What is Aufguss and what is Sauna Whisking?

Two of the sessions on our calendar have names that don't explain themselves, and they’re the ones people ask most about.

If you've looked at the booking page and wondered whether Aufguss involves audience participation, or whether whisking means what it sounds like, here's the plain answer.

Both are traditional sauna practices, both run monthly at Glasgow Community Sauna, and both are led by someone who really knows what they're doing. Neither asks anything of you except that you sit there and breathe.

Aufguss

Aufguss is German for "infusion", and that's the heart of it: water and essential oils poured over the sauna stones, with the steam worked through the room by a sauna master using a towel or fan.

As Tiia, who leads ours, puts it: löyly, the steam, is the breath and spirit of the sauna. A ritual runs about 12 to 15 minutes and is a far more structured thing than a normal sit, often with music, sometimes with storytelling, and always with a thermal experience shaped deliberately by the person leading it.

Who leads ours: Anna Tiia Sorjonen, a Finnish sauna master and founder of Kaski Sauna Sessions, who grew up with sauna in Finland and now lives in Glasgow's Southside. Her sessions tend to be energising but grounding, and usually pair the Aufguss with löyly, some breath or voice work, and a bit of quiet reflection afterwards. We interviewed her about ritual, roots and what to expect: Introducing Tiia from Kaski Sauna Sessions.

What it's like to be in one:
Hotter than a normal session, arriving in waves rather than steadily. You sit, you breathe, and the heat comes to you. Nobody is going to hand you a towel or ask you to join in.

Worth knowing:
It gets properly hot, so the lower benches are your friend if you're unsure, and you can step out at any point without anyone minding. If you're brand new to sauna, a regular session first is a gentler place to start.

Sauna whisking

Whisking is exactly what it sounds like, and much nicer than it sounds.

A whisk (a vasta or vihta in Finland, a slotiņa in Latvia) is a bundle of leafy branches, usually birch, soaked in warm water until soft and fragrant. In a whisking session the practitioner works over you with the whisks: sweeping, tapping, pressing, moving hot air across your skin and filling the room with the smell of wet leaves.

It is not a beating. It's closer to a massage performed with steam and leaves, and people tend to come out of it looking pleasantly stunned.

Who leads ours: Phyllis from Five Birches, monthly.

What it's like:
Intensely sensory. Warm, fragrant, rhythmic, and more restorative than intense, though the heat builds as the whisks move air over you.

Worth knowing:
A more personal experience than a standard session, so Phyllis will talk you through what's happening and check what you're comfortable with first. If you'd rather not be touched, say so and it can be adapted.

Which should I book?

Something hot, communal and a bit theatrical: Aufguss.

Something slow, sensory and restorative? Sauna whisking.

Never been to a sauna at all? a standard session first, then either of these once you know how you get on with the heat.

Both run monthly and both sell out, so it's worth booking ahead. We usually feature these special sessions at the tip of our booking page so they’re easy to find.