How do I use a public hammam step-by-step?

A public hammam is a steam bathhouse and a genuine cornerstone of Moroccan life — neighbourhood social ritual as much as a wash. They are gender-segregated, either by separate rooms or different hours, and they are wonderfully cheap, often just 10–15 dirhams to enter plus a little more if you want an attendant to scrub you. This is a completely different experience from the candle-lit spa hammams in riads; the public one is unpolished, local, and the real thing. If you are nervous, the spa version is a gentle introduction, but do try the public one if you can.

Pack a small kit: savon beldi (the dark, olive-based black soap), a kessa (the rough exfoliating mitt), a towel, flip-flops for the wet floors, a change of underwear, and optionally a plastic mat to sit on. You can buy soap and a kessa for a few dirhams at any nearby shop or in the souk, and many hammams sell them at the door. Leave valuables at your riad and bring only small cash. Men keep on shorts or underwear; women typically keep underwear bottoms on. Full nudity is not the norm.

Here is the rhythm once inside. You undress in the changing area, fill your buckets, and move from the warm room into the hot, steamy room to let your skin soften — sit and acclimatise for ten or fifteen minutes. Then lather generously with the black soap, leave it to work for several minutes, and rinse. Now the main event: scrub vigorously with the kessa, or pay the attendant (a "tayeba" for women, a "kiyas" for men) to do it — and they are thorough. The amount of grey skin that comes off astonishes everyone the first time; it is oddly satisfying and you emerge incredibly smooth. Rinse down with bucket after bucket of clean water.

A few etiquette and comfort notes from experience. Move slowly, hydrate before and after, and do not go on a heavy stomach — the heat is intense. Pour water for others if you are sharing a space and someone hands you a bucket; small courtesies matter here. Tip the attendant who scrubs you (20–40 dirhams is generous and appreciated). Afterwards, rest — wrap up warm, drink mint tea, and do not rush back into the cold. You will sleep like a stone that night. It is one of the most authentic, restorative things you can do in Morocco, and it costs almost nothing.