Tucked away in a back street on the site of a former Auckland salvage yard, Hana is a holistic treatment studio that focuses on the new. Its offering includes infrared sauna and a photobiomodulation (low-level light) treatment using MitoGen whole-body light pods, which use specific wavelengths of red and near-infrared light to stimulate healing and decrease pain and inflammation.
With only a handful of red-light therapy spas around the country, the experience is a rare luxury – as well as an odd sensation. It’s not unlike the feeling of being enclosed in a tanning bed, or how you would imagine being inside a sandwich press – the pods surround your body with long rods of red and near-infrared light.
This non-ionizing electromagnetic-energy treatment boasts a range of benefits such as sun damage repair, increase in muscle recovery, a reduction in scarring and inflammation, enhancing collagen repair, and stimulating cellular mitochondrial production to increase energy and strengthen the immune system.
The experience is a tad claustrophobic, though the pods do instil a sense of calm during the treatment. While you may not feel any physical changes as you lie cocooned inside the giant light bulb, the mellow warmth of the light and the total absence of distractions is therapeutic in itself.
The covid-19 lockdown period is undoubtedly a stressful and uncertain time for most, and Hana director Sara Higgins believes we’ve collectively taken on a greater understanding of self-care and stress management in this time. She credits the MitoGen pods for her own improved wellbeing and her relaxed approach to the launch of Hana, despite covid-related delays. “I had a very stress-free opening of the business,” she says.
Hana founder Sara Higgins. Photos by Jono Parker
The Maori word ‘hana’ means shine, glow or radiate, which feels apt after a sauna session. The cedarwood saunas use infrared light to gently radiate heat into the joints and muscles, boosting circulation and supporting relaxation, as well as increasing metabolism, supporting immunity, reducing fatigue and improving the skin’s appearance.
By creating a dry, enveloping warmth, as opposed to a traditional humid sauna that heats the air, the session is more tolerable at 40-60 degrees Celsius. It begins innocently enough, like a toasty hug, before the heat causes a sweat so intense you can see individual droplets coming out of your pores. Despite the unfathomable perspiration, this reviewer left feeling lighter and relaxed, and had a restful sleep that evening.
Popular overseas, with a celebrity following in the US, light therapy is gaining traction, and with a long list of benefits, the opportunity to experience infrared treatments at Hana is worth indulging in. The catch? It takes many sessions to fully reap the rewards.
The Scrap Yard, 6/18 Westmoreland Street West, Grey Lynn, Auckland
hana.nz
