blitz press

Get Naked at this Bathhouse

Counter Culture has been blitzed. And we lived to tell the tale. After dipping a (perfectly pedicured) toe at a brand new women's bathhouse called Body Blitz, set to open to the public this weekend, we're a convert to the ancient ritual of "taking the waters."

With roots that reach back as far as Roman times and continue to thrive today in Europe and Asia, public bathhouses have long had healing connotations. "This whole journey started in Europe four years ago," says Body Blitz owner Laura Polley, who's in her 40's. "I'd been to Baden Baden in Germany, and I was blown away by the public bathhouse there."

Polley, who also owns a Toronto-based financing company for independent films, has traveled the world and visited bathhouses at every stop, including Italy, France, Los Angeles and New York.

She found the experience revitalized her in a way that a trip to the standard North American spa did not. The point of bathing in waters infused with minerals is to detoxify the body's tissues, she explains.

"In traditional bathhouses, you cleanse the body and you cleanse the mind. It's a journey. And you look beautiful when you're done. You're just glowing."

The body treatments in Korean bathhouses in Los Angeles were mind-blowing. She particularly loved the vigourous scrubs, intended to exfoliate dead skin.

"When the Koreans do a body scrub, it's top to toe," says Polley. "They scrub you everywhere. And I mean everywhere. If you're modest, it's not for you"

While Toronto is awash with spas offering hydrotherapeutic treatments such as Vichy showers, and the just-opened Hammam spa, none have gone so far as creating a public bath.

Polley, a no-nonsense gal who clearly learned how to get things done through her work in the film industry, saw an opportunity.

"I thought, if I can take a bit from all of these things I've tried around the world I would have something amazing, something where you have the art of bathing and it's a spiritual experience, " Polley says.

After years of research and months of construction transforming a century-old warehouse on Adelaide St. near Bathurst St., Body Blitz includes a full-sized warm salt water pool, a hot green tea pool (to detoxify), a cold plunge pool, and an infra-red sauna and aromatherapeutic steam room.

Body treatments, including scrubs, muds and massages, round out the Blitz.

No reservations are needed to take the waters. For $45, you can hop from salt water pool to cold plunging pool to green tea pool to steam bath to sauna to cold plunge.

Different temperatures intensify the detoxifying effects of the waters, says Polley.

The waters are excellent preparation for the body treatments, which take between 25 and 80 minutes. Performed in private rooms near the main pool room, muds ($130 to $195, including use of waters) and scrubs ($80 to $195, including waters) require reservations, but Polley intends to keep 30 per cent of the time slots open for walk-ins.

Blitz is intended for busy women, says Polley, who admits her own impatience with the new age vibe at many downtown spas.

The steam room, infused with eucalyptus oil, and the salt water pool, complete with massaging jets and a fountain running the length of the pool, were truly luxurious and healing. We emerged feeling fresh, alert, and free of the stiff and achy shoulder that had been nagging us earlier that day.

So we'll be frequenting Body Blitz for girly gatherings. Last year, it was about pedicures in pairs. This year it's all about kvetching over a shvitz.

The women-only aspect means bathing suits are optional.

Counter Culture isn't sure Canadian women are ready for the Full Monty. When we visited during a recent sneak preview for media, all the gals were wearing both pieces of their bikinis. But in the name of research, dear readers, we tried going topless, and no one - not an attendant nor a guest - batted an eyelash.

Polley clearly hopes some women will be brave enough for the topless, or even bottomless, experience.

"In Baden Baden," she says, "bathing suits were not allowed. And in the Korean spas in Los Angeles, there's a definitely no bathing suits¡­There's something equalizing about it. Everyone is just there and they're enjoying themselves and not thinking about it. So if people want to go naked in the waters, they're welcome to."