Table of Contents
The short answer
A Moroccan bath, or hammam, is four steps in a fixed order. Warmth and steam soften the skin. A soft black soap made from olives is spread over the body and left for a few minutes. The skin is then rubbed firmly with a coarse mitt called a kessa glove, which lifts the dead surface skin away. A rinse and a moisturiser finish the session. None of it is complicated. The result depends almost entirely on doing the steps in that order and giving each one its time.
At home the whole session takes place in your own bathroom. IHR Dream Cleaning lists the Moroccan bath at 60 to 90 minutes, booked in advance for a date and time you choose, from AED 199 for a 60-minute bath with one therapist. Your part is a bathroom with plenty of hot water, a floor that will not slide under soapy feet, somewhere to sit, and a way to clear the steam afterwards.
What a Moroccan bath is, and what it is not
The hammam is the public steam bath of North Africa and the Middle East: a warm, wet room where people wash far more thoroughly than a shower allows. The Moroccan version is known for beldi soap and the kessa glove. What is sold today as a Moroccan bath is that wash given as a treatment by a therapist.
It is a skin treatment, not a muscle treatment. Our spa page describes it as an exfoliation ritual and not a massage, suited to anyone who wants a deeper skin treatment and not muscle relief. It is not a medical or cosmetic procedure either. It removes dead skin from the surface, which leaves the skin feeling smoother. It does not treat a skin condition, and nobody should promise you that it will.
It also differs from a body scrub out of a jar. A scrub is grains in oil or cream, rubbed on and rinsed off. In a hammam the skin is softened first, by heat and then by soap, and the rubbing is done by fabric. That is why the kessa step feels more thorough, and why people who find scrubs too light tend to prefer it.
The glove is made for the body. The skin of the face is thinner, and in normal practice it is left out or only washed. If the face is what you want treated, that is the job of the facial, which has its own gentler cleansing, exfoliation and mask.
The four steps, in order
Our service page lists the session as steam preparation, black soap application, kessa-glove exfoliation, and a rinse and moisturising finish. Each step prepares the skin for the next one, which is why none can be skipped or moved.
Step one: warmth and steam
Our page puts it plainly: the skin is softened with steam before any product is applied, and that is what allows the black soap and the exfoliation to work properly. Warm, damp air softens the dry outer layer of the skin in the way a long bath softens your fingertips. In a bathhouse this stage commonly lasts ten minutes or more.
You should feel warm and slightly flushed, not faint. This is the step people shorten when they try a hammam on their own, and it is the one that most affects the result. A glove on skin that has had two minutes under a lukewarm shower only scratches.
Step two: black soap
Beldi soap is not a bar. It is a soft, dark paste made from olives, somewhere between a thick jelly and soft butter, and it hardly lathers. A small amount is spread over damp skin from the neck down and, as our page describes, left briefly to soften the skin further. It is kept away from the eyes, where it stings like any soap.
The soap is normally rinsed away before the glove comes out. The glove has to grip the skin, and on a film of soap it only slides.
Step three: the kessa glove
The kessa is a mitt of coarse, crinkled fabric. It is wetted, wrung out and worked over the body in long, firm strokes, one limb at a time, then the back and the front of the torso. Within a few strokes small grey rolls appear on the skin. That is dead surface skin coming away, and it is the sign that the first two steps did their job. If nothing rolls, the skin was not softened for long enough.
The pressure is firmer than most people expect the first time, but it should not hurt. Our page says the same: more thorough than a standard scrub, not painful, and you should tell the therapist if the pressure feels too firm. Stinging, burning or a scraped feeling means the pressure is too high or the area should be left alone.
A careful therapist varies the pressure with the skin. The inner arms, the chest and the neck get lighter strokes than the legs and the back. Raised moles, fresh scars, cuts, insect bites and any patch of irritated skin are worked around, not over.
