Why Hetki Stands for Finnish Sauna – Not Infrared

We don't do infrared. Period.

When I founded Hetki, I wanted the company to have a purpose beyond simply building and selling saunas. That’s where this choice begins.

Not because we think infrared is bad. Not because we want to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t enjoy. And certainly not because we believe our choices should be everyone else’s choices. This is simply our choice.

At Hetki, we stand for authentic Finnish sauna. That comes from who we are, where we come from, what sauna means to us, and the kind of company and products we want to create. And above all, it comes from what we want to offer you.

So why Finnish sauna, and not infrared?

• We are Finnish, and sauna has always been part of our lives. We didn’t discover sauna as a wellness trend, a health hack or a thermal therapy protocol. We grew up with it.

• Löyly is the soul of sauna. Hot stones, water, heat and humidity create something that goes far beyond temperature alone.

• Health and wellbeing matter. Traditional Finnish sauna has a considerably broader research base than infrared.

• Our purpose shapes what we make. We want to bring joy and wellbeing to people around the world through Finnish sauna. The product should follow the purpose, not the other way around.

• It’s also a conscious business decision. Yes, we’re a commercial company and we want to sell saunas. But that doesn’t mean we need to make everything we could potentially make money from.

We are Finnish and sauna has always been part of our lives

We didn’t discover sauna through science. We didn’t start going to sauna because somebody told us it might make us healthier or live longer. We didn’t need a protocol telling us how many minutes to stay, at what temperature, how often or what to do afterwards. We’ve always gone to sauna. We learned by doing, and by enjoying it.

I went to my first sauna when I was about one month old. My parents started just as young, and so did our children. This is very common in Finland. Sauna is part of life, from childhood to old age.

For me, sauna was never something to perform, optimise or measure. It was simply part of life. At home, at the summer cottage, with family and friends. We didn’t analyse what it was doing to us. We went to sauna because that’s what we did.

And perhaps that’s part of what makes sauna so special. It doesn’t have to be planned or performed. We wash, warm up, talk, sit quietly, spend time with family and friends, and sometimes just enjoy being alone. Sauna comes naturally. It’s an ordinary part of everyday life, yet the moments it gives us can be quite extraordinary.

There’s also a very personal reason why Hetki exists. The original spark for the idea came when I was living abroad with my family. And what does a Finn living abroad miss more than sauna? I certainly did.

I missed sauna. And I mean really missed it. Of course I missed the warmth and the löyly, but I missed much more than that. I missed the whole experience, the familiar feeling during sauna and afterwards. I missed being present, the conversations and the quiet moments, and that sense of connection with the people I love. I missed something that had been part of my life for as long as I could remember.

Somewhere along the way, a simple thought started to grow: what if we could bring this kind of sauna to people around the world? Years later, that thought became Hetki. I wanted to create the kind of sauna I had missed abroad and make that experience available to you, wherever you live.

Hetki wasn’t born from a thermal therapy market opportunity. It was born from something that has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.

Löyly is the soul of sauna

For us, sauna begins with a proper sauna heater, hot stones and water, and a space designed and built to enable the experience. You pour water onto the hot rocks, and you get löyly.

Translating löyly into English as simply steam doesn’t quite do it justice. It’s the change you feel in the room when the water hits the stones. The heat and humidity shift. A wave of warmth moves through the sauna and wraps around you. It changes how the sauna feels.

This is also why calling Finnish sauna a dry sauna is misleading. It can be relatively dry between rounds of löyly, but water is meant to be thrown onto the hot stones. The resulting changes in heat and humidity are an essential part of the experience. Finnish sauna isn’t dry sauna. And if something needs to be called a dry sauna, I’d suggest we leave that term to infrared.

Unlike infrared, sauna isn’t a static or passive experience. You actively shape it yourself. There are no strict rules. Respect the people you share the sauna with, of course, but otherwise make it the sauna you enjoy. More water if you want more löyly. Less if you prefer it gentler and not so humid. Sit higher when you want more heat, lower when you want less. Step outside when you want to cool down and come back when you feel like it. My own preference? Quite mild temperatures and plenty of löyly.

There’s also a reason why I call it infrared rather than infrared sauna. I simply don’t think of infrared as sauna. That may sound rather strict, but there it is. That’s genuinely how I see it, and I suspect many Finns would agree. Sauna is a Finnish word that has travelled remarkably well. It’s become the best-known Finnish words around the world, carrying with it a powerful meaning and association. At some point, infrared came to be widely known and marketed as infrared sauna. I can understand why. Sauna is a strong word. But adding sauna to the name doesn’t make the experience the same.

For me, sauna means hot stones, water and löyly. Infrared is a completely different thermal modality and a different experience. That doesn’t make it better or worse. This isn’t about arguing against infrared. On the contrary, it has its own value. But maybe not everything needs to be called a sauna to be valuable.

