How To Host A Guided Sauna Session At Home

If your feed has shown you a sauna full of people sitting quietly while someone swings a towel through scented steam, you have seen an Aufguss. The word is German for “infusion”, and the format comes from the sauna culture of Germany and its neighbors: a host – the sauna master – pours scented water over the hot stones in a few slow waves and moves the heat around the room with a towel. Nobody talks much. Everybody walks out together, cools off and compares notes.

The home version needs no choreography. It needs a host who has thought the evening through so the guests do not have to: when to go in, where to sit, what it will smell like and when it is over. The seven steps below follow one evening in order, each built around one simple piece of gear.

One note before you start: the pours in Steps 5 to 7 are for a traditional sauna with a stone-topped heater that is made to take water. In an infrared cabin, or with a heater whose manual says to keep it dry, you can still host the rest – light, seating, timing, the cool-down – but skip the water and the scent.

And one rule covers everything below: the host watches the room. Guests relax; the host keeps an eye on the gauge, the clock and every face.

Step 1 · Plan the evening and heat the room

Keep the group small. Most home saunas seat two to four, and the host needs standing room by the heater. Tell guests what to bring – two towels, a robe or something warm for the breaks, sandals, a water bottle – and that there is no alcohol before or during the session.

Plan two or three rounds of 8 to 12 minutes each, with breaks at least as long in between. Decide the scent for each round and who sits where before anyone arrives.

Switch the heater on well ahead – most electric heaters need 30 to 60 minutes, and the stones have to be fully hot before they make good steam. For a guided round with guests, aim for the lower end of the usual range, around 160–175 °F (70–80 °C) at head height on the upper bench: three pours and a moving towel make any temperature feel hotter than the dial says. A gauge with two dials, such as the Northwood thermometer and hygrometer, lets guests see the temperature and lets you watch the humidity climb with every pour.

• Ask ahead, privately, whether anyone is pregnant, has a heart condition or asthma, or is sensitive to fragrance – and plan around the answer.
• Set out drinking water and glasses where guests will rest.
• Fill the bucket and line up the scents outside the hot room.

Step 2 · Turn the light down

Light sets the tone before anyone says a word. A bright overhead fixture keeps people chatting; a low, warm glow tells them the round has begun. If your sauna light has a dimmer, use it. If the only light is a bright fixture on the wall, a strip of indirect light under the bench edge changes the room more than anything else in this guide.

The SuperlightingLED sauna strip is made for that: warm white, dimmable with a separate dimmer, and rated by the maker for up to 212 °F (100 °C). That limit decides where it goes – low, under the bench edge or behind a backrest, never on the ceiling or above the heater, where the air gets hotter than that.

This is a project for a free afternoon, not for the day of the session. The strip ends in bare wires and needs a 24 V power adapter that is not included.

• No strip yet? Switch the sauna light off and let light from the changing room fall in through the glass door or window.
• Skip candles in the hot room. Wax softens in the heat, an open flame has no place next to a swinging towel, and battery candles are not built for sauna temperatures either.
• Keep enough light to see the step, the bucket and each other’s faces.

Safety: electricity and a hot, damp room need care. Keep the power adapter and the dimmer outside the hot room in a dry place, respect the clearances in your heater’s manual, and have an electrician do or check the wiring.

Step 3 · Seat your guests

Heat rises, so the seating plan is the heat plan. The upper bench is the hottest seat, the lower bench is noticeably milder, and the spot nearest the heater gets each wave of steam first.

• Newcomers sit low and near the door.
• Regulars who like it hot take the upper bench.
• Everyone sits on a towel – in a sauna, bare skin sits on cloth, not on wood.

Offer comfort where you can. A loose backrest like the RUVARO red cedar backrest leans between bench and wall and turns a flat board into a seat someone can stay still in for ten minutes. One backrest does not serve a full bench, so give it to the guest who is newest to sauna, or pass it along between rounds.

Then clear the floor. The host stands by the heater and needs room to swing a towel without touching a knee, the bucket or the heater.

Step 4 · Hand out the hats

During a pour, the hottest air in the room rolls along the ceiling and down over the upper bench – heads first. A wool felt hat puts an insulating layer in between, and many people find the waves easier to sit through with a covered head. That is why hats are a familiar sight at guided sessions.

A two-pack such as the ASKOLD wool sauna hats covers a host and a guest, or a couple, and the white hat and the gray one are easy to tell apart. Offer them at the door and say what they are for.

Before you close the door, say the house rules out loud. It takes twenty seconds:

• Anyone can leave at any time, without asking and without explaining.
• The round lasts about ten minutes, and you will say when it is over.
• If a wave is too much, say so – the next one will be smaller.
• Phones, watches and jewelry stay outside. Metal gets hot fast.

Safety: nobody goes in after drinking alcohol or when feeling unwell. Anyone who is pregnant, has a heart condition or takes medication that affects blood pressure should talk to a doctor before using a sauna. A guided round with repeated pours is not for children.

