Beauty and wellness editor Kelly Andrews paid a visit to Wild Spa Wowo to meet founder Katie Bracher and find out more about the sauna practice revolution quietly sweeping the UK Founder of Wild Spa Wowo in Uckfield, East Sussex, Katie Bracher confides that her attitude to saunas started the same way as many of us here in the UK. “I just thought they were these really hot, uncomfortable, dry, airless boxes found at the back of gyms that I didn’t want to be in,” she shares. “I’d go in and try it for the sake of my health, but I didn’t enjoy it at all.” However, when Katie went to a festival and found a pop-up, wood-fired sauna experience in a yurt her perception began to change. “I had this lush experience, and it was an awakening – sauna is amazing, why are we not doing more of it?” When she returned home to seek out something similar, her quest failed but she became committed to the cause. In 2012, during the wealth of cultural programming available around the Olympics, she discovered a pop-up sauna spa in her local town centre. She quickly got involved and found people from all over the world were turning up, from Finland and Estonia to Canada, bringing their knowledge, cultures and new ways of saunaing. “I got really inspired by the people I was meeting and by the project itself,” she says. After a spell working at the South Bank Centre in London, which had a rooftop sauna overlooking the Thames, Katie moved to Brighton and found herself inspired to make the most of the location by putting a sauna on the beach. She set up her own pop-up experience with a horse box sauna, which was so well received it resulted in the launch of her own business: Beach Box Brighton. There’s been a surge in sauna popularity since 2021 and Beach Box was the first of the pop-up saunas to be found on beaches, there’s now around 200 all around the UK, often surrounded by nature, that anyone can access. They’re generally wood fired and offer access to a source of fresh water to cool down afterwards, which is an essential part of the experience. Being wood fired means you can throw water on the stones to create that humid environment that characterises a quality sauna; quite the departure from a stuffy box in a gym! As well as being an advocate for saunas, Katie has also delved into sauna culture and the ritual practices that surround it having brought over a sauna master from Europe and travelling the continent learning about various practices. For her, it’s not just about making the saunas, it’s about gaining a greater understanding of how to use them well. “There’s a lot you can do in really traditional sauna practice,” Katie explains. “Looking at areas such as Finland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, they have the bridal bath tradition, an important part of wedding preparations. All the women will gather to bathe and conduct a special bathing ritual for the bride-to-be. Flowers might be spread on the sauna bench, or the bride might be covered in honey for example. It’s all about spending time with one another.” By this point in our conversation, even before I’d experienced Wild Spa Wowo for myself, I was hooked on the idea of saunas! So, I was keen to know what was next for Katie. “Setting up Beach Box and this place took a huge amount of energy and I’m just enjoying the space,” Katie tells us. “Actually, I do dream of setting up a more permanent site with more indoor space as this is more of a summer location.” While the Spa does stay open for part of the winter, hours are limited to the weekends, but I should imagine it’s quite invigorating. While Katie is enjoying life right now, I got the impression she doesn’t rest on her laurels! “The next thing I’m developing now is offering sauna training. I’m running Sauna Master 101 days where people come to learn all about sauna rituals and have a taste of them. I’ve also got an online sauna course.” ©Jo Thorne Hot stuff 80
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