HAIR BONDAGE:
a bondage technique in which the person's hair is braided or tied to rope and then bound, so that movement of the head causes pain to the scalp.

See related KAMI.





HANDCUFFS:
a pair of lockable, linked metal rings for securing a person's wrists together.  The most common restraint device used by law enforcement or militia.  Unlike shackles, handcuffs are narrow with sharp edges and can be painful in certain BDSM play situations.  It is recommended to only use standard police issue handcuffs for BDSM play as they have a two-part locking system, in which a standard universal handcuff key can lock & unlock them easily, as well as the back of the universal handcuff key can lock the second lock cuff which prevents the cuffs from becoming too tight on the wrist.





HANDBALLING:
a term for fisting that usually refers to fisting a male.

See FISTING.



HANKY CODE:
a way of communicating to others a preference for certain BDSM and/or sexual activities one wishes to engage in, by wearing a colored handkerchief, usually hanging out from the back pants pocket.  Different specific colors, as well as whether the handkerchief is worn on the left or the right, represent the different specific BDSM and/or sexual activities.  Primarily a technique used in the gay leather/old leather communities.

For a full list of hanky codes, CLICK HERE.





HARD DOCKING:   see DRY DOCKING.



HARD DOMINANCE:
describes the method used to exercise dominance, choosing an approach that is harder, colder, more distant, humiliating, and more demanding when it comes to physical or mental BDSM play.  Hard dominance can also refer to a dominant that asserts his/her dominance in harsh physical ways, through play punishments.  Hard dominance is often associated with master/slave play as well as sadism play.  The antonym of soft dominance.

See related SOFT DOMINANCE.



HARD LIMIT:
a limit that a submissive considers absolutely untouchable by the dominant.  An act or behavior that a submissive sets forth in advance that a dominant cannot, under any circumstances, demand of the submissive or try to engage in.  A non-negotiable part of a negotiable contract.



HAREM:
a polyamorous group of submissives, serving one or more dominants.



HARNESS GAG:
a gag, similar to a ball gag, made of interconnected straps designed to harness the head and hold the gag securely in place.





HAZEL ROD:
a very painful type of birch rod, usually made of four to five hazel twigs.

See BIRCH ROD.





HEADSPACE:
mental preparation for any BDSM activity.  The time before a play session or warmup, where a submissive can relax enough to mentally prepare for forthcoming sensations.



HEAVY PLAY:
a term for intense play that is considered physically strenuous but stops shy of edgeplay.



HEDONISM:
the pursuit of sensual self-indulging pleasures.  The ethical ideology that seeking pleasure is the most important aspect of all life on earth.



HEDONIST:
a pleasure-seeker: one who engages in hedonism.

See related HEDONISM.



HITACHI MAGIC WAND:
a common vibrator, considered very powerful usually with a cord that plugs directly into an electrical outlet, for use in stimulating the clitoris of a female or testicles of a male, often used in BDSM play.





HIGH PROTOCOL DINNER or PARTY:
a formal event, usually a dinner party or play party with a very strict set of rules and protocols that all attendees must adhere to.  They highlight the service dynamic between a dominant and a submissive, in which a submissive serves either her dominant or serves a particular house and performs a set of ritualistic task that are established prior to the beginning of the event.  The code of procedure or behavior is specified so that all the submissives complete the task as a group.



HOBBLE BELT:
a belt that binds the legs closely together, causing the wearer to have difficulty walking.





HOBBLE SKIRT:
a very tight skirt that ends below the knees, which gives the wearer limited mobility in her/his legs.  This will cause the wearer to walk in a hobble motion.  The history of the skirt or dress started around 1910, inspired by Asian influence on Western Culture.  In modern fetish fashion, it is often made out of leather, PVC, or latex.





HOBBLE STOCK:
any device designed to restrain a person by the genitals, often causing the wearer to have extreme difficulty walking.  A small stock that a male's testicles are locked in, while the width of the wood between the thighs causes difficulty walking.  A humbler is a popular hobble stock.

See HUMBLER.



