Choose Your Bath Soak
"There's a long standing Japanese tradition of choosing bath salts for your bath according to your daily condition," says Kerr. "Japanese drugstore and beauty stores have huge selections of bath additives — bath salts, oils, milks, and even clay powders — to add to the bath to suit your mood, muscle aches and pains, skin complaints, and of course to detoxify and condition the skin." Decatrel's line, Amayori, revloves around three fragrance types for the bath: Ambrosial Ofuro (tranquility), Hinoki Onsen (deep, meditative relaxation), and Rotenburo Air (rejuvenation).
"I love the ritual of heading to the shower, getting clean, washing my hair — most Japanese men and women wash their hair every night — and slipping into the bath for soak wearing a face mask and/or deep hair treatment," adds Kerr. "Usually Japanese apartment bathrooms have a shower separate to the bath, but in the same room, so that you can run the bath and have it ready for when you finish you shower," says Kerr. While you may not find yourself with the same set up, you can still fill your tub while you're eating dinner or doing another task so that it's ready when you are.
Set Yourself Up for a Good Night's Sleep
While how you set up your bath is up to you (you can use the previous tips as a guideline), there is one rule you should stick to: bathe at night. "Perhaps the most important thing to do is have you bath at night," says Kerr. "The Japanese bath ritual at the end of the day is the perfect way to end the day and prepare yourself for a good night's sleep. Slipping into bed clean, warmed to the core and relaxed is the perfect precursor to a deep, restful sleep."
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