Melanie Cristol Q&A: Lorals Founder on Reinventing the Dental