Etiquette & safety

Sauna etiquette

• Shower first, always. Clean skin is the whole social contract of a shared hot room.
• Sit on a towel. Skin never touches the bench — bring one to sit on and one to dry off.
• Read the room. Some rooms run silent, some social. Listen for thirty seconds before deciding which one you’re in.
• The stones aren’t yours. In a guided session, only the master pours. In a free room, ask before you ladle — everyone shares the steam you make.
• Move between rounds. Enter and leave before an Aufguss starts or after it ends, not mid-towel-wave. The door closes quickly; heat is a shared possession.
• Phones stay outside. For privacy and for the phone.

Staying safe

• Hydrate before and after every session — you lose more water than you feel, especially coming in from Singapore’s humidity.
• Start low and short. The lower bench and ten minutes are plenty at first. The upper bench is earned, not assigned.
• Leave the moment you feel off. Dizziness, nausea, a racing heart — out, sit, drink. The room will still be hot in ten minutes.
• Cool down in stages. Air, then shower, then plunge. A hard ice bath straight off the top bench is a shock, not a ritual.
• Never sauna drunk. Alcohol and strong heat multiply each other.

Who should take care

Pregnancy, heart and circulatory conditions, very low or high blood pressure, and some medications call for extra caution around strong heat and cold plunges. This page is general guidance, not medical advice — consult a professional who knows your situation before you make sauna a habit.

First time?

Pick a quieter hour. Bring two towels and a bottle of water. Do two or three rounds of eight to twelve minutes with proper rest between them, and skip the plunge on round one if you’re unsure. Copy the regulars, ask the staff anything — a good venue loves the question. The goal is to leave calm, not cooked.

Ready to try? Every sauna we know of is on the Sauna Map. For the etiquette behind the standard itself, see Sauna Society Asia.