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.

OP, it's your decision of course but I do think you might find it liberating and it might help you feel more comfortable in your new body.

People sit on towels.
Why are you assuming their arse is fatter or sweatier than yours?

I’m not assuming that but I don’t want to be sat around naked with a bunch of strangers anyway. I assume your arse gets pretty sweaty in a sauna even with a towel

I wasn't replying to OP, I was replying to that specific poster. HTH

It’s just interesting that both cultures resort vaguely to ‘hygiene’ as a supposedly dispositive argument for diametrically opposed practices. Reveals that there’s a common anxiety about the human body that underlies both cultures. (Maybe not unreasonably. Arses are often unhygienic.)

Don't then, it's not compulsory to be allowed entry to Germany.

Can you not glean that from the post?

I hope you go and enjoy it OP.

Wow. Such empathy and insight.

Which is what I said I would do in the first place

Yes, while going on about sweaty arses......

Why are you so offended by sweaty arses?

I'd phone or email them, explain your difficulties and ask were exceptions or work arounds possible. Much more reliable than speculating based on other people's varied experiences in totally different places. If they tell you no then you can decide whether to change location or if its something you can overcome.

Do you find ‘fanny’ vulgar? Now who’s being prudish?

And yes, before anyone says it, I know Americans use ‘fanny’ to mean bottom. Hence I once read in am American novel, ‘He patted her fanny as he went past.’ 😂

Argh I can't think of anything worse! Im not body confident at all so can understand. Having said that I do believe that no one will bat any eyelid at anyone else. Unless you can change hotels id just go with it...you might surprise yourself 😀

You're the one going on about them.

Oh god, at our school we were all so careful not to be naked we'd take our towels and hold them up for each other while we showered, so the gym teacher banned that and made us leave them on the benches and WALK to the showers and back - while she rocked back and forth with a hockey stick between her legs with a self satisfied look on her face. I kid you not

Yanbu. Germans are weird, sorry.

Nicely ignoring the actual question.
Perhaps referring to a vagina as a fanny is to do with prudishness?

Most German Spas have a textilfrei section clearly marked so you can do most of it but avoid that bit, however that tends to just be when there may be children around
If you can't be naked then unfortunately you can't use the textil frei areas and you WILL be told if you try.

Not normal in UK, but normal elsewhere. There's more than one culture in the world!

Germans aren't any weirder than us, taken as a whole group.
They're just used to what they're used to, as are we.

Good point. Yes, there is a fairly 'natural' anxiety about the cleanliness of any & all orifices of our bodies. I guess this is an evolutionary thing - mouths, eyes, nostrils etc etc are where the body is vulnerable to the invasion of infection, or its trnsmission.

But properly washed, I'm not sure what is unhygienic about buttocks. It's not as if we actually rub the opening of our anus against whatever we're sitting on!

You don’t need to look at their genitals though, in fact shouldn’t be.

I have only been to Dutch spas and I think they are similar to German ones.

The first time I went I thought it would be so weird to be around naked people, so I went to a women only session. All the times after to mixed sessions.

It's only weird for about an hour, then you get used to it. It's oddly liberating, especially because most of the people using the spas are boomers who have been doing this their whole life and genuinely don't care.

In the Dutch ones I have been to it's totally fine to use a robe to transition between areas. You have to have a towel to sit on and I bet you could get away with a towel wrapped around your breasts.

Well they think we are
Germans feel that our natural state is nudity and we add clothes IFSWIM so while they don't generally walk round naked (unless in designated areas) they don't freak out about a glimps of nipple in a shower gel advert or perform weird contortions to get changed on the beach