HOG SLAPPER:
a strap meant for striking, made of thick, heavy leather or rubber, sometimes covered in gauze, canvas, or burlap.  In recent years, the term hog slapper has been used loosely to describe many different implements by many adult toy retailers, possibly because the definition of a slapper varies. The most common use of the term hog slapper is a crop with a leather slapper at the tip.

See SLAPPER.





HOG TIE:
a bondage technique in which the person is bound wrists to ankles, usually behind the back, while lying on her/his stomach.  A more extreme version is when all four limbs are bound together, as in a hog tie or when the right wrist is tied behind the person's back to the left ankle and the left wrist in the same way to the right ankle.





HOGTIE:
any device designed to be used to hog tie a person.





HONOR BONDAGE:
a kind of bondage that relies on psychological bondage rather than physical.  Instead of using restraints or rope, the submissive must hold a position through their own force or will.  Often the submissive is bound by the fear of punishment, or simply by the honor to serve.



HOOD:
any hood designed to go over the head, to cover the head and face partly or completely.





HOOK SUSPENSION:   see BODY SUSPENSION.



HORSE or SPANKING HORSE:
bondage furniture consisting of a plank supported by four legs, similar to a sawhorse, in which a person is bent over the horse, making them comfortable for flagellation.  Many spanking horses today have two shelves on each side to support a person’s knees, while bent over the horse in the crawling position.





HORSEHAIR WHIP / FLOGGER:
a whip or flogger consisting of horsehair from a horse's mane or tail, used as a lash.  Fashioned after an African fly whisk which can be made of horse or zebra hair, often used by African nobility.





HOTWIFE:
the female participant in a sexual act that involves a male sharing his female partner with other males.  Sometimes refers to the wife of a male shared with other males.

See related STAG, BULL, CUCK and CUCKOLDRY.



HOUSE or BDSM HOUSE:
refers to a name, or a prefix to a name, of a BDSM family, usually consisting of one dominant and two or more submissives.

See related FAMILY.



HOUSE SLAVE:
a submissive who acts much like a housewife but is considered the property of the dominant.  Usually refers to a submissive whose duties include household chores.  Often, she/he must perform these duties while nude.  House slaves are often referred to as house boy or house girl.  Many submissives who identify themselves as house slaves report a sense of fulfillment and purpose, feeling sexually charged with each given household chore or task.





HUCOW:
meaning human-cow, a form of animal role-play in which a female takes on the role of cow, with the focus on milking her breast using breast-feeding pumps or udder machines, (electric milking machines meant for cows).  Considered a form of nipple torture.  Not to be confused with the term milking which usually refers to the male prostate.

See unrelated MILKING.





HUMBLER:
a hobble stock implement, consisting of a testicle cuff-type device that clamps around the base of the scrotum, mounted in the center of a bar that passes behind the thighs at the base of the buttocks. This forces the wearer to keep his legs folded in such a way that if he were to straighten them, it would cause great discomfort and pain to his testicles.





HUMILIATION PLAY or EROTIC HUMILATION PLAY:
sexual arousal from being humiliated, or from activities that impose humiliation on another.  There are many forms of humiliation play, such as verbal belittlement, insults, name calling, loss of empowerment, forced exhibitionism, and forced sexual acts that the submissive views as embarrassing or shameful.  Some forms of erotic humiliation play include using humiliation as a tool to take a person to a state of mind where she/he feels as though she/he is giving her/himself completely to the moment or to the dominant.  It can be an intense psychological form of play that can easily be pushed to a level that is considered edgeplay; if the dominant is not attentive and careful, the humiliations can sometimes cause lasting psychological injuries to the submissive.  Real attacks on a person's self-esteem or manipulations designed to break a person's spirit should be considered abuse and not an appropriate practice of humiliation play.



HUMILIATRIX:
a term started in the mid-1800s for a female dominant skilled in humiliation play.  The term is seldom used today, most likely because play involving a male submissive and a female dominant or pro-domme usually involves some humiliation play to one degree or another, and the female is assumed to have skills in humiliation.  Therefore, the term dominatrix is used far more often than humiliatrix.

See DOMINATRIX.



HUMOR PLAY:
any sort of play to which humor is a part or result of the play, such as tickling until a submissive laughs out loud.








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