Wet steam versus dry heat
The sauna (80–120°C with 10–20% humidity) is the extremely dry air where it becomes more difficult to breathe and your pores do not open. The bathhouse (60–80°C with 40–70% humidity), in comparison, is a soft, deep warming that penetrates the muscles and joints without overdrying your skin. The steam in the bathhouse is gentle and enveloping, not like the biting one in the sauna.
Real steam and brooms versus poor heat
You can only sit and warm up inside the sauna, but if you want to take a real steam bath you obviously need the Russian bathhouse. Before entering, you should add some steam by splashing the water on the stones, creating a thick, but not scalding cloud. The brooms there (birch, oak, juniper) are like a massage, an inhalation and an aromatherapy in one go. The broom will instantly dry out and crumble inside the sauna, but in the bathhouse it really hits your body revealing incredible aromas.
Not only warm-up but healing
The sauna warms you up superficially, making the heart beat faster, but doesn't give you such a deep effect. The bathhouse opens your pores, flushes out toxins and improves circulation due to the contrast between the steam and the cold plunge pool. The skin feels tight and dry after the sauna, but it's smooth and firm, like a reborn one, after the bathhouse.
Ritual versus ordinary warm-up
The sauna is just "go in, sit, go out." The Russian bathhouse is an entire philosophy: steam preparation, gradual warming, cold water alternation and herbal tea ceremony afterwards. It's not just hygiene, but the soul and body purification and the spirit recharging.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BATHHOUSE AND SAUNA
A bathhouse, compared to a sauna, is the kingdom of steam against the dry heat. The sauna is a scorching desert: the air burns your lungs, the body dries out like in an oven; but the bathhouse is a life-giving ocean of steam: the heat envelops you gentlyand your breath fills with the smell of birch brooms.