Nestled in the space underneath East Nashville’s renowned, Hot Yoga of East Nashville, you’ll enter Lolu’s front door on the back side of the building, with a parking lot conveniently located at the door. As you walk in, you are welcomed by the sounds and smells of steam, hot showers, ambient music, incense, mood lighting, and East Nashvillians quietly socializing with each other. If you are there on a weekday morning, a sweet little coffee shop called Subliminal Coffee will greet you to your left. You’ll check in with the front desk of Lolu. You will likely need a reservation for your sauna and cold plunge time slot, which you can make online at Lolulife.com. Reservation slots are 75 minutes at a time.
After checking in, you’ll recieve your fresh towel and move beyond the curtain into open concept locker room space where you can stow your personal items in a locked locker for the time you are there.
Regulars and newbies alike are mostly dressed in water-friendly sportswear…women seem to choose bike shorts and a sports bra or some type of sporty swim suit, which I appreciated when I went because it made the whole experience feel like it was honoring the business and focus of the act of sauna and cold plunge, rather than feeling like a bikini pick-up joint.
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From the locker room space, you’ll go through another curtain to enter the main area of the actual experience, complete with dim lighting, hanging live leafy green plants, perfectly chilled complementary water, and delicious hot tea, with a seating area to enjoy all of the above. Your first stop, however, will likely be to bring your towel and paper-cupped water into the 175 degree communal sauna. If you are there during a “free flow” session, don’t be surprised to find a lively and chatty group in the sauna who are jovially making small talk with one another. Unlike any other sauna I’ve experienced where strangers will sit quietly without talking to one another, Lolu promotes a culture of connection, meeting new people, and making friends with your neighbors. The comforting hum of people chitchatting and laughing with each other instantly grounds you in an understanding that there is still love, friendliness and comradery in the world. If a chatty sauna is not your thing, Lolu offers session called “quiet flow” when scheduling online, which is meant to be a quiet and more introspective experience.
After sweating for however long you can make it (I can last for about 20 minutes before needing to move on), exit the sauna and enter the eucalyptus-ladden communal shower room for a rinse. Dark stone floor to ceiling shower tile and perfectly dim lighting in the shower keep you in a state of appreciation and relaxation.
After a good rinse, head to the cold plunge room. My first time cold plunging, I didn’t know what to expect but I asked for some advise from the Lolu staff. They told me to wait 3-5 minutes between the sauna and cold plunge, and then to try to submerge myself in the cold plunge up to my shoulders and stay as long as I could. So, I followed the instruction and after the shower, I sat and stared at the cold plunge, (and the giant digital clock on the wall), and mustered up the courage to take a 47 degree dip.
One foot after the other into the (what feels like freezing) water and before I knew it, I was shoulder-deep and taking giant breaths. A quick and powerful rush of positive, natural mood-boosting chemicals like dopamine, serotonin and endorphins, flooded my system and I felt a cleansing “high” like I’ve never felt before. I stared at the clock and closed my eyes in intervals, trying to make it to 30 and maybe even 45 seconds. When I exited the college plunge, I felt both relaxed and rejuvenated in a way I’ve never felt before. I felt cleansed from the inside out. I was hooked, and I knew I’d try never to go back to a life where I didn’t feel this reset on a regular basis. With about 50 minutes left of my session time slot, I had the liesure of doing two or three more rounds of the sauna-shower-cold plunge, and a hot tea at the end of it all to sit still in the common space, and let my body normalize, while savoring the relaxing and friendly atmosphere.
If you live in, or are experiencing Nashville, I hope you get to enjoy this special sanctuary the Lolu staff has created for the Nashville community. It’s a gem.
This article was written by Jessica Juliano at The Nashville Brew. To subscribe and receive a weekly newsletter about what’s brewing in Nashville’s lifestyle, food and real estate scenes, click here: