What Is the Finnish Löyly Experience?

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What Is the Finnish Löyly Experience?

While in a previous article I wrote about the anatomy of a Perfect Löyly, now I want to tell you what the Finnish Löyly Experience means.

In a Finnish sauna, you do not “go into a hot room” , we go there to enjoy Löyly.

“Löyly” is a Finnish word that has no complete translation into any other language. That is why, in this article as well, I will use it by its proper name.

Contrary to many beliefs, Löyly is not just the heat and humidity present in a sauna. Good Löyly is an experience, a space and a moment where the body, the mind, and the environment understand each other without words.

A true Finnish Löyly experience begins when the sauna’s heat, humidity, oxygen, and the human being are in perfect balance, and when the water thrown onto the heater does not explode against your face, but instead rises as a soft, living, and breathable airflow that circulates throughout the entire sauna space, caresses your skin, and forces you to… stop, enjoy, and breathe deeply.

Good Löyly never attacks. It seduces.

What should Löyly in a Finnish sauna feel like?

Pleasantly humid, not wet
Hot, but never burning
Comfortably breathable, never suffocating
Smooth and balanced, not aggressive and harsh

You know you are experiencing good Löyly when you feel it wrap itself around your neck and shoulders like a warm, invisible blanket, and finally caress your entire body.

Breathing is easy. The body relaxes. Thoughts fall silent.

This is no coincidence. This is centuries of Finnish sauna culture refined into an understanding of how Löyly is meant to be experienced and felt… it is absolutely not about how much heat a person can endure.

Löyly is not aggressive.
It does not force.
It seduces you.

What about totally shit Löyly?

First and foremost, it’s important to understand that not all hot air in a sauna is Löyly. And not every sauna is a good sauna, even if it features beautiful benches and a stylish heater.

And it probably comes as no surprise that shit Löyly is the exact opposite of good Löyly. It´s Extremely dry and skin burning, aggressive and breath blocking.

Shit Löyly feels as if the oxygen is running out. The skin tightens. The ears and head start burning, and the brain screams for you to press your head between your knees or run out of the sauna. Right now!

In this kind of Sauna, heat does not circulate; it stands still and beats you down. The heater does not communicate with the sauna space, it fights against it.

This is not a Finnish Löyly Experience.

It is a survival exercise.

Good Löyly requires skill and calm – not luck and haste

How do you know that there is a chance for the perfect Löyly experience?

When the foundation for the sauna experience is right:

the heater is correctly sized for your sauna and designed to produce soft, humid heat
the sauna’s ventilation is balanced and functions properly
the sauna temperature is under your control
and you understand that water is poured onto the heater calmly, with feeling – not thrown with rage and anger.

In Finnish sauna culture, Löyly is listened to and respected. You engage in a dialogue with it, adjust it when needed, and above all, give it time and space.

In the end, Löyly is not just the perfect steam rising from the heater or the appropriate number on the sauna thermometer.

It’s a feeling in your body.

How do you recognize the perfect Löyly experience?

Uno. When you step into the sauna, sit on the benches, and very quickly feel: This is a good place for me to be.

Dos. When the heat of the sauna does not force you to escape, but seduces you to stay.

Tres. When, as you take a sauna, your body grows tired in a good way and you feel both your mind and body relax and cleanse.

Cuatro. And when you leave the sauna, you feel your body light but still deeply relaxed and ready to rest. Your skin feels soft and clean, you can feel how your blood circulation has increased. Stress and worries have evaporated into the Löyly, your thoughts feel clearer and the world seems brighter. The increase in endorphin, dopamine and serotonin levels after the sauna can even cause euphoric, happy feelings.

That is Finnish Löyly.
That is a true Finnish Löyly Experience.

And once you really get to experience it properly, you’ll never want to settle for a shitty sauna again.

That is why we have invented and built the FinSteam gas sauna heater. So that Anyone. Anytime. Anywhere. can experience perfect Löyly, a Finnish Löyly Experience.

In the end, even the perfect sauna and the ultimate Löyly experience are matters of personal taste. What you’ve read here is my own feeling and opinion, shaped by 52 years of sauna bathing and hundreds of very different saunas.

That said, I can say this honestly, without exaggeration, without conflict of interest, and without any sales pitch: the Löyly produced by the FinSteam Botnia81 gas heater easily earns a place in my personal all-time Top 3 sauna experiences and it may well take the top spot.

Every sauna has its own soul, and every sauna does its best to give the bather the best possible Löyly. This is simply one man’s experience, which I share with respect to all saunas in the world.

I wish you deeply satisfying, unhurried, and memorable Löyly moments. And if you ever get the chance to try our gas heater yourself, take it.
You will be surprised. Without a doubt!