To not want to be naked in sauna

[lollypoppy123]

I’m going to a fancy hotel in Germany with an amazing spa but I’ve just found out the spa is textile free which means no clothes whatsoever allowed. I’m really uncomfortable with this as I’ve had a mastectomy and my reconstruction is pretty ugly. Even without that, I’d feel weird being naked with strangers.

You're allowed to keep whatever you lkke private, nobody is forcing you to go to a naked sauna. Again though, most folk won't be looking at you at all, or they'll be looking at your face when speaking to you.

It's totally normal in Germany, and no-one will look. You wear a robe right up to the moment of entering the sauna. You don't have to be naked anywhere else in the facility if you don't want to be.

Define ‘normal’ ?

Thank you - I do get that. Just wondering what the arguments are for making it compulsory (lots of cultural norms don’t have to be enforced).

I appreciate you could ask the same thing about the wearing of swimsuits and, interestingly, I can’t immediately think of a good one… I guess people would vaguely say ‘hygiene’ as the answer to that one too!

I can't imagine anything worse

As someone who has been (and as per PP I recommend the Vabali - I went to the one in Berlin) they really don't. They are used to it. It's normal. It feels completely and utterly safe. And you are supplied with a towelling robe so can be covered up most of the time.

However once you've laid down naked on a sun lounger in the warm sun reading a book, sipping a cocktail, or had a dip in the buff, it's hard to go back imo!

Well, a lot of people find sitting in a sauna with clothes on to be "revolting."

|I once had to share a sauna with a young woman who entered fully clothed, including her trainers, straight after she'd done a workout. Not even a shower. Utterly revolting - I asked her to leave.

maybe they do but certainly not that you would notice. There is no staring at boobs that you would get in the UK. In all the ones I've been in everyone is very uninterested in others.

I would give it a go and see how you feel. Don't make up your mind about whether you will or won't until you get there.

They may not be strict about insisting no swimsuits in the sauna - I've stayed in a few German hotels with saunas and some were very clear about no swimsuits,,with lots of signs, others weren't.

But whatever the approach, everyone brings a towel in with them to sit/lie on, so you can just leave the towel wrapped around you or drap it over you.

The hotel spas were great - fantastic lounging areas, pools, waterfall showers, hot tubs etc, and everyone wore swimsuits or robes in these areas.

If you don't feel comfortable in the sauna with a towel draped over you, you can just skip that bit.

Have a wonderful time.

This. Any such thread always has people banging on about Brits being ‘prudes’. There’s nothing prudish about preferring a bit of privacy.

As for Germans’ ‘superior’ attitudes, on a very crowded beach in Greece I once had some elderly German woman’s fanny thrust practically in my face, while she was so un-prudishly changing on the beach.
Just before we were going for lunch, too.

It's not compulsory because nobody has to go.
Swimming costumes are seen as hygienic by some, unhygienic by others, sitting naked on a towel is probably most hygienic.

You wear a tampon of course.

Nobody said Germans were superior.
I also doubt she 'thrust her fanny in your face', otherwise you'd have reported her for sexual assault? Also, why the need for a vulgar word?
Us Brits are prudes, so are folk from the US, this is widely known but also quite amusing.

For clarity - where I live "Textilfrei" means no textiles (costumes, bikinis, trunks etc) are to be worn. Towels are fine and a towel to sit on is compulsory.

Over time this has changed. 20 years ago "Textilfrei" also meant no towels (and I can see from this thread that it is still the case in some places) but over time towels have become acceptable.

Really?

In Cologne there is a cable car that runs over the garden of a spa and you can look down at all the naked people sunbathing. Different place, different norms.

It might be liberating @lollypoppy123

I'm self conscious too as overweight and have a big scar from a hip replacement. But sometimes I feel actively reassured when I go to the beach and see people of all shapes and sizes - some topless - just going about their business enjoying their day and not giving 2 shits about their body shape, scars, imperfections etc.

I went to Denmark at Easter which was similar. I thought I would hate it, but actually once I was there and saw everybody of all shapes and sizes wandering around without a care in the world I loved it! Go with an open mind and maybe just give it a try!? I do appreciate your apprehension though

Just don't use the sauna.

It's not a hard decision.

I’d give the whole spa a swerve. I don’t want to sit where someone else’s fat sweaty arse has just been. Talk about unhygienic and just nasty in general.

I carried on reading and saw the clarification. Thanks 👍🏻

Just wondering what the arguments are for making it compulsory

Hygiene.

That doesn't sound as the easiest match for you, but not impossible.

No swimsuit in sauna doesn't automatically mean forced to be naked, check the instructions.
In many cases it's required to use a towel to sit on and optional to wrap into a single sheet in the sauna (in my area saunas are providing both). You just slip out of it and hang it when going to cool down.

If you can't change the place, you can as well decide to go and give it a try.
It sounds you are conscious about your body and don't really care about others. If you go, no-one will know you there and no-one will really care about your scares. It can be soothing in a way.

I wouldn't be able to see what anyone else looked like as I am as blind as a bt without my glasses anyway.

I remember staying in a Youth Hostel near Brighton when I was 15. When my friend and I went to use the showers the next morning we were taken aback at all the German girls wandering around with no clothes on. We just hadn't come across this before.

I remember compulsory showers after games at school. They were communal and we all hated them. Schools don't do this any more, thankfully.

Not exactly empathetic, given the OP’s concern either.