Spas Are Now Offering Hay Baths, And It Doesn’t Sound Pretty

We're at the end of a long, hard week, and if you're like us, you're already planning on how to unwind this weekend. Sure, you could take a nice, long bubble bath or splurge on a quickie massage, but how about a roll in the hay? No sex involved here: We're talking hay baths. Yep — a spa in Italy is serving up "cure-all" treatments that involve wrapping yourself in hot, wet, fermented, "fatty" hay, according to Modern Farmer. Pause for nausea.

The treatment is offered at Hotel Heubad in Northern Italy, and can allegedly help treat everything from obesity to sciatica to a stiff neck. Before the treatment, the hay is soaked in hot water. You're then wrapped in the grass for 15 to 20 minute before being wrapped in linen sheets for your "meditative comedown period."

We've heard of some pretty out-of-the-box beauty treatments (snail slime and fish pedicures, to name a few), but wrapping yourself in hay seems just a little too weird. The main question is: Can it even feel good? Imagine the itchiness — it gives us flashbacks to sitting on bales of hay when we went pumpkin picking as a kid and how uncomfortably scratchy it was.

One travel writer, Adam Bridge, was brave enough to try the bath a few years ago and had a pretty horrible experience. Aside from the smell and the fact that you don't get a shower post-treatment, Bridge described the bath as "excruciating" and "itchy."

The treatment may only set you back $45, but we're placing hay baths on our list of "do not attempt" remedies. Hey, at least fish pedicures won't leave you smelling like a barnyard when you're done. (Modern Farmer).