BAINA Bathe
Vol 36.
Kenneth Koo

Kenneth is the co-founder of ORRIS, a line of soaps devoted to craftsmanship, ritual, and the sensory poetry of bathing.

Shaped by his upbringing in Canada, Kenneth embraces bathing as a practice that is both healing, and tied to cycles. In this passage, Kenneth shares how he aligns his bathing practice to always ensure rest, a welcomed bathing companion, and calls on swims in mineral rich South African tidal pools.

"Bathing, for me, is both a physical and mental form of healing. On the most immediate level, it restores the body: warm water easing tension in the muscles and the skin softening under lather. It is the most tactile form of attention, a reminder that the body deserves to be soothed and reset.

Bathing has become, for me, very much an evening ritual. It’s how I close the day, by washing it away. Most evenings I soak in the bathtub. I leave the bathroom door slightly cracked, so I can hear music drifting in from the living room.Often, my dog will wander in to greet me while I’m in the bath, resting his head on the edge as if to check in. That companionship makes the ritual feel even more intimate, more human."

"Bathing has always felt tied to cycles for me—cultural, seasonal, generational. Growing up in Canada, water meant lakes that froze solid in the winter, places you would walk across in January and then dive into a few months later in July. That transformation always stayed with me: the same body of water that represented stillness and endurance in winter became release and vitality in summer.

Living away from the ocean, I’ve found ways to bring the sea to me. One of the most grounding rituals I’ve developed is drawing a hot bath and infusing it with Dead Sea salts. The minerals soften the water, but they also shift the atmosphere and transform the bath into something immersive."

"I don’t overcomplicate it. Sometimes it’s just a bar of soap and hot water, other times I’ll add salts or oils if I want to shift the mood. What matters most is the cadence: knowing that at the end of the day I have this moment of pause before sleep. Bathing in the evening is my way of drawing a line between the day that has passed and the one still to come.

One of my most unforgettable memories of bathing is swimming in the tidal pools along the Dolphin Coast in South Africa. They are protected pockets where mineral-rich water gathers and calms. Unlike the vastness of the open sea, they feel intimate, framed by rock and reef yet alive with the pulse and marine life of the Indian Ocean."