revealing (revealing of wobbly pale flesh) underpants and bra? Oh, the humiliation. No sauna for me thanks.

Where are these communal dressing rooms, I always hear of them, but any shop I've ever tried clothes in had single booths, sometimes with a door, sometimes a curtain, but communal?

I've never been in a sauna, but I think you might be a bit U here OP. Yes she was going against the rules etc., but as somebody who feels sick in any heat or humidity beyond that found on the North York moors in January, I can completely understand why she didn't want to face a sauna with some claggy, clingy, plastic 'swimsuit' stuck to her.

I reckon if we're going to do saunas here in the UK, we should do them properly, and embrace the proper tradition of how they were made to be. Get naked in horrific, hot, humid steam for a short while, and then dip yourself in very cold water to recover. Add in whichever (probably very sensible and awesomely refreshing and relaxing) bits of ritual are used in countries that traditionally use saunas properly, and we could be on to something.

As it stands, 'sauna' in the UK basically means 'steamy, claggy, wooden box full of uncomfortable, over dressed idiots'.

Genuine question.

How is sweating into a swimming costume more disgusting than just generally sweating all over a sauna including on the seat on which your naked buttocks are perched?

You sit on your (cotton) towel.

Now in every country it is officially disgusting to sweat on the wood. You are supposed to sit or lie on a towel.

Aaaaah..what about steam rooms, what;s the deal there?

We haven't done saunas properly in this country since the Vikings buggered off.

I want to build one in my back garden, a wood-fired one. People round here laugh at me. They are unenlightened.

I go to champneys all the time and everyone is clothed in the sauna. And it's fine and not unhygienic since there's a cold plunge after and a shower before.

It would be very weird to be naked since you walk out the sauna door to enormous floor to ceiling glass windows over looking pool/restaurant/ folk playing croquet

Same thing with the towel unless you wish to superimpose your sweaty bum print on a previous user's print.