With the Vihta, the appropriate protocol is having it around for the midsummer. As for how it should be assembled, it needs to be a bundle of birch branches tied together, with as many leafs in the mix as possible. That way, it works best for relieving tension from one's back.
Alcohol is involved. All bets are off on social rules once the beer truck arrives.
arent lower temp Saunas not for some gimmick?
If you ever go to a hotel or a spa in a place where they falsely advertise a "Finnish Sauna", you'd know that while there might be a proper Harvia electric stove; The temperature is often limited to around 50 Celsius if you're lucky because going further would be "dangerous" and you can't throw water on the rocks because there's a "risk of an electric shock" which is ridiculously wrong if it was installed correctly in the first place.
That sounds like an american only issue.
If it was merely limited to the states as an issue, it wouldn't be enough to warrant this thread. These fake saunas do exist in a surprisingly large proportion of the world, dissappointing the true sauna conniseurs who are pained to see the absolute travesties be presented as the real thing.
Never seen any of them,
That doesn't exclude a Russian banya, though. How would you differentiate between the two, aside from vihta being called venik?
Thought the colder ones were mainly steam baths and yeah, those aroma gimmicks. Salt, hay, that sorta spa shit.
Primarily based on what the first language spoken there is. That is, if anything is spoken there at all. If nothing is spoken and everyone is quiet, it's likely a sauna.
I know the Russians are chatterboxes in the banya and use it for social purposes, but I thought the Finnish would also get more talkative in it.
It depends on where it is, the userbase, and the amount of alcohol involved. Primarily, people don't talk in a public sauna at a hotel but if it's a sauna at the lakeside cottage of your buddy and an appropriate amount of beer is involved, then you will likely have many interesting conversations.
Neat.
I don't think a humidity scale is necessary, because that is something that is in the user's control. Ideally, the amount of löyly should be at the upper limits of one's tolerance level.
