There is a moment that often arrives unbidden in the sauna. It might be during the third round, once the body has softened, when conversation has quietened and the visceral stimulation of bathing is gently working within. Something shifts. Defences drop. Consciousness widens. We become aware of how good it feels to sit together, relaxed, open, human. And then the thought arises: we’ve always done this.

One Thursday morning, after dropping my daughter at nursery, I realised how depleted I already felt. The day had barely begun, yet my shoulders were tight and my mind crowded. Maybe it was the 3am toilet-training wake-up. Maybe it was the quiet marathon of getting a toddler out of the house before 9am, with all the tiny negotiations that requires.

Whatever the cause, I felt a deep sense of relief knowing that in a few hours I would be at Mothers Recharge, a weekly, women-only (should we say mums-only to avoid problems?) community sauna session I founded in 2025 with London’s Community Sauna Baths, offering uninterrupted time to recover.

Sauna and menopause have become independent hot topics in the UK public sphere recently, helped along by media coverage, books by experts and high-profile personalities talking candidly about the two separate, whole-body experiences. But no one has been discussing how sauna and menopause might work together.

The British Sauna Society is delighted to announce that booking is now open for the 2026 UK Aufguss Championships, taking place at the award-winning Galgorm Resort in Northern Ireland from 20–22 April 2026.

This flagship event celebrates Aufguss, a dynamic sauna ritual that blends heat, scent, and performance. It is competitive, with a jury deciding which of the UK’s leading Sauna Masters to crown British champion and who will go on to represent Britain on the world stage.

The British Sauna Society is delighted to announce the return of the UK Aufguss Championships to the award-winning Galgorm Resort from 20th–22nd April 2026. This marks the second time the prestigious event will be hosted at Galgorm, following the success of its debut there in 2024.

For 2026, the championship format expands in an exciting new direction. The event will feature two distinct categories: Performance Aufguss, and Modern Classic Aufguss.

“What’s the right price for a communal sauna?”

A few weeks ago, I asked this question on Instagram. I didn’t anticipate the flood of thoughtful, passionate responses, from sauna owners, practitioners and bathers all over the country. It quickly became clear that this question touches something deeper than money.

The steam was dense - thick as low-lying fog - and I couldn’t see the floor or the ceiling, only the occasional sweep of someone’s arm through the haze. With our vision blurred to silhouettes, our other senses took over: the press of heat and humidity on the skin, the scent of foamy lather, the sound of easy, curious chatter among 20 women who had somehow found themselves in a very hot bathing room, in a corner of East London, on a Sunday night. When our guide raised the long raffia brush, coated in a glossy meringue of soap, the noise softened and we squinted through the mist. 

As saunas step out of quiet corners, becoming vibrant spaces of ritual and connection, the   role of the ‘sauna master’ is rapidly evolving.  This sauna ‘guide’, or ‘host’ or ‘practitioner’    shapes the heat, creates the rhythm, blends the scent, and guides the story, taking bathers on a shared, sensory-led journey.