Russian Banya – introduction
Russian sauna, called banya,
is a very old tradition in Russia. Already
centuries ago, as witnessed by the Greek historian Herodotus,
Slavic people living in what will become Russia in the future,
had steam saunas.
Differences between banya and other types of sauna and steam
rooms
Russian sauna can be classified as a type of steam sauna,
which means that it has a temperature of about 45 –
65 C and relative humidity of 40 – 65% (where steam
baths have a relative humidity of 100%, wet saunas about 20-35%
and dry saunas 5-10% and temperatures increase as the relative
humidity lowers, up to a maximum of about 100 C in dry saunas).
 However,
there is another aspect in which banya differs from other
steam saunas, which is the stove and the way the water is
vaporised. Water is heated on hot stones but, unlike in other
types of saunas, in Russian banya the stones are located inside
a stove that is completely insulated, except for a front door
that is opened only to pour water on the stones. Russian banya
stoves are massive and made of bricks. This system allows
the stones to get much hotter than in normal open stoves,
which means that the water thrown on those stones will get
evaporate faster and produce a finer and lighter type of steam.
Accessories and terminology of Russian banya
Russian banya is made up by three rooms: the entrance room
(with pegs on which to hang clothes and benches); the washing
room and the steam  room,
called parilka (where there are wooden benches, a wood stove
and a bucket with a ladle and water to be thrown onto the
stones).
Inside a Russian sauna, people usually wear felt hats called
chapkas to protect their heads against the heat and allow
them to stay longer in the sauna. There are also specially
designed pads, called padjopnik, on which to sit, as the wooden
benches become too hot to be seated on comfortably.
Russian banya procedure
The correct procedure to have a Russiam steam sauna involves
having a light shower first (without wetting your hair to
prevent overheating), drying your body and then having a few
sessions in the sauna. It is extremely important to cool down,
either in fresh air or with cold water, between each sauna
session.
Whisk bathing with venik
Whisk bathing is part of the Russian sauna experience. Only
from the second sauna session onwards, bathers slightly whisk
themselves or each other with bunches of dried or fresh (according
to the season) branches and leaves, usually birch or oak,
called venik, in order to improve blood circulation. There
are many types of venik massage, but the massage usually starts
with moving the air around the person’s body, very close
to the skin but almost without touching it, from the feet
upwards along the body. Afterward the masseur lightly whips
the bather’s body and this is followed by what is called
birch poultice, pushing the whisks to the body.
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