Finnish.

You obviously don't know where the beautiful people go for a sauna, then...

So you've never tried a Turkish (Hammam) bath experience, then..? Clothes are frowned upon in there, too...

interesting comment. I guess you dislike naturism too.

Ladies and gentlemen: do you take everything you read on the internet literally?

I thought it was a spectacular post. I demand more!

How about a showdown in the sauna?

That would be unsporting.

As I understand it, the customs of duelling demand weapons of equal size.

Ah, but that's the magic of a sauna. Size doesn't matter. It's more about the amount of sweat that drips from your body and how long you can stand the heat.

I think we have a cultural misunderstanding here - not every place that says "Sauna Club" on the door is about saunas... what place did you go to? (As it seems at least one with women...)

Are you looking at people's anal hair????

If the guy is british, he is already in a lost position...

I can't believe you even ask this.... like.... you want to know?

You've obviously never been to a real Turkish bath, male or female. Most people are not obsessive private part checkers, actually if you were caught doing so you would probably get chucked out for displaying perverted behaviour

Oh this thread has me chuckling away. The very first time my husband and I visited a sauna here, was on our first anniversary in Engadine.
We noticed a sign on the doorway to the sauna area forbidding kids to enter between certain hours. Anyway, since we are not children we thought we'd venture in. Well, I'm just a small town girl from a conservative home and I nearly had a heart attack! The sights I saw. OH MY GOODNESS! They told us to basically "get naked or leave". We left lucky for them as both my husband and I would have blinded them with our snow white skin

Had me laughing too - a lot!

My first and last mixed sauna / showers night experience was after a gym session many moons ago. I only went at the insistence of one of my girlfriends who did not want to - er - go through it alone and I only agreed to do so long as I could wear my bikini throughout. I can still remember the strange looks I got as a result.

I have also experienced a Turkish Hammam bath in Turkey and did the same thing - wore a bikini. They were cool with that.

I found both experiences way too embarrassing and spent most of the time looking at the floor or the ceiling.

Saunas primarily work the sweat zones - i.e. armpits and crotch. If you don't want to be naked, saunas are a waste of your time. Bathing suits in Saunas are also very unhygienic.

How so? I'm intrigued.

would cotton undies do the trick ?

If you don't like to be naked period, build your own sauna. If you don't like mixed sauna's go visit them in the French part of Switzerland (where they are typically separate male / female zones).

Personally I'd find it far more offensive to have someone in their already worn underwear in a sauna than naked. People shower before sauna. If you shower in your bathing suit, you're not really clean then, are you. But whatever, as long as you're on a towel who cares.

Real point is does it make you more uncomfortable to see other people naked or to have other people see you? If it's the former, avert your eyes. If it's the latter, learn how to dawn a towel in creative ways.

Lots of fancy rhetoric but how about just proving your points with irrefutable facts?

Not sure I understand you. Exactly what facts are asking for? Sweat glands are in highest concentration in your genital area and under your arms. Covering up either reduces the ability to sweat there - which is what a sauna is intended to cause.

That's what the beer is for...at least in Finland. There's no bacteria alive that can survive a real steam sauna and beer followed by an avantouinti (scrotum annihilating jump through a hole in the ice...). Of course, nobody there gives a fig about naked folks in the sauna.

The whole 'swimsuit as unhygienic' is a bit of cargo cult lore that gets propagated as it seems as though it should make sense but....bacteria grow just as much in your crotch, with or without pants or bathing suit. It simply makes other naked folks feel weird if you show up clothed where nudity is supposed to be the norm. Crotch bugs aren't the real issue.

I think you are missing the point there - obviously do we have more bacteria on our skin than in our clothes. But the point is that most people in Zurichs saunas do not jump into a hole in the ice - they typically have to use a pool. If I am naked, I sweat in the sauna, take a quick shower and then dip into the pool. If you wear swim shorts, they get soaked in your sweat and I bet with you that you won't wash it out completely with some seconds under the shower. So all your sweat ends up in the pool... I do not really care if the bacteria in your sweat is dead or not, I'd rather like you to wash your sweat off before we share a pool - and that works best without swim wear.