A man who paid $120 to spend an hour with a 'professional cuddler' has explained what the encounter was like and why it wasn't a sexual experience.
If you hear of someone offering out intimacy in exchange for cash, it's easy to assume it's something sexual.
However, while some people might struggle to imagine paying for something you could in theory get for free from a friend, family member, or loved one, one man has explained his reasoning for coughing up more than $100 just for an hour of comfort.
In a post on Reddit, the user explained that he hired the 'professional cuddler' from a website online, having 'liked the look' of the woman and the 'vibe' she presented when he reached out.
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His reason for going to a professional stemmed from the fact he's 'very big on physical touch', so much so that he considers it his 'primary love language'.
For almost six years, the Redditor had a 'constant physical presence' through his girlfriend at the time, however, after they broke up he found himself missing the opportunity to have physical touch.
He explained: "When I heard about this (professional cuddling) it seemed like the perfect way to experience genuine connection and comfort through touch while lacking both the emotional stakes of trying to date and the sexual component that I am uninterested of an escort."
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The Reddit user offered others the chance to ask him anything about the encounter, prompting one person to ask more about how it felt to get so close to someone.
They asked: "Was it like a family hug/cuddle or a significant other hug/cuddle? Did it feel sexual at all?"
In response, the Redditor admitted that while it 'definitely felt more like cuddling a girlfriend than a family member', it 'did not feel sexual for [him] at all'.
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He explained: "I am also generally not a very sexual guy so someone else may perceive it differently, and I think often do as she said many guys do attempt to escalate."
Offering further insight into the experience he continued: "We spoke pretty much the whole time, she said we could be as quiet or as chatty as I was comfortable with, I told her I’m a pretty talkative guy and would probably be most at peace if we were conversing so we did.
"She played music pretty quietly in the background just for some ambiance. She had just moved into a new apartment so we cuddled in a futon in her apartment loft, had some candles around it and was pretty cozy."
While the Reddit user admitted it was 'hard even in this thread to convince everyone there’s nothing sexual about this', he said he doesn't 'feel any regret' over spending $120 on the experience.
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He added: "I definitely felt relieved afterwards, primarily because I was terrified going into it. I definitely think unless you just really didn’t vibe with the person you cuddled with, it would be hard to feel any low like you do with a sexual experience. I also think it was actually a much healthier outlet for me to deal with some trauma than a lot of the other stuff I had been doing recently so I was happy about that as well."
Topics: Mental Health, Reddit, Sex and Relationships, Money
Emily Brown