During a recent trip to Sligo with the boyfriend to visit his folks, I finally had a seaweed bath, after hearing about them for years. His parents had very kindly given me a voucher for Voya in Strandhill as a Christmas present, so we figured it was probably time to get around to using it and booked a shared single bath for the two of us, as there weren’t any twin baths free that day. We did book at the last minute though, so a bit of foresight would have sorted that for us.
A lovely and friendly staff member showed us to our private room, which had a freestanding bath on one side and a small steam room against the opposite wall. The bath had been filled and had a huge lump of seaweed floating in the middle of it, which had turned the water a sort of greenish-brown colour. “Don’t worry, it’s much nicer than it looks”, the staff member said reassuringly. He wasn’t wrong.
After a few minutes in the steam room, in order to open up pores and really get the benefit of all the good stuff in the seaweed, I hopped into the bath and just never wanted to get out of it. The seaweed releases a sort of gel that looks and feels like aloe vera, so the water feels lovely on your skin and isn’t slimy or horrible in the slightest. After the obligatory swamp monster impressions, the Bear and I would swap over, alternating between bath and steam room and constantly drinking water from the chilled jug that was left for us. The small tiled room gets very hot, and it’d be easy enough to get dehydrated with the intense heat, so lots of cups of water (and going to the loo beforehand) are pretty much essential.
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It’s recommended that you don’t shower until later that day or the next morning after a seaweed bath, to give the natural oils and nutrients a chance to do their thing and be properly absorbed by your skin and hair. However, the steam room also works as a shower with a button that turns the steam on and off and is furnished with rather fancy Voya shampoo, conditioner and body wash. I couldn’t resist having a squish of each and an impromptu shower, as they smelled amazing and I wanted a go of ALL THE THINGS. I then undid all that cleaning by setting off the steam again, drawing dragons and cats on the fogged-up glass to entertain the Bear in the bath and then kicking him out so I could seaweed it up again.
A session lasts for 50 minutes and it really is plenty of time. I was so relaxed and happy by the end that it didn’t even occur to me to take a few pictures while in there. For the rest of that day (and the next day), I kept rubbing my arms like a big weirdo because my skin just felt so incredibly soft after the bath. I absolutely loved it and I’ll definitely be going back there again.
A single bath is €25, but I had my voucher to cover that, and bringing a second person to alternate with was just an extra €10, which I thought was great value.
Have you ever had a seaweed bath? Did you enjoy it as much as I did?