There’s a slightly ironic consequence of all this naming. In Finland, we don’t call it Finnish sauna. We just call it sauna. I certainly don’t tell my family or friends that it’s time to go and enjoy a Finnish sauna. It would sound rather strange. Sauna is sauna. In many other markets, though, the word sauna has come to mean many different things. So we’ve ended up adding Finnish to something we would much rather simply call sauna, because otherwise you may not know what we actually mean. When Hetki says Finnish sauna, we mean the sauna we grew up with: sauna with löyly.

And yes, I know I’m biased. I’m Finnish, I’ve been going to sauna all my life, and I founded a company that builds them. I’m hardly a neutral observer. But I won’t pretend otherwise: for me personally, infrared simply can’t match the feeling of a Finnish sauna and löyly.

Without löyly, it’s just dry heat. With löyly, it’s magic.

Health and wellbeing matter

Sauna has always been about wellbeing for us, long before anyone started studying its health effects. But science can help us understand what happens to our bodies when we go to sauna. I find the science fascinating, and I follow the research with genuine interest. But science isn’t why I go to sauna, and it isn’t why it’s been part of my life.

As I’ve got older, though, I’ve noticed more and more what sauna does for me personally. I feel that I recover better, both mentally and physically, after work and after exercise. And I sleep better after sauna. This isn’t a science-backed claim. It’s simply my own empirical observation, with a sample size of exactly one: me. But these experiences are also part of why wellbeing became so important to me and, eventually, to Hetki.

Traditional Finnish sauna has been studied extensively for decades, including some exceptionally long-running population studies. The research base is considerably broader than for infrared, and much of the strongest and most consistent evidence commonly associated with sauna and health comes from traditional Finnish sauna.

Unfortunately, it isn’t uncommon to see infrared promoted using research that was actually conducted on traditional Finnish sauna. I don’t think that conclusion should be made. Infrared has research of its own, and that’s perfectly legitimate, but the two are different thermal modalities. Findings from one shouldn’t simply be transferred to the other just because both are marketed using the word sauna.

The distinction can be surprisingly important. Recent Finnish research, for example, has shown that not only temperature but also humidity independently influences physiological responses during sauna bathing. In other words, the water we Finns have been throwing on sauna stones for generations isn’t irrelevant from a physiological perspective either.

None of this means infrared is bad. It means it’s different. Science may help us understand what happens to our bodies in sauna. It didn’t teach Finns why sauna matters.

Our purpose shapes what we make

For me, a purpose only means something if it actually affects the choices we make.

Hetki exists to bring joy and wellbeing to people around the world through Finnish sauna. We genuinely believe in what it has to offer, and we want more people to experience it.

That purpose guides us, from what we make to how we make it. We want to be one of the very best at what we do: crafting first-class, genuine Finnish log saunas and making sure our customers are happy with what they receive. We believe in thoughtful construction and craftsmanship without cutting corners. We want to make saunas that create good löyly, feel right and can be enjoyed for decades, perhaps even generations.

But purpose also defines what we don’t do. If our purpose is to bring joy and wellbeing through Finnish sauna, it wouldn’t make much sense for us to start making infrared cabins simply because there’s a market for them. Infrared may be a perfectly good choice for someone else. It’s simply not what Hetki exists to do.

The product should follow the purpose, not the other way around.

It is also a conscious business decision

As a founder, I also have to look at this as a business decision. Hetki is a commercial company. We want to sell saunas. To fulfil our purpose, we need people to choose and buy what we make.

And of course, as an entrepreneur, it can be tempting to say yes when there’s something people are willing to buy. We could probably make our potential market larger by saying yes to more things: infrared, barrel saunas, lighter structures or cheaper products designed primarily around reaching a certain price point. Some of those choices might even make perfectly good commercial sense.

But commercial opportunity alone isn’t enough reason for us to make something. We know what Hetki stands for, and we’d rather become exceptionally good at that than try to be everything to everyone. And that’s why we politely say no thank you to infrared.

Values matter most when following them actually requires a choice. This is one of ours.

Our choice not a judgement of yours

So no, Hetki doesn’t do infrared.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. An infrared cabin may be exactly what you’re looking for. There are many ways to enjoy warmth, relaxation and a moment away from everyday life. This isn’t a judgement on anyone else’s choice. It’s a statement about ours.

We stand for authentic Finnish sauna. Hot stones. Water. Löyly. Wood. A sauna experience rooted in a culture that has been living with it for generations. We stand for first-class craftsmanship and log saunas built to bring joy and wellbeing from one generation to the next.

But ultimately, what we want to offer you is something much simpler: moments. Hetki is a Finnish word which means a moment. Time in the sauna, with family and friends or simply by yourself. That’s what we want every Hetki Sauna to give you, again and again.

And we believe you, as a customer, have every right to choose what’s right for you. You also have the right to know what you’re buying. Our responsibility is to be honest and transparent about what we make, why we make it, and what you can expect from us.

As the founder of Hetki, that matters personally to me. And if you choose us, we want to be worthy of the trust you place in us.

And if it’s an authentic Finnish sauna you’re looking for, that’s something we know how to do very well.

Janne Oksanen

Founder & CEO of Hetki Finland