These seven ancient Moroccan wellness secrets keep locals fit and strong until old age.
Last updated: December 31, 2024
Ancient Moroccan Wellness Practices
Countries like Morocco are unique wellness centers where traditional remedies have been used to preserve health and enhance natural beauty for centuries. The vitality and youthful appearance of Moroccan men and women inspire countless wellness resorts and health-conscious travelers to follow in their steps.
During our trip to Marrakech, Morocco, earlier this year, I was also determined to unveil some of these traditional Moroccan wellness secrets. Learning what makes the locals so well-preserved became my goal.
The number of Moroccan health and beauty remedies is probably bigger than the country itself. The secrets of Moroccans’ vitality, youthful skin, and flawless appearance go all the way back to the ancient times, period when people applied only pure oils and other natural ingredients to their bodies.
Additionally, the Moroccans used these natural essential oils and fragrances to calm their bodies and minds. They believed that only in the relaxed state people were able to reap all the great benefits of any external wellness practice.
Ancient Moroccan health and beauty secrets did not perish as the time went by. Locals still treat their bodies and souls with respect. And up to this day, Moroccans prefer natural remedies to imported commercial potions.
7 ANCIENT MOROCCAN WELLNESS SECRETS
1. Argan Oil
The single most popular Moroccan beauty secret of all times is argan oil. Moroccans use this incredibly powerful oil for their faces, hair, and bodies.
Benefits: Argan oil is high in vitamins A and E, fatty acids, such as Omega 3 and Omega 6. Packed with antioxidants, pure argan oil helps keep wrinkles away. It makes hair grow healthy, long and thick, hydrates and softens the skin. Often Moroccans use argan oil as a natural moisturizer.
Sometimes organ oil is mixed with rosehip oil. According to some Moroccans, this wellness practice helps reap the benefits of both of these oils at the same time. Yet blending two different oils together is not a very common practice. Staying true to their centuries-long beauty traditions, Moroccans prefer to use the oils separately.
2. Prickly Pear Oil
Next to argan oil, Moroccans favor another natural super oil, prickly pear seed oil or barbary fig seed oil. Locals insist that this oil is even more powerful in fighting dreadful aging marks and wrinkles than argan oil. One of Marrakesh’s oil experts and merchants assured us that no other oil can stand comparison with prickly pear seed oil.
As the name suggests, the oil is extracted from prickly pear, better known as Barbary fig or cactus. Indigenous to Mexico, over time the plant was introduced to North Africa. Excruciating heat, dry weather, and lack of water did not scare the prickly pear. On the contrary, the succulent found the difficult environmental conditions highly favorable and expanded all over the region, making Morocco its primary place of residency. Moroccans, in their turn, incorporated prickly pear oil into their ancient wellness traditions.
Benefits: Prickly pear seed oil is extremely high in Omega 6 and Omega 9, antioxidants, vitamin E and vitamin K oil. It is considered to be one of the best natural remedies to keep away the fine wrinkles. Other benefits of prickly pear seed oil include its ability to increase elasticity of the skin and brighten under-eye dark circles. Apply a few drops of prickly pear oil on your face and hair daily. The results will not make you wait long.
3. Moroccan Hammam
Moroccans have been generously treating their bodies with massages, body scrubs, and daily or weekly hammam for ages.
Known by a few different names such as Turkish bath or Roman bath, Moroccan hammam is a bathhouse with multiple dry and steamed rooms. Water and cleanliness are regarded as sacred in Islam. And so, the Moroccans think of their hammams as special places where their bodies and souls get cleaned according to the ancient health and wellness rituals.
The hammam session begins in a dry hot room where you get accustomed to the heat and prepare yourself and your body for the next room. Next is a hot steamy room. This room is one of the most important since the heat makes you sweat a lot and purifies your body. Once finished with these two stages of the hammam wellness journey, you slowly relocate to a bathing room. Here skillful staff or your friends gently use traditional hammam treatment on your skin and body.
