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" I&amp;#039;m lucky enough to have a job that affords me many otherwise-unattainable luxuries, chief among them the opportunity to try lots of spas and new treatments and Next Big Things in pampering. I&amp;#039;ve been smothered in caviar, rubbed down from head to toe in Dead Sea salts and nutrient-enriched mud, and spent many obnoxiously indulgent hours in cashmere robes and the hands of impeccably-trained beauty professionals. None of it, however, could have prepared me for my latest beauty experience. Last night, ELLE fashion assistant Annie Ladino introduced me to the Russian and Turkish Baths on East 10th Street, and my views on relxation will never be quite the same. My roommate thought the co-ed public sauna-and-steam experience sounded like &amp;quot;a good way to catch a staph infection.&amp;quot; It was actually a good way to catch a tanned and toned Wall Street type in teeny cotton rental shorts...  Annie Ladino, outside of the Russian and Turkish Baths in the East Village... The experience was unlike any I&amp;#039;ve ever had: Hand your valuables over to a guy named Boris (in return, you get a key on a rubber band that costs $50 if lost, no exceptions\u2013so many rules! Communism is alive and well in the EV!), strip down to your swimsuit and put on the paper-thin rented robe, then head downstairs for a good old-fashioned schvitz. The Russian Sauna is basically a room filled with stone slabs, a giant oven, and a tub of ice-cold water in the middle. You get as hot as you can tolerate, then drench yourself with an old white plastic bucket filled with cold water. This is also where platza massages are done (in the middle of the sauna, surrounded by 20 or 30 onlookers). Basically, you get beaten with a broom made of fresh oak leaves and soaked in olive oil, which is supposed to open pores, remove toxins, and exfoliate dead skin.  There is also a Turkish steam room that pumps in lavendar and eucalpytus, an ice-cold pool meant to refresh you in between heat treatments, and a Swedish shower that blasts you with three jets of water. It&amp;#039;s not an experience for the squeamish, claustrophobes, germaphobes, or self-consious types. But I slept like a rock last night and awoke to skin that was newly aglow...not to mention that I sweat enough to cancel out the morning&amp;#039;s French toast fiasco at City Bakery. In short: Highly Recommended!    Getting a beating from the platza inside the Russian Sauna... "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a476/sweat-shop-4166/>