using coconut oil and other ingredients in a sauna/steam room.

Hi all,

I've always been a fan of saunas and steamrooms, as I think a good sweat is a key to good health. However, I've always tried to go about it as 'au naturel' as possible. I don't add oils, moisturizers or use soaps, either before, during or after, as I feel that the whole point of steaming/saunering is to RID yourself of toxins not add more to your body! I usually use a natural loofah to dry brush before I go in, and I steam/sauna then rinse off in cold water and repeat.

However, I'm currently in Thailand, and have access to a traditional Thai steam room and I'm thinking about making use of some natural methods of beautifying. Using coconut oil, for example to make a type of moistuizer, cause it's so cheap here! And I've heard some great things about the health benefits of coconut oil... I've also been looking into making natural salt body scrubs, and natural shampoo using backing soda.

I've also seen women applying honey in the steam room, and some others use a kind of bundle of herbs to 'pat' their muscles down with. I've seen them for sale in the markets, and they smell great - lemongrass and ginger... yum!

I'm really excited to start using these home made concoctions, and am scouring the internet for recipes that I can make and use (if anyone out there has any they want to share).

I just read that cellulite 'melts' at 40 degrees, so it's better to stay in longer and try and sweat out the 'oil' and 'fat' from your cellulite, instead of jsut sweating. I'm guessing this is easier with a far-infra red sauna, but as i don't have access to one, a steam will have to do for now.

My question is then, when is the best time to add these to your skin? I don't want to clog my pores up and not sweat, which would defeat the whole objective of going into the steam room in the first place, so is it better to apply and 'beautify' at the end of the steam/sauna? Or during one of the steam/sauna rinses?