Step 5 · Choose one scent per round

A guided session usually tells a small story in scent: something soft to open, something herbal in the middle, something fresh to finish. A box of small bottles such as the Cliganic Top 8 essential oils set covers that with room to spare. One possible evening from that box:

• Round 1: orange or lavender – soft and easy, a good opener for a mixed group.
• Round 2: rosemary or lemongrass – greener and more herbal.
• Round 3: eucalyptus or peppermint – the fresh finish. Peppermint is strong; one drop is plenty.

Mix outside the hot room. Fill the bucket about halfway – roughly 2 quarts (2 L) of clean tap water – and stir in one or two drops of a single oil. That is deliberately little: in a small hot room scent builds quickly, and a guest on the top bench cannot step away from it. Between rounds, pour out what is left, rinse the bucket and mix the next scent fresh.

• One oil per round. Blends turn muddy in the heat.
• Keep the first round plain if anyone is unsure about scent. Water alone makes a fine Aufguss.
• Let guests smell each bottle at arm’s length beforehand, and drop any scent somebody dislikes.

Safety: essential oils are concentrated and flammable. Undiluted oil never goes on the stones, the heater or the skin, and the bottles stay outside the hot room, away from children and pets – several oils, including eucalyptus, peppermint and tea tree, are toxic to cats and dogs. Skip the scent altogether if anyone in the group is pregnant, has asthma or is sensitive to fragrance.

Step 6 · Pour in three slow waves

Now the round begins. Steps 6 and 7 are one loop – pour, wave, pause – repeated three times.

Bring the bucket in and set it where nobody can kick it over. A classic Aufguss opens with fresh air: hold the door open for half a minute and fan some of it in with the towel. Then close the door, tell the room what the scent is, and start.

A low pail with a long ladle, like the HSE cedar bucket and ladle, suits the work: its 14 in (35.6 cm) ladle keeps your hand back from the stones, and the scoop holds about 3.4 fl oz (100 mL), so each pour is small and even.

1. First wave. Stir the bucket – oil floats – and pour one scoop slowly across the stones. Let the steam rise, then move the air with the towel (Step 7).
2. Second wave. Wait a minute or two until the first has settled. Pour one or two scoops, then wave again.
3. Third wave. Ask the room first. Pour once more, wave, and then let everyone sit in silence for a minute.

• Pour across the stones, not onto one spot, with a long arm and your face back. The steam comes up fast.
• Watch the humidity dial and the faces. If either says “enough”, skip the third wave.
• The whole round takes about 8 to 12 minutes. End it on time, even if everyone looks happy.

Safety: water goes only on a heater that is built for it, and only on the stones – check your heater’s manual, use clean tap water, and never pour water on an infrared heater. If a guest stands up to leave, stop pouring, make room and open the door for them.

Step 7 · Move the air with a towel

The towel is what makes it an Aufguss. Steam rises straight to the ceiling; the towel brings that warm, scented air back down and shares it out, so the guest by the door gets the same round as the guest by the heater.

It takes cloth that is big enough to catch air and light enough to swing. A flat-woven cotton towel such as the DEMMEX Turkish towel – 71 × 36 in (180 × 91 cm) and 15.2 oz (431 g) – is far easier to keep moving than a heavy terry bath sheet. Fold it in half lengthwise and hold one short end in both hands.

Three simple moves are enough:

• Lift. After each pour, make a few slow circles with the towel above your head, well away from the heater, to mix the hot air under the ceiling into the room.
• Share. Step in front of each guest in turn and send two or three soft waves toward their chest – never at the face. Ask “more or less?” and believe the answer.
• Settle. Finish with a few slow, wide figure-eights in the middle of the room, then stand still.

Slow beats strong. A fast towel feels like a hair dryer; a slow one feels like a warm tide coming in.

Safety: keep the towel at least an arm’s length from the heater at all times – cloth that touches the heater or the stones can scorch or catch fire. Use cotton or linen rather than a synthetic towel, which can melt if it brushes something hot, and practice the moves in a cold sauna before you try them with guests. The host works hardest in the hottest spot: if you feel dizzy, stop, open the door and sit down low.

Cool down, rest and go again

When the round is over, say so, open the door and let the guests out first. Cool off in fresh air or under a cool shower, starting with feet and hands. A cold plunge is the famous version, but a sudden cold shock is not for everyone; a gradual cool-down works just as well for the ritual.

Then rest for at least as long as the round lasted – wrapped up, sitting or lying down, with water to drink. This is the social half of the evening, and for many people the better half. Meanwhile the host empties the bucket, rinses it and mixes the next scent.

Two or three rounds make an evening. Later rounds are usually shorter than the first, and it is fine if a guest sits one out.

After the last round

• Empty and rinse the bucket, and let bucket and ladle dry outside the hot room.
• Hang the hats and the waving towel up to dry, and wash the towels guests sat on.
• Wipe any drips of scented water off the benches and leave the sauna door open for a while so the wood dries.
• Cap the oils and store them cool and dark, out of reach of children and pets.
• Then eat. Something salty and plenty to drink afterwards belong to a sauna evening as much as the heat does.