What’s it like… floating in a float pod?
I must say I was excited to get this opportunity to try Loulous’ new float pod – I’m always keen to try new things and getting some time to myself for an hour was the icing on the cake.
First you shower and then hop into the aptly-named Dream Pod. Coloured LED lights inside the pod give it a beautiful ambiance and when you turn the main light out it feels like you’re in another world.
There are 5ookg of Epsom salts dissolved into 1000 litres of tepid water, making it more buoyant than the Dead Sea. The sensation itself was not exactly like floating on water – more like what it must feel like to be weightless in space.
I was in two minds about shutting the lid or not – either is fine, and apparently some people don’t shut it because they don’t fancy it. There’s no catch on the lid, though, and it’s easy to open, so after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing I opted to close it. You can turn the LED lights off, but I left them on because it was a bit confronting with the lid shut and the lights off.
What I noticed is all the areas where I hold onto tension, such as my shoulders, and I was able to feel that tension releasing in the pod. It seemed to be over in a flash, because I had fallen asleep, but I woke up feeling very relaxed and calm. An unexpected bonus was that I noticed vastly improved sleep over the next few nights, no doubt a side-effect of the magnesium from the Epsom salts being absorbed through my skin.
And after I hopped out and showered and changed, I walked through to the hair salon and had my hair blow waved. Pretty much heaven, and I felt like a million bucks at the end of it (a nice change from the $6.50 I felt when I went in).
The verdict: You need three sessions to really get the full benefits from floating, Loulous’ owner Angelique Gellert said, and I think she’s right. By the third time you will be straight into it and probably won’t spend time swooshing your hair backwards and forwards pretending to be a mermaid. I would definitely go again.
