There are two types of banyas – black banyas where smoke escapes through a hole in the ceiling, and white banyas which use exhaust pipes to vent the steam.
Tea, beer and other drinks are served in the entrance room, and people often linger there, playing games or socializing.
People enter the steam room once rocks or clay balls in a stone stove have become hot, but before water from a bucket is poured over them, so they can raise a good sweat first. This is thought to protect the skin from any detrimental effects of the steam.
Temperatures in the banya often reach 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and bathers protect their skin with felt hats, mitts, and small mats. They use bunches of dried branches and leaves from white birch, oak, or eucalyptus, called veniks, to improve circulation. Aromatherapy is often used in the steam for its health benefits and because it makes the bath that more enjoyable.
The Russians care so much for their steam baths that they also made them portable. Hiking banyas, a tent extended over a makeshift oven of local stones, are used by soldiers, hikers, and people who travel in the country's harshest environments.