Moroccan Hammam Treatment
Moroccan hammam wellness treatment starts with applying a thin layer of black soap all over your body. Made from olive oil, black or Beldi soap penetrates into deeper layers of your skin and cleanses it from the dirt and dead skin. The treatment makes your skin look beautiful and radiant. Rinse your body with a lot of water in about 5 – 10 minutes.
The next step in this Moroccan wellness practice is to scrape the body with a kessa glove. Thanks to its granulated tissue, the glove activates blood circulation and sheds off the dead skin.
Continue your Moroccan hammam treatment with a purifying rhassoul mask that absorbs the excess dirt and oil and nourishes the skin. In some luxurious hammams, the wellness practice is completed with rehydrating the body with pure argan oil.
4. Modern Spas
Today many Moroccan hotels and luxurious riads offer their guests services of modern spas with professional therapists performing different kinds of massages, facials, and hair treatment. Yet despite heavy influences from the Western world, Moroccans also incorporate their ancient health and beauty secrets, such as traditional hammams.
5. Herbs and Spices
Local spices and herbs have been an integral part of Moroccan wellness secrets for centuries. Widely used in cooking to enhance flavors, the spices fulfill many other important functions. They are essential in treating diseases and illnesses, neutralizing unpleasant body odors. Moreover, these spices and herbs give a distinguishing aroma to houses and help keep insects away.
Benefits: In Morocco, more than likely, you will be introduced to such spices as saffron, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, thyme, and many more. Do you wonder why?
Originated in South Asia, cinnamon is responsible for providing the body with antioxidants that protect against viruses and prevent diseases. Moroccan women rely on this sweet and savory spice to keep their skin looking young and fresh. Known for its ability to increase collagen levels, cinnamon improves the overall look of the skin. It increases the elasticity of the skin and prevents the signs of aging.
Equally popular cumin helps prevent digestive issues, such as bloating, stomach pain, and vomiting. On top of that, it assists with the detoxification processes in the body to cleanse the blood from the toxins, and boost the energy. As if these benefits are not enough, cumin clears the skin and slows down the visible signs of aging.
6. Mint Tea
Mint tea is named one of the most powerful Moroccan wellness secrets for a good reason. Packed with many health and beauty enhancing benefits, the beverage has been a signature drink of the country for thousands of years. Moroccans sip this elixir from morning until evening, appreciating its sweet taste and pleasant aroma.
Benefits: Yet this is not the only reason why the mint tea got such popularity. It helps diminish stress and anxiety, soothe headaches, reduce bloating and gas, ease nausea, and improve the digestive system. Thanks to the high level of the antioxidants, the mint tea is also used to reduce redness, irritations, and burns. Moreover, drinking Moroccan tea throughout the day can aid in faster fat metabolism and keeping a slender physique.
7. Ramadan, one of the Greatest Moroccan Wellness Secrets
Yes, Ramadan! An ancient Muslim tradition, Ramadan is a month-long holiday, a period of fasting and prayer. During this holy month the Muslims worldwide, including Moroccans, abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, ill tempers, and gossip from sunrise to sunset.
What does it have to do with Moroccan wellness secrets? Surprisingly, a lot. For ages, people used fasting to treat different kinds of diseases and illnesses, improve health and prolong life.
Skeptical of the ancient way of self-healing, numerous studies have been conducted to analyze how fasting affects the mind and body. So, in 1994 the International Congress on Health and Ramadan took place in Casablanca. Its goal was to analyze 50 studies from all over the world and note some important health benefits of Ramadan.
Benefits: Besides purifying the body and mind, the main goals of fasting during the holy month assists with substantial weight loss. It helps lower bad cholesterol levels while increasing good cholesterol. This, in its turn, lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, fasting improves the absorption of nutrients, helps overcome addictions such as smoking, indulging in sweet and fatty food, and even gossiping and lying.