Step four: rinse and moisturise
Everything is rinsed off with plenty of warm water until no soap or loosened skin is left. A moisturiser then goes on while the skin is still slightly damp, because freshly exfoliated skin dries out quickly if it is left bare. Our page describes this finish as leaving the skin soft and not tight or dry. Which product is used is confirmed before the session, so mention any allergy or any fragrance you cannot tolerate when you book.
Traditional bathhouses sometimes add other stages, such as a clay mask. The session on our page is the four steps above. If you are hoping for anything beyond them, ask when you book and have it confirmed.
Is your bathroom suitable?
Our pages name what a Moroccan bath at home needs: a bathroom with good hot water, a non-slip floor or mat, ventilation, and a space to sit or lie down. Almost any family bathroom can be made to meet these. Check each one before you book, not on the day. The table is a starting point, and the therapist decides the final arrangement on seeing the room.
| Your bathroom | Where you sit | What to check first |
|---|---|---|
| Walk-in shower or open wet area | On a stool in the shower area | Room for a second person beside you |
| Narrow cubicle with a fixed screen | On a stool on the open floor | The floor drain runs freely |
| Shower over a bathtub | Low in the tub, on a rubber mat | A hand shower that reaches you |
| Internal bathroom with no window | As its shower type above | The extractor fan really pulls |
Hot water: enough of it, for long enough
The session uses hot water twice over: first to make the steam and warm the room, then for at least two full rinses. Many apartments and villas in Abu Dhabi heat water with an electric storage heater that serves one or two bathrooms, and its tank holds a limited amount. If the hot water has ever run out during one long shower, it will run out during a hammam.
Switch the heater on well in advance so the tank is fully hot, and ask the household not to shower or run a hot wash in the hour before. In the hot months some households switch the heater off altogether, because the cold tap already runs warm. For this session, switch it back on in good time. If the heater is slow, trips its switch or drips, have it seen to before you book. Our guide to water heaters that do not heat explains what is worth repairing.
The floor and the drain
Black soap and moisturiser turn a wet tiled floor into a slide. Glossy porcelain and polished marble are the worst for it, and matt tiles are better but not safe on their own. Put a rubber mat with suction cups where you will sit and another where you will step out. An ordinary cotton bath mat is no substitute: it soaks through and slides.
Most bathrooms here have a floor drain as well as the shower drain, so water on the open floor has somewhere to go. Check that both run freely and lift out any hair first. The session sends more down them than a shower does, and a slow drain leaves you standing in soapy water. If water is already slow to clear, deal with that before the booking, starting with our guide to blocked and slow drains.
Somewhere to sit, and room for two
You will be seated or lying down for most of an hour, and a second person has to reach every side of you. A plastic shower stool with rubber feet is the simplest seat: stable, the right height and untroubled by water. Do not plan to perch on the rim of the bathtub, which is narrow, hard and slippery, and avoid anything wooden, folding or upholstered. Say which arrangement from the table you have when you book, so the therapist knows before arriving.
A hand shower on a hose makes rinsing far easier than a fixed overhead rose. If yours is fixed, put out a clean bucket and a plastic jug. That is how the rinsing is done in a traditional bathhouse in any case.
Ventilation
Many apartment bathrooms here have no window, only an extractor fan in the ceiling. Check that it pulls: a sheet of tissue held near the grille should be drawn towards it. A bathroom that cannot clear steam stays wet for hours. In a home that is sealed and air-conditioned for most of the year, that moisture ends up as mould on the silicone and the ceiling.
Preparing the bathroom on the day
Allow twenty minutes, and work through it in this order.
- Clear the room. Take out the laundry basket, the scales, the fabric mats and everything else on the floor. Move bottles off the shower shelf and the bath rim so that nothing is knocked over.
- Unplug and remove anything electrical: hair dryer, straighteners, shaver, toothbrush charger, speaker. Steam and splashing reach further than they do in a normal shower.
