Give It A Go at the Spa

As you may know by now, I work for Give it a Go at Sheffield's Student Union. This means that I get paid to do some stuff that I have never done before, which quite often turns out to be pretty awesome.
Last weekend, I got to go to the Spa with GIAG, which was really rather exciting as it was a brand new experience for me. We went to the gorgeous SPA1877, which is a hidden gem off Sheffield's Glossop Road. It's an original Victorian spa/Turkish baths and the architecture on the inside is just gorgeous (albeit very very confusingly laid-out), and you would never guess you were standing underneath one of the busier main routes through the city!
Once we arrived, we changed into our swimming gear and our complementary towels,gowns and flipflops and then we were given a quick tour of the facilities. To begin with, we were shown into the relaxation area, which had lots of seats and magazines and refreshments to allow you to take some time out between the more intense spa areas. We then went through into the Hammam area, which was where all the other experience rooms were situated, and also had some warmed marble benches for you to sit/lie on between treatments.

At one end was the plunge pool, at a chilly 10 degrees, and the Tropical Rain shower that could douse you with a tropical downpour, a rainforest mist or an arctic blast-brr! There was a sauna (dry heat but very hot) and an aromasteam room, which is a wet steam room that was filled with a fruity smelling essential oil. I have to admit that I avoided these 2 rooms, as the sauna was waaay to hot for me and the aromasteam room was filled with so much steam that I felt somewhat claustrophobic in there.
Instead, I split my time between the Hammam area and the much larger Steam room.

When we went, this room was lit was red light and filled with Eucalyptus scented smoke, which was actually quite pleasant to breathe in. It took a while to get used to it, because you really couldn't see much further than your arms width, and it was intensely hot, but once you had acclimatised it was quite bearable for about 15 minutes at a time, and certainly helped to clear my blocked nose! The other room in the spa experience was the Ice Cave, which had a big pile of crushed ice in it-designed to rub all over your skin as both an exfoliating treatment and to help cool you down. I have to admit that this was actually really quite a nice sensation, especially if you had just come out of the hot steam room so that it melted instantly on your skin.

I was really quite surprised to notice how relaxed I felt after our 3 hours was up. Even though I had spent a fair bit of time in the Relaxation area talking about Doctor Who with a new friend, I still really enjoyed myself and felt a lot more chilled out when I came out than when I went in. I had been dubious at the beginning of the evening but ended up finding the whole experience quite luxurious-a great de-stress before exams! I would definitely recommend it if you felt like treating yourself to something wonderful, prices are all on the website.

In fact, I think I might treat myself again once my exams are over!

For now then,
-Jenni-

All pictures from the Spa1877 website