In case you didn’t already know, the anal area is a pretty awesome erogenous zone. Everyone can have fun with it, whether you’re a vulva owner or you have a penis.Out of all the anal sex toys, butt plugs are one of the best ways of exploring your back door — there are plugs of all different sizes and shapes, and they can be used whether you’re on your own or you’re playing with a partner. You can also use them with other adult sex toys.
And we know you want to. ;) According to Cosmo, a whopping 82% of their readers reported enjoying anal stimulation, yet only 32% have actually used a butt plug. If you’re interested in some bootylicious action, read on. Delightful encounters await.
Tips for using butt plugs
Butt plugs come in many different shapes, sizes, and materials. There's the classic silicone butt plug, the sleek metal butt plug, and there's even a vibrating butt plug for extra pleasure. Some are more appropriate for consistent, longer-term use than others. Sometimes they come in packs, sometimes solo; there’s a plethora of options, and it may require some guidance to choose the one that’s best for you.
If you’re a beginner, new to anal play, don’t go for a larger plug or any of the more extreme anal toys right away. Instead, get an anal training kit and work your way up to larger and larger things.
These kits come with plugs or toys of different sizes specifically designed to help you get into the swing of things. You want to experience the fullness of anal stimulation by having a relaxed, able, and loosened backdoor and anal canal. These beginner plugs usually come with a tapered tip and a wide base to start gently and have your toy stay in there without issue.
For solo play, you likely want to use something curved with an ergonomic grip like a Pure Wand. This kind of toy, with its narrow neck, is good for easy insertion when you’re by yourself. You’ll be able to get some prostate stimulation on your own while exploring all the nerve endings your booty has to offer.
Related products (like the Pure Plug) are designed for prostate owners. Anal plugs with a curved design can turn that plug into a snug plug, gently but insistently saying hello to your prostate.
If you’re looking for more stimulation, there are vibrating butt plugs that will add some buzz to your anal penetration or rimming plugs that will move around and mimic the feeling of having someone delve their tongue in and around your anal sphincter. Technology!
If you’re in love with the sensation of your sphincter wrapped around the girth of a plug, anal beads might just become your new best friend. Anal beads are a string of consecutively larger, girthy orbs (thus the “beads” name) that are attached via a more narrow neck.
Anal beads usually are very flexible between each bead, allowing the set of beads to more easily navigate the twists and turns of your booty, depending on what position your body is in. According to sexpert Sammi Cole, “Unlike butt plugs or prostate massagers, anal beads are designed to be repeatedly taken out and re-inserted.”
Anal beads are fun with or without a partner. In the words of Men’s Health writer Zachary Zane, “Personally, I find it arousing—both physically and psychologically—to have someone pull the anal beads out of me. When you ‘pop’ each ball out by yourself, you know it’s coming, but when someone else pulls out the beads, the element of surprise makes it feel even better.”
More tips and tricks
Similar to experimenting with tied up sex positions, when you’re playing with butt plugs (or really, any anal toy), you always want to have an exit strategy. Regardless of marathon- level butt stuff intentions, things happen with butts that can’t always be foreseen. Maybe you have the stomach flu, or had too much coffee, or for whatever reason need to go #2 right now. Having a way to take that thing out of your butt and stow it safely is vital to the practice of butt stuff while running around with anal sex toys plugged in.
Here’s another handy tip for an exit strategy: If you’re on the go, carry a resealable baggie, so you can slip off to the bathroom and take out Mr. Plug and stow him away until you’re able to properly clean him. This way, a dirty plug doesn’t need to be wrapped in paper towels or toilet paper last-minute and hidden in the corner of a bag/backpack — or worse, thrown away due to no other options. Carry a baggie.
What size butt plug is safe to wear all day?
Please be aware: wearing a butt plug all day long is not appropriate for someone new to buttstuff. Wearing a butt plug for longer lengths of time is something that needs to be worked up to. In fact, wearing butt plugs for long periods of time isn’t recommended by experts, but humans are fickle creatures who don’t like to be told what to do, so some people wear them longer anyway and just deal with the consequences.
The risks of leaving a plug in for too long include swelling of the anal sphincter, and/or the inner tissues of the anus getting inflamed, causing it to be very difficult to go from plugged to unplugged in a very not fun way. Leaving a plug in too long can also lead to you getting anal fissures and hemmorhoids, or tearing the anal tissues, leading to further complications and a painful recovery period.
Now, if you’re the type of person willing to forgo the advice of experts and insist on being plugged all day long, there are some things you can do to mitigate the aforementioned challenges and complexities.
First, the plug you choose for extended wear makes all the difference. Some materials are too rigid and can more easily cause the anal tissues to become inflamed. Get a plug made from something like soft silicone or body-safe PVC, rather than one made of a firmer material, like steel or glass.
Size and shape are also vitally important. It’s not a good idea to wear the largest plug in the plugstore around town — you’ll hurt yourself. Something too wide or too long can be uncomfortable or dangerous for long-term use.
The shape of your semi-permanent plug is also critical. Butt plugs should all have a flared base to ensure that greedy booties don’t just suck the whole plug up there. (Yes, this really happens.) Also, if the insertable length of your toy is too small, or the flared base is too narrow compared to its widest point, there’s a risk of your smaller toy being pulled far up inside the rectum. This isn’t very common, but it does happen, and it can be very dangerous to get a toy stuck up there.
Toys with a T-shaped base also tend to be more comfortable for longer-term use; the T-shape means the plug doesn’t press up against your butt cheeks as much.
Words of caution
Lube, of course, is the most important thing when engaging in butt play (plugs included). For longer duration use, you want a long-lasting lube that won’t dry out very easily.
Silicone lube is a good option because silicone lubricant doesn’t have lube osmolality or pH problems. Never heard of osmolality? According to Women’s Health, “[o]smolality refers to the concentration of particles in a solution. In water-based lubes, which are the only ones that have osmolality characteristics (unlike oil-based or silicone-based lubes), it refers to the amount of ingredients that are not water.”
Basically, the reason osmolality is important is because it can affect the pH level of wherever the lube is going. Your butt and, should you have one, your vagina, have different pH levels. If you want to keep everything good and healthy, you need to pay attention to the pH of your different body zones, and some water-based lubes can change the pH level.
Too much osmolality can damage cell tissues, so a silicone-based or oil-based lube for longer duration anal pleasure activities is an easy and safer choice. This does limit your use of silicone toys, though, because you don’t want to combine silicone lube with silicone plugs. Silicone lube can degrade the silicone of a toy over time, making the toy turn porous, which can then potentially cause it to harbor bacteria. TL;DR: use silicone lube with butt plugs that aren’t made of silicone.
You can probably pee with a plug in, but there’s a combination of pushing and pulling you’ve got to achieve in order to do so, so it’s recommended that you just take the thing out while you’re using the bathroom.
Finally, DO NOT sleep with a butt plug in. Your body shuts down pain receptor responses while you sleep, so if something goes wrong, you might not even notice before your body sends you all the way to Discomfort and Pain Land instead of the Wonderland you were hoping for.
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According to Tara Struyk, editor-in-chief of Kinkly, “People use butt plugs in all kinds of ways. [Some people] find it arousing to just wear them around the house or out and about, since some sleek plugs are designed and work well for this. Other people like to wear them during masturbation or sex."
In other words, there’s no wrong way to try out butt plugs — it’s your body, your choice. So get out there and start choosing, my friends.