- Clean the shower area and the floor, at least with a rinse and a wipe. You will be sitting where you normally stand.
- Put down the rubber mats and the stool, and test both with your full weight.
- Lay out two large towels, a small one for your face and hair, and a robe. Keep them outside the door or high on a rail, or they will be damp before you need them.
- Put a bottle of drinking water within reach.
- Close the window if there is one, and switch the extractor fan off for now. It comes back on at the end.
- Raise the air conditioning a little in the room you will walk into afterwards. Stepping out of steam into a cold draught is the least pleasant part of a hammam at home, and the easiest to prevent.
How steam is made in an ordinary bathroom
A home has no steam room and does not need one. Our page says the therapist prepares the treatment space with steam. In a household bathroom the usual way to do that is the plain one: door and window shut, extractor off, and the shower run hot for several minutes until the mirror fogs and the air feels heavy and warm. A small bathroom gets there quickly. A large one with a high ceiling takes longer and uses more of the tank.
How the therapist sets up in your particular bathroom is settled with you before the session starts. If the room is large, cold or short of hot water, say so when you book.
Two cautions. Water hot enough to make steam is hot enough to scald, so nobody should be under it while the room warms up. And the aim is a warm, damp room, not a test of endurance. If you feel dizzy, sick or short of breath at any point, say so, open the door and sit somewhere cooler.
Towels, products and what is brought
Our spa pages say the therapist brings the linens, towels and products the treatment needs, and that what will be used is confirmed before the session. Have your own bath towel and robe ready all the same, dry and within reach for the moment the last rinse ends. If you own a kessa glove you like, or you react to a particular soap or oil, mention it when you book.
Preparing yourself
Most of this is about the day before, and all of it is short.
- Hair removal. Our page asks you to avoid shaving or waxing the treatment area for at least 24 hours beforehand. Freshly shaved or waxed skin is already raw, and the glove stings on it.
- Sun. Do not book for the day after a beach or pool day. Recent sunburn is one of the things our page asks you to mention, and burnt or peeling skin should not be exfoliated at all. Wait until it has healed.
- Water and food. Drink water beforehand, as our page advises, and eat something light an hour or two before. Heat on an empty stomach makes people light-headed. Heat on a full one makes them queasy.
- Skin products. Skip body lotion, oil and perfume on the day. They leave a film that the soap then has to get through.
- Self-tan and henna. A kessa glove takes both off. Have the bath before a spray tan or henna, never after, unless removing them is the point.
- Jewellery and hair. Take off rings, chains and watches. Tie long hair up, or accept that it will get wet and plan to wash it afterwards.
- What you will wear. Swimwear bottoms or plain underwear that can get wet and soapy. Choose a dark colour.
What stays covered, and who gives the treatment
A Moroccan bath is a more exposed treatment than a massage under a sheet, and it is reasonable to settle the details beforehand. In professional practice you keep your lower underwear or swimwear on throughout, and intimate areas are not part of the treatment. Our service pages say the therapist maintains appropriate draping and privacy throughout the appointment, and that you can ask to pause or stop at any time.
The steps are the same for men and for women. You can ask for a female or a male therapist when you book, where the treatment allows. For a bath most people hold a firm view on this, so state it as a condition and have it confirmed with the booking. Our guide to asking for a male or female therapist covers how to word the request.
Who should check with a doctor first
A Moroccan bath combines two things that some bodies do not take well: heat, and firm friction on the skin. It is a comfort treatment, not a medical one, and a therapist is not in a position to judge a health condition. Ask your doctor before you book if any of these apply.
- You are pregnant. Our page asks you to tell us when booking, and your doctor or midwife should give a view on the heat and steam first.
- You have a heart condition, high or low blood pressure, or you faint or get dizzy easily. Sitting in heat and steam is more demanding than a warm shower.
