Lovehoney’s Beginner Strap-On Kit Turned Me Into the Lord of Pegging

As stigma around ass play subsides, horny people everywhere are embracing the joys of pegging. In pursuit of the best entry-level gear for the task, we found the Lovehoney Beginner's Strap-On Kit. The retailer is one of our favorite places to buy sex toys online, and though it offers items from many of the top brands in the category, its in-house array of Lovehoney sex toys is no joke. This strap-on kit in particular made sense for a pegging amateur like me—someone who's had pegging on my tentative to-do list for years, somewhere in-between visiting Venice before it sinks and going to the dentist.

This particular Lovehoney strap-on lingered in my tabs, cuffing season after cuffing season, tempting me to smash that order button with the promise of ascending to Peg King heights regardless of my prior dick-slinging (or lack thereof) experience. With an adjustable, crotchless harness and slick five inch long dildo, the kit appeared to include everything I would need to dip my toes into the next level of butt stuff beyond thumbs, pointer fingers, and humble plugs. At the same time, it was clearly marketed as a bundle for beginners, which gave me more confidence. As one Lovehoney reviewer wrote, “[I’m] glad there is a strap-on smaller than an Italian summer sausage.”

As a queer, AFAB (assigned female at birth) non-binary woman, pegging happens to scratch a specific gender euphoria itch in my body and brain. This must be what John Wick feels like, I thought as I pulled the kit out of the box, slipped it over my corduroys, and paraded around my apartment. But that's not all I did. Whether you’re a seasoned pegger or simply butt stuff-curious, grab some lube and gear up for an (overly) honest breakdown of the strap-on kit that made me feel ready to ride my partner’s cheeks like Seabiscuit.

Specs

• Material: Silicone
• Circumference: 3 inches
• Insertable Length: 4.5 inches
• Maximum Harness Size: 68 inches
• Length: 5 inches

Jump To: Who Is Pegging For? | How to Get Ready to Peg | Our Review | Final Verdict: Is It Worth It?

Anyone with an anus, my dude. But, for the uninitiated: Pegging typically refers to a femme or AFAB person anally penetrating their masc or AMAB (assigned male at birth) partner during sex or foreplay with a dildo that is secured via a strap-on/lower body harness. As award-winning sexologist and The Adult Toy Shop sexual consultant Marla Renee Stewart tells me, pegging is for everyone. “When it comes to pegging... we have to separate identity from behavior,” she says.

There are endless reasons to peg and be pegged. Sure, my AMAB partner (he/she/they) and I are queer, non-binary, and vers (gay-speak for being a sexual Transformer), but I also know plenty of cis lesbians who live for their vibrating strap-on dildos, and a buttload of straight, cis men who love a King Charles-sized finger up the anus. In the words of one Reddit user from this iconic P-spot forum, “I knew I was going to climax but it wasn't a typical feeling. When it hit, it fucking hit. I felt every hair follicle on my scalp, and I felt a pressure building again. I had ended up groaning again, quite loudly [...] Multiple volleys of semen flew across the room, managing to hit the opposite wall.” So, big Michael Bay behavior. This is because pegging, as Stewart continued to explain, is one of the surest ways to give your prostate-endowed partner a toe-curling ass-gasm.

“Not only are the very sensitive nerves of the anus stimulated,” she says, “but you also get stimulated through deeper penetration through the prostate [...] it's a different kind of orgasmic feeling, and the variety and unpredictability of the experience itself allows it to be more of a titillating experience.” When it comes to female orgasms, folks with front-facing vulvas can also receive clitoral pleasure while penetrating their partner. “This,” Stewart says, “is because of where the dildo on the harness sits [...] The orgasm itself may come from the rubbing and the pressure of the grinding on the butt during pegging, so finding a good rhythm and the motions that suit you best are going to be the best way to produce orgasms that you might not have experienced in the past.”

In other words, everyone gets to get off. What’s not to love about that?

To douche, or not to douche? That’s between you and the Lord when it comes to pegging prep, but I would advise you to take a step back even further; make sure you’re eating a balanced diet, drinking lots of water, and experiencing healthy bowel movements before you even start to think about popping open the back hatch. I’ve never douched (granted, I’m also not a size queen), but I’ll almost always prep for any kind of ass play by sticking my finger about an inch into my anus during a shower with a gentle, rolling motion. It’s an easy way to turn my ass into a lickable dinner plate.

