On this week’s Just the Tip, we’re taking you along on our first Moroccan Hammam Spa experience at the ⁠The Hammam Spa⁠ in Houston, TX. Here we scrub away our dead skin, steam soak & heal our inner child.

This time, I’m sharing a cultural spa experience right here in the U.S. that will transport you straight to Morocco: the Moroccan Hammam Spa in Houston, Texas. A hammam is a Moroccan body scrub and ritual practiced weekly by locals of all ages.

And you don’t have to fly to Marrakech to try it you can have the full experience in Houston! Here are highly recommended hotels in Houston to make your experience even more enjoyable!

If you L-O-V-E spas as much as we do, check out some of our U.S. and international spa reviews!

Moroccan Hammam Experience – Episode Transcript

0:35

Today you have Kim to share a cultural spa experience that you can have right here in the United States, but it will transport you all the way to Morocco.

1:01

I’m talking about a Hammam.

This is a Moroccan body scrub and treatment ritual that is done by the locals in Morocco weekly, adults and children alike.

It’s very ingrained in their culture and I went to the Hammam Spa in Houston, TX to experience it and let me tell you, it was quite the experience.

1:22

I booked a Moroccan Hammam with facial and lemon foot scrub.

It’s a one hour booking.

I actually made it like 30 minutes before I went in there.

The Moroccan Hammam, it combines traditional Moroccan bathing rituals with these different phases of skin care treatments and it’s a very hands on experience that will leave you so soft, so smooth, so revitalized.

1:49

It may even heal your inner child.

I’ll get to that in just a little bit.

It is quite the exerience.

If you’ve ever had a Korean body scrub, it reminded me a bit of that, but totally different in other ways.

So let’s get into it.

Let’s talk about what it was like.

First of all, walking in there, it’s in a very unsuspecting parking lot, like strip mall type place.

2:09

It has a sign out there.

The door was locked when I went in there.

So they know you’re coming and they’ll open the door for you, which is nice.

But immediately once you go in there, you’re transported to Morocco.

You feel like family.

You get this warm welcome and greeting, and then you go back to the room where they’re kind of having you wait while they get rooms together and whatnot.

2:30

It’s beautiful Moroccan interior decor.

And then they say, OK, we’re ready.

They take you to a private changing room where you put on a robe.

Yes, there’s robes and you leave your stuff in a locker there and you go out to the hallway.

2:45

You’re greeted by very friendly staff.

You truly feel like family.

They take you into the treatment room.

It’s a wet room, so it almost looked like, I guess, a square room covered in like shower tile.

There’s two beds on the side that are made of tile and stone and whatnot, and there’s two sinks.

3:04

And then there’s deending on how many people are going in this treatment room.

If it’s just you or if it’s a couple mommy and me, two friends, you could have just you or them, but you’ll have a foam mattress kind of ergonomic thing on the tile bed that you’re laying on.

3:23

So you walk in and it’s steamy and you lay down there.

And oh, by the way, you are completely nude for this except for a paper, like really thin paper song that they have you wear.

So you lay down there naked and like I immediately start slipping around on this foam mat.

3:39

It is so slippery because it’s covered in water and steam to film Matt.

And then I think the products have been used on it for a minute, so maybe it’s extra slippery, but that was fun.

Slip on in and then the spa attendant that’s tending to you, she will start pouring buckets of hot water and she asks you about the temperature.

4:00

But mine was hot and it felt great.

But it was like every time it was like a splash of like, what’s going on here?

Because, you know, I know what’s happening.

I’ve read the descriptions, but they’re not talking you through it by any means.

So you’re just kind of your eyes are closed and you’re along for the ride, but adds to the excitement.

4:17

So she puts then a warm, moist washcloth over my eyes so I really can relax and then just leaves me in that room for like 15 minutes or so to be steamed up.

So the steam is just in the room and I’m relaxing and there’s like just quiet noise.

4:34

Aromatic Moroccan herbs.

It’s getting real nice.

And they’re oh, and they brought me a tea and Moroccan mint tea and it was so good.

More on that later.

After you steam in there for a while, she’ll come back in, kind of cool the steam down and then start more of the continue the ritual I should say.