- You have a skin condition such as eczema, psoriasis or dermatitis, or a rash that nobody has looked at. Exfoliation can aggravate skin that is already inflamed, and a dermatologist is the right person to ask.
- You use a prescription cream or tablets for your skin, or you have had a peel, laser or other skin procedure recently.
- You have diabetes, or any condition that dulls feeling in the skin. You may not notice when heat or pressure is too much.
- You are recovering from an operation, or have wounds that are still healing.
Reasons to postpone on the day
Move the booking, without needing anyone's opinion, if you have sunburn, broken or infected skin or a fever, or if you feel unwell. Changing a booking costs nothing up to 6 hours before the start time. After that a late cancellation costs AED 30, as the cancellation policy sets out, so decide early.
During the session the rule is simple. Dizziness, nausea, a pounding heart or stinging skin are reasons to stop, not to push through.
The visit, from the door to the last rinse
The building side of the visit is the same as for any home session: reception told, a phone number that will be answered, somewhere to park. Our guide to how a home massage session works covers it, and the guide to visitor registration and lifts in towers applies to a therapist as much as to a cleaner. This is what happens once the door is open.
- Arrival. The therapist arrives at the booked time and calls ahead from the gate or lobby.
- A look at the bathroom. Show where the hot tap, the hand shower, the fan switch and the heater switch are. Say now if the hot water is limited.
- A short conversation. Skin sensitivity, recent sun, areas to avoid, any product you react to, and whether you want the exfoliation gentle or firm. Our pages say the therapist confirms pressure and product preferences before starting.
- Warming the room. The bathroom is closed up and steamed. You change, and come in once it is warm.
- The four steps. Steam, soap, glove, then the rinse and moisturiser. For the first several minutes nothing happens but warmth, and that is deliberate. Under the glove you will be asked to turn or to lift an arm. Say at once if the pressure is wrong.
- The bathroom. Our page says the therapist rinses the bathroom down after the treatment and leaves it as clean as it was found.
- A few quiet minutes. Sit down in the next room with a glass of water before you do anything else.
How long to keep free
The session is listed at 60 to 90 minutes. A home visit also includes arriving, looking at the bathroom, warming it and packing away. Our massage slots allow about half an hour beyond the session for that kind of setting up, so plan on the same margin here, then add half an hour of your own afterwards with nothing in it. We work every day, 8 AM – 8 PM, and the booking calendar opens 30 days ahead.
Afterwards: your skin and your bathroom
Your skin over the next few days
Skin usually feels noticeably smoother straight away. It may also look slightly pink. Our page describes that as a normal, short-lived reaction to thorough exfoliation that typically settles within a short time. Skin that is sore, stings under water the next day or has scraped patches was worked too hard. Leave those areas alone until they heal, and say so before any future session.
- Keep the skin moisturised over the following days, as our page advises. Fresh skin loses moisture faster than the layer that was removed.
- Stay out of strong direct sun. In Abu Dhabi that means no beach, pool deck or long midday walk for a couple of days, and covering up or using sun protection if you have to be out.
- Leave perfume, body sprays and anything with alcohol or strong fragrance off the treated skin for the rest of the day. They sting.
- Do not scrub again. No body scrub, exfoliating glove or exfoliating wash for several days at least.
- Hold off waxing and shaving for a day or so, for the same reason you avoided them before, and keep that evening's shower warm, not hot.
Your bathroom over the next hour
The room has been rinsed down, but the steam is still in the air and on every surface. Switch the extractor fan on and leave it running for a good half hour, and open the window if you have one. Keep the bathroom door closed until the fan has cleared most of the steam. In an apartment, a cloud of steam let out into the hallway can set off a smoke detector near the door. Once the air has cleared, leave the door open so the room dries.
Then pull a squeegee or a dry cloth over the glass, the tiles and the mirror. Water left to dry on glass leaves limescale marks, and a soap film on top of them is harder still to shift. Hang the towels and mats to dry outside the bathroom. If the silicone or grout had black marks before the session, steam did not cause them, but damp feeds them. Our guide to bathroom limescale, grout and mould explains what removes them and what damages tiles.