Above all, talk to your partner before, during, and post-peg about the experience. What are you both searching for in that 5-inch schlong? Dom-sub play? Roleplay? The Conquest of Hegel’s Unhappy Consciousness? Communicate your needs, and, most of all, get loose with it. Sex is inherently weird. When in doubt, lean into your joint sense of curiosity, and remember that dirty talk can quite literally be as easy as asking for what you’d like to explore with your partner.

Last but not least: lube, lube, and more lube. Your anus is a powerhouse when it comes to so many things, but it (sadly) doesn’t create its own lubrication. In the case of this silicone strap-on, I would advise using water-based lubricants by brands such as Astroglide or Lube Life that won’t erode the dildo’s plastic over time like a silicone-based lube would. But I’ve also been guilty of using my travel-sized bottle of the silicone-based Überlube—which is so buttery and luxurious, it really is like the La Mer of lubes—when I have found myself pegging on vacation or away from home. Just be warned: Silicone-based lubes can leave stains on your bedding, so squirt accordingly, and consider throwing down a throw or dedicated sex blanket beforehand.

Part of the reason it took me so long to peg was the flurry of pegging gear in my tabs, from comparing various leather harnesses costing upwards of $100 to feeling overwhelmed by the high-tech, German-made dildos that I knew I would love, but which felt a little too specific to serve as an entry-level dildo for future partners. For that reason, I really appreciate the under-$50 price tag of Lovehoney’s kit. (I’ve spent the same amount of money on mid face creams and over-hyped brunch.) Plus, the bundle is refreshingly non-fussy with its offerings: It comes with three graduated rings designed to fit a variety of dildos, and the lightweight harness stretches up to 68 inches wide, while the matte black silicone dildo—which measures in at five inches with 4.5 inches of insertable length and looks slightly Kubrickian (that’s what you should tell your Criterion-pilled fuccboi date, at least)—is hollow, just in case you want to slip a bullet vibrator into the shaft for heightened sensations while smashing.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous to peg, but I felt like Lara Croft as soon as my partner helped fasten me into my harness, and decided to ride out that confidence. My boyfriend and I engaged in oral play for a while, which was cute, gender euphoria-inducing, and a reminder not to skimp on foreplay. (Pro Tip: Make sure that you and your partner are both feeling aroused, wet (in lube we trust), and ready to receive before strap-on penetration.) We opted to keep a slender glass butt plug in my partner’s anus for a while before swapping it out for my lubed-up, strapped-on dildo, and the transition honestly felt seamless, thanks in part to the inch-and-then-some girth on the dildo. I also made sure to take my time with insertion, allowing for my partner to back-up onto the strap-on rather than pounding it into their anus like the Grond ramrod in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Oh, and as for Stewart’s statement about clitoral orgasms for the vulva-owning pegger? Spot on. Aside from the friction with the clitoris that comes from humping, the sense of arousal and gender euphoria I experienced from pegging my partner almost brought me to a clitoral and erogenous zone orgasm multiple times.

What I didn’t anticipate was how cocky I felt afterward, in the best way possible. “Who is this douchey bro persona?” my partner joked while I washed off my dick, put their John Deere baseball cap on backward, gave them a kiss, and leaned into the confidence of a dude who just gave their boyfriend a Reddit-thread-worthy ass-gasm.

The dildo does slip out of the harness every now and again if you get acrobatic with your movements. But it’s also designed with a flared base, and slips right back into the strap-on with ease. On that note, I’m pretty excited to start collecting different strap-on dildos to try out with the harness now that I’ve mastered the beginner’s dildo.

Hands down, ass up, this strap-on bundle was worth it for me as a novice pegger. The cost of the kit alone makes it a sick investment; for about $45 —aka the cost of a bougie lobster roll and a dirty martini—Lovehoney set me up with a slim 5-inch starter dildo, an adjustable harness, and three graduated rings for securing dildos of varying sizes and shapes that I might find myself boning with in the future (next up: the “Jezebel”). The strap-on set is a BYOL (bring your own lube) situation, but it’s easy enough to toss some water-based Astroglide into your Amazon cart with your next order of paper towels and pet food.

When it comes down to the aesthetics and actual feel of the strap-on, there’s a reason why this bundle has earned a 4.6-star average rating on Lovehoney from its almost 280 reviewers, who gas up everything from the kit’s non-intimidating setup to the “really empowering” feeling it gives the pegger. As a queer, non-binary woman, I can especially speak to the latter. I enjoyed parading around in my strap-on and having my partner suit me up almost as much as using it; I felt like a Marvel superhero but without the undercurrent of American war crimes. The design sensibility is sleek, and a reminder that we deserve not only to have quality form and function with our sex toys, but chemistry with them as well.

I say, smash that order button. You have little to lose (and a lot of orgasms to gain).