How does a Moroccan hammam actually work?
The short answer
Three rooms, each hotter than the last. You steam, lather with black olive soap, and then someone scrubs your skin with a coarse glove until visible rolls of dead skin come off. It's startling the first time. Locals do this weekly — it's hygiene infrastructure, not a spa experience. Entry runs 15–20 dirhams.
You strip to your underwear in a changing room with strangers, walk into a steam-filled stone chamber, sit on the floor, and a person you've never met scrubs your skin off with a rough glove until grey rolls of dead cells pile up on your arms like eraser shavings.
That's a hammam. And once you've done it, you'll understand why Moroccans have been doing it weekly for a thousand years.
The architecture is simple. Three rooms, each hotter than the last. The first — cool — is where you acclimatize and store your things. The second — warm — is where you soak, lather with savon beldi (black olive soap), and let the steam open your pores. The third — hot — is the furnace room, where the serious sweating happens. You move through them in order, spending ten to twenty minutes in each.
The scrub is the point. After steaming, an attendant (or you, or a friend) uses a kessa — a coarse exfoliating glove — to scrub every surface of your body. Hard. The dead skin comes off in visible rolls. The first time is shocking — you had no idea that much dead skin existed on your body. The kessa doesn't lie. After the scrub, you rinse with buckets of water, apply ghassoul clay or a hair mask if you want, and rinse again.
Most people bring their own supplies: a bucket (or buy a plastic one outside for 15 dirhams), savon beldi, a kessa glove, shampoo, a towel, clean underwear, and flip-flops. Everything gets wet. Everything. Most people wear underwear they don't mind ruining, or pick up disposable ones from the shop outside the hammam. Most locals bring a complete kit in a plastic bag. The shop outside sells everything you'd need.
The ritual takes about an hour. You emerge feeling like a new organism — your skin is absurdly soft, your muscles are loose, and you've sweated out what feels like a liter of toxins. Moroccans do this weekly, usually on Thursday or Friday. It's not luxury. It's hygiene, social ritual, and maintenance built into the rhythm of the week.
Expect to pay 15 to 20 dirhams for entry to a local hammam. A scrub from an attendant is 50 to 80 dirhams extra — most people leave another 20 to 30. For under 130 dirhams total, you've had the deepest clean of your life.