On polished marble, look for any oil or moisturiser on the floor and wipe it up with a damp cloth and a drop of washing-up liquid. Marble is porous and darkens where oil is left to sit, and an oily patch is a slip waiting for the next person who walks in wearing socks.
When to book it: events, holidays and how often
Before a wedding, an event or a holiday
Our pages note that the bath is popular before weddings, celebrations and travel, and that brides and guests often book ahead of a wedding. Give it a margin. Two or three days before the event lets any pinkness settle and leaves time for what has to come after it, in this order: the bath, then hair removal a day or more later, then self-tan or henna.
The morning of the event is too late for a first Moroccan bath, because you do not yet know how your skin reacts. Have a first one some weeks earlier if you can. The same margin applies before a beach holiday: a few days ahead, not the day before you fly. After a holiday, wait until any sunburn or peeling has healed completely.
How often
There is no fixed rule. Our page says many customers book monthly or every few weeks to keep the result, and that you should book as often as suits your skin. A useful test is how the skin feels when the next session comes round. If it is still tender or dry, the gap is too short.
Common questions
Can a massage or a facial follow in the same visit?
Our page says some customers book a Moroccan bath followed by a relaxation or aromatherapy massage in the same visit, and it asks you to confirm the total time when booking the two together. The bath goes first. The published massage prices on our price list are AED 199 for 60 minutes and AED 279 for 90. The bath starts from AED 199 for 60 minutes with one therapist. Our page says it is priced by session length and by whether it is booked alone or with a massage, so the price for the pair is confirmed before the visit.
Whether a facial can be added to the same visit is a question to ask when you book. The order to put the treatments in, and how long to allow, is the subject of our guide to planning a home spa day.
Is it suitable for sensitive skin?
It can be made gentler: less time under the glove, lighter strokes and some areas left out. Our page asks you to mention any sensitivity when booking so that the treatment can be adjusted. What cannot be adjusted is the principle, which is friction on the skin. If your skin reacts to a rough towel, ask a dermatologist before you book, and ask for the gentlest version the first time.
Can I do the steps myself between sessions?
Yes, and many people keep a tub of beldi soap and a kessa glove in the bathroom for that. The order is the same: ten minutes of warmth under the shower, soap on damp skin for a few minutes, a rinse, the wrung-out glove in long strokes that roll the skin without reddening it, another rinse and a moisturiser. Leave out the face and any broken skin, and keep the glove for your own use. If you buy the soap, note that it is a different product from the hard West African black soap sold under a similar name.
What you cannot do yourself is reach your own back, press evenly on it, or rest while you work. The cautions above apply just the same, and anyone who goes faint in heat should not do this alone behind a locked door.
Will it remove a tan or lighten my skin?
It removes dead surface skin, and with it anything sitting in that layer: self-tan, a henna stain, the dull look of dry skin. That is why skin often looks brighter and more even afterwards. It does not change your natural skin colour, and it should not be sold to you as a whitening treatment.
How to book
Start on the Moroccan bath page, which lists what the session includes, or look through all the sessions on the spa and wellness page. Then book online or in the IHR Dream app: choose the date and time, and give your address and how a visitor reaches your door. The price is confirmed before the session, and payment is by card online.
Every price on the site includes 5% VAT. For a question before booking, the office is on +971 52 723 5299, every day, 8 AM – 8 PM. The booking notes save a call later, and these are the points worth putting in them.
- The kind of bathroom: walk-in shower, wet area or shower over a bath, and roughly how big.
- Anything that limits the hot water.
- Skin sensitivity, recent sun, pregnancy or anything else from the list above.
- Gentle or firm exfoliation.
- A female or a male therapist.
- Any product or fragrance you react to.
- Whether a massage is to follow.
