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From Moroccan tradition, gommage
In the hammam you can take care of your body with different types of treatment including gommage, for a cleansed and healthy skin.
In the summer, due to hot temperatures, salt water and suntan, your skin needs to be cleansed. In addition, sunbathing for long hours increases the odds of dehydration. To eliminate old cells that split apart, nourish and provide brightness to the skin even in the summer, we can learn an excellent remedy from the Moroccan ancient tradition of hammam.
How the hammam ritual works
In this sacred place for the beauty of the body, we can experiment a specific treatment programme that helps detoxifying your skin. Going through a series of rooms with different temperatures, in the hammam you can benefit as good as possible of water vapour: from the warmest room, you move to a more temperate one, until you can freshen up under a cold shower.
In the hammam you can have a treatment called gommage after warm water vapours lull you; this preparatory phase is essential because it allows the pores of your skin to dilate and, so, to remove toxins. At this point, your skin is ready for the treatment: the face and body are lathered up with a natural detergent, black soap.
Black soap, which doesn’t contain chemicals and preservatives, can be dark green to black or brown to black, according to the essential oils it contains. It is being created for thousand years. Initially, it was produced only in Syria; in short time its use spread to Morocco thanks to hammams which were scattered across the Maghreb.
Black soap is based on olive oil, so, it is rich in vitamin E, and functions as an antioxidant. It also contains essential oils such as eucalyptus oil. It is not like any other soap because it is a creamy paste. It can be applied to the face and body.
To lather up properly, you should apply a dollop of cream in a circular motion so to stimulate capillary circulation. Leave for a few minutes. Then, you should use the traditional Moroccan glove kessa (in Arabic “what makes you relax”) to exfoliate your body – not face – skin, again in circular motion. Finally, rinse.
Gommage is a beneficial treatment since it exfoliates and nourishes the skin thanks to the black soap detergent and antioxidant properties. Black soap and kessa glove can be even used comfortably at home.
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