MAXINE GORDON checks in to the Titanic Spa for a relaxing detoxing body treatment.

SO you want to detox? If the thought of giving up caffeine, chocolate and carbs sounds like tough going, maybe you need to ease your way into the state of self sacrifice.

That’s the approach I took as I headed to the Titanic Spa at Huddersfield.

Named Britain’s Best Day Spa, the Titanic also boasts excellent green credentials – it is the UK’s first eco-spa, and has solar panels, underfloor heating and its own water source from a private borehole 100 metres deep underground.

In honour of its green ethos, I left the office car in York and took the train to Huddersfield (just 45 minutes). The Titanic is a short taxi hop away, located in a garguntian red brick building that was once a mill.

I have time to check out the Titanic’s award-winning heat and ice experience before my treatment – the Decleor Silhouette Aroma Wrap.

You could easily while away a few hours in here, moving (or rather floating on account of how relaxed it makes you feel) from one heat chamber to the next. Besides the sauna and steam room there are three more heat areas to try: the herbal infusion room, combining the warmth of a traditional steam bath with the benefits of natural herbs and essential oils; an aromatherapy room offering a dry heat perfect for cleansing the pores, and the crystal steam bath, which is humid, and great for the respiratory system and relaxation.

The idea is to move from a hot experience to a cold one; hence the presence of an ice room where you can lavish crushed ice on to your hot skin; cold showers (including a freezing bucket of cold water that upends when you pull a chain) and a plunge pool, guaranteed to lower your body temperature in one violent yelp!

To gain the most benefit, it is advised that you allow your body to get really hot then cool it down rapidly. For my money, the plunge pool does that best – although it takes the nerves of a superhero to jump into the ice-cold water. But it’s worth it for the sheer exhiliration you feel afterwards.

By this point, I was feeling pretty terrific, but my sense of wellbeing was about go off the scale. It was time for my treatment.

In the quiet and dark of a treatment room, my therapist gave me some simple instructions. As she waited in the corridor, I disrobed and slipped on a massive pair of black, paper knickers. They looked and felt ridiculous, but they fulfilled a dual function.

Firstly, they retained my modesty as my body was lathered in a succession of lotions and potions, and secondly, they acted as the perfect exfoliation aid when I had to hop into the ensuite shower to wash off the bright green detoxing body mask.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

It began with a full body exfoliation, then the detox mask was applied (everywhere bar my face and breasts). The green paste features ghassol clay, marine algae and active essential oils of basil and grapefruit and is rich in plant extracts.

Once it was massaged in, I was tightly wrapped in a clingfilm-like sheet. It was a lovely feeling; lying in the dark, my body warm and bound firmly like a swaddled child. I could have lain like that for the rest of the day.

But it was not to be. The mask had to be washed off (it dries quite hard, so the knickers were a useful cloth to help rub it off).

Clean and dry, I returned to the treatment bed for a final moisturisation.

My skin felt amazing; squeaky clean and silky soft.

The treatment is designed to drain toxins and eliminate water retention.

I was instructed to drink lots of water and eat lightly for the rest of the day.

What better start to a detox?

• The Decleor Silhouette Aroma Wrap at Titanic Spa last 55 minutes and costs £69. Find out more at titanicspa.com