4:56

Then it goes to the application of the Moroccan black soap.

So my eyes are closed mostly this whole time.

I can just feel this full coating of soap all over my body.

It feels good, smells good.

It’s not like thick but it’s sudsy.

5:11

But actually it’s very silky and smooth really is how I would describe it.

It’s a Moroccan black soap known as Beldy.

It’s made from olive oil pulp and enriched with vitamin E.

It also, even though it’s a soap, it does act as an A very powerful emollient exfoliator and moisturizer.

5:28

So like I said, your skin’s going to come out very moisturized.

You just wait.

After that, the spa attendant will move on to the exfoliation and these are her hands in the gloves and now scrubbing your body.

So you’re, you’re up close and personal with your spa attendant here.

But the exfoliation is a interesting experience because you know it’s going to be good because it hurts.

5:52

The exfoliating gloves.

Yeah.

I mean, it’s getting a lot of dead skin off of your body.

And this is everything from your toes, your hands, your butt, your stomach, your breasts, your neck, even lightly on your face in between your fingers, like, everything.

6:09

And my attendant kept, like, kind of giggling.

And she’d be like, take a look when I flip over or something, and it’s just piles of dead skin.

It’s actually kind of crazy.

But yeah, the scrub part, you’ll get through it.

But you know, beauty is pain, right?

After the dead skin is removed, she will move on to rinsing that dead skin off, which is great.

6:31

Those buckets of hot water will be tossed onto your body and it will feel really great as it washes all the way.

And then she will wash you actually with an argan soap and that of course further cleanses you, nourishes that skin because it’s now been scrubbed off.

6:46

So we need more nourishment in there.

Next phase you move on to a facial treatment so you don’t have to get the facial in the folks scrub with it, but I wanted it.

And so it’s a multi step process of your face.

It’s already been scrubbed a little bit.

This step is now the all natural Moroccan red clay that they source from the Atlas Mountains.

7:06

It’s luxurious feeling.

This type of clay is renowned for its ability to absorb impurities from your skin, help to unblock pores and it’s just a mineral that really helps to like soften and clarify the skin.

So it’s a beautiful little add on to the Moroccan Hammam.

7:24

The lemon foot scrub.

I would also recommend getting a foot massage, feels amazing.

There’s definitely some massaging involved as they’re like rubbing lotions and washes and whatnot on you.

So the lemon foot scrub really adds to it.

You need your feet exfoliated.

If your whole body’s going to be exfoliated but not your feet, you’re going to walk out of there feeling so weird.

7:42

So do you need the facial?

Maybe, maybe not, but the foot definitely get it.

Once all that’s done, all the different treatments you will finish.

So you’re going to stand up, the spa attendant will rinse you with a shower head and get all that remaining dead skin and product off of your body.

7:58

And then this is my favorite part out of all of it.

She comes in with a towel and wraps it around you and holds you like she just loves you and cares for you.

And this is where I was like, wow, if you needed some inner child healing, this is the moment it would do it.

8:14

And then after she drives with the towel, she’ll put the robe on you, walk you back to that changing room.

And then there the owner came in and applied some argan oil facial serum to my face and then left me in there.

There was also Moroccan argan oil lotion to apply to your body.

8:31

So I sealed the deal with that, put my clothes back on and then went out into the hallway.

And this is where you would think the spa experience would be done and I would have been satisfied with this.

But then they have you chill back in that Moroccan waiting room in the front area and you have Moroccan tea, little baklava snacks, beautiful Moroccan interior, beautiful Moroccan little cups and teapots and trays.

8:57

It’s so cute.

It’s like the perfect ending to this very cultural experience.

Like if I can’t get a Hammam in Morocco right now, the Hammam Spa in Houston is my next best thing and it is amazing.

As far as cost goes, it was about 190 and I booked it right before I came in.

9:17

So if you have any trouble booking online or maybe you just get a spur of the moment feeling, you can reach out to them, give them a call and they’ll probably be able to get you in squatty.

So have you ever heard of a Hammam?

Do they have one in your area?

Let us know on our latest Instagram.

9:34

And thank you so much for tuning in to just the tip.

Make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and follow us on all the socials at Travel Squad Podcast and have fun traveling this weekend.