We are normally told to minimize our salt intake, but I recently chose to enter a room with 11 tons of pink Himalayan salt and micro salt particles infused into the air filtration system. It was amazing. The Austin Salt Cave is tucked away in Lakeway conveniently located near The Grove in case you want to follow your session with a nice glass of wine (gotta retox to detox, amiright?). (The practitioner in me says I’m wrong, but I’ll ignore her on this one).
Halotherapy, which is the fancy name for salt therapy, is known to benefit respiratory and skin conditions through its antibacterial properties and has been around for hundreds of years. Who knew? Well, the clever owners of The Austin Salt Cave knew and know you do too!
Here are the details: appointments are super easy to book online, but there are lots of covid-19 protocols in place, so be sure to book in advance since there restrictions on how many people can be in the room. It was just the two of us when I booked a date night there: romance + learning + health = YES PLEASE.
We arrived to a warm greeting from one of the owners, Ileen. She gave us a rundown of the benefits and what we could expect. The front room is filled with tons of salt things and I wanted to buy all of them. Himalayan salt serving boards, lamps, crystals, and more. There is also a mini salt cave for people who want the benefits of halotherapy with the convenience of a quick ‘pop in and out’. I wanted the full experience, which takes about an hour. You can wear whatever you want (I wore jeans and a t-shirt), but there are lockers for your personal items (not a great idea to bring phones and stuff in there) and you either want to remove your shoes or put the covers they provide over them since the salt dust on the floor gets all over them. Also, if you’re going in for something like eczema or psoriasis it’s probably helpful to have more skin exposed than not. . .
Ileen gave us bottles of water, offered us cozy blankets and led us back to the cave. It is relaxing the minute you walk in. There is glowing pink salt EVERYWHERE and we snuggled into the comfy zero gravity chairs. I had grand intentions of meditating or soaking in the scenes, but we both fell asleep almost immediately. We were gently woken up about 45 minutes later when the lights started to go on and the door opened a crack to let us know it was time to wrap up. We stretched a little, gathered ourselves and re-entered the real world. I was super proud of myself from refraining from licking the wall “just to see”- something I was not able to pass up on a road trip through the Utah salt flats. . .
Overall, the experience was wonderful and I fully intend to go back many times.
Go there for self care!
xo,
Jenna
The Austin Salt Cave Amazingness!