Ttaemiri and the Italy Towel

Few objects say "Korean bathhouse" as quickly as a small green, red or yellow abrasive mitt. Koreans call the scrubbing ttaemiri, roughly "pushing off ttae," the grayish rolls of loosened skin that appear with rubbing. The mitt is the itaeri-tawol (이태리타월), the "Italy towel," and the professionals who scrub customers in the mogyoktang are also called ttaemiri, or sesinsa (세신사) in more formal speech.

The towel and its odd name

The Italy towel is an abrasive cloth about 15 cm square, sewn on three sides into a pouch, according to the JoongAng Daily. The paper reports that Koreans first made them in the 1960s, but that nobody seems to know for sure why they carry the name. One manufacturer, quoted there, said a Busan hotel owner came up with the idea using cloth woven on a machine imported from Italy. The Korea Times credits Busan with the towel and reports that Hanil Textile used imported Italian fabric for it in 1967. Both accounts point to Busan and an Italian connection; they differ on details, so treat the origin story as unsettled.

The JoongAng Daily quotes the head of the Korea Bath Management Association as saying that before these towels, people used dried straw or stones to rub off dead skin.

The weekly scrub

As described by the JoongAng Daily, the ritual is weekly: a soak in a warm or hot bath for at least 15 minutes, followed by vigorous rubbing with the towel. The article says professional scrubbers work at around 9,000 public baths and spas and charge about 8,000 to 15,000 won; prices have likely changed since it was written. They can reach areas such as the back that are awkward to scrub alone.

The Korea Times notes that professional scrubbers offering full-body scrubs were already a feature of bathhouses in the 1960s, and that Busan's Son Jeong-gi created an automatic back scrubber, a rotating towel-covered plate, in 1981.

A caution about over-scrubbing

The feeling of smooth skin after a scrub is real, but rubbing is abrasion. The American Academy of Dermatology says there is no fixed exfoliation schedule: it depends on skin type and method, and the more aggressive the method, the less often it should be done. It warns that too much exfoliation can leave skin red and irritated, can bring on redness or breakouts, and may increase dark spots in people with darker skin tones or existing marks. It also advises against exfoliating over open cuts, wounds or sunburned skin. The JoongAng Daily article itself advises going easy on the face and neck, where skin is sensitive.

• Stop if skin is red, stinging or tight: give it time to recover before scrubbing again.
• Be gentle on sensitive areas: the face and neck in particular.
• Skin conditions: anyone with eczema or another skin disease should ask a dermatologist before scrubbing hard.

The scrub is a cultural ritual of cleanliness and renewal as much as a skin routine, and nothing here suggests it is necessary for healthy skin.