Across the southeast, Sauna House creates a space for you to relax while also getting the benefits of alternating the sauna and a cold plunge.

At their Asheville location, they embody completely a dedication to creating a sustainable experience for both you and the planet.

[calming tones] - Sauna House is a modern bathhouse space.

We provide people access to hot and cold contrast therapy in modern, beautiful, tech-free spaces.

So we're here in our original location in Asheville, North Carolina right now, and over the last six months, we've opened in Durham, North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Bonita Springs, Florida.

So we opened 2019, was really kicked off by Andrew Laughlin, who is the founder and CEO of the company.

He grew up playing sports, all of those things, struggled with the depression in his 20s, and found hot and cold contrast therapy as an amazing tool to kind of treat those things, and get 'em back on track.

He wanted to do it in a way that was fun, that was social, and also sort of acknowledge the historic use of bathhouse spaces that have been going on for centuries in a bunch of different forms across the world.

We offer both modern and traditional Finnish saunas, cold plunges.

In order to access the bathhouse, we have drop ins, and then we also do memberships.

- New members, we give them a walkthrough.

We do a little tour, make sure that they feel super welcome, and that they know the step by steps of how to do the circuit.

The saunas can get up to like 190 degrees when you add that steam onto them, so you're definitely sweating in there.

The cold plunge can get down to like 40 degrees, 43 degrees, so also very frosty, and basically what this high contrast therapy does, it's gonna reduce inflammation.

It boosts endorphins.

It's great for your skin, it's great for the lymph and detox.

Oftentimes people will kind of just jump in between hot and cold, but that relaxed portion is so important, 'cause that's when you get that rush of endorphins, and you just sit in this really beautiful space where your body is reregulating, and that's where that whole relax area comes in, where we have like heated benches and lots of plants.

It's just a really relaxing body space.

- Usually come here after intense workouts or long hikes, and I would use the space to recover.

Since then, it's evolved into more of like a third place for me.

You know, I'll come here just to read a book and relax.

My partner and I like to come here before going out to dinner.

It's a very enlivening space and rejuvenating.

- I love coming to Sauna House because I'm pretty active.

I bike and run, and I do a lot of dead lifts, and it makes my body just relax.

Life is so like intense right now, so it's so nice to be able to come to Sauna House and just chill.

- So we recognize that this is a communal space.

It's a bathhouse after all.

People are coming in there in their bathing suits.

They're walking around barefoot, so we are upholding the highest standards to make sure that this space is clean and safe for everybody using it every single time.

So every Wednesday when we're closed, we do a deep cleaning of the space.

We lift up the mats.

We're essentially like deconstructing the saunas and the whole space and making sure that every area under every piece of furniture is being cleaned and sanitized to make sure that the space is safe and sanitary for all.

- So right now we're in one of the saunas at Sauna House in the private room.

That's something I really appreciate about Sauna House is you can come here and do a session in the communal space and engage with other people, but then we have private rooms, so if you just want to have your own space, Sauna House kind of offers both.

- It's the best.

It's euphoria.

After you get out of the cold plunge, and you sit in the hot seats, and you've done the whole thing, it's really, it's like almost like you're in the cloud.

It's the best - We really want these spaces to be for everybody.

If you have like an inkling of curiosity about what contrast therapy could do for you, physically, mentally, socially, any of those things, like just give it a shot.

It's two hours of your day, and you'll feel like a million bucks, so you might as well.

Our goal is just to continue building places that people wanna come, keeping like pillars in our community.

We also talk a lot about like the long-term impacts you can have as a business that's growing, right, like we partner with 1% for the Planet, and if we could keep growing and providing more initiatives, and education, and resources to some of our local nonprofit partners and make an impact in people on the planet, that's the hope.

[calming tones] - [Deborah] Sauna House Asheville is located at 230 Short Coxe Avenue in Asheville.

Give them a call at 828-505-6393, or visit them online at saunahouse.com to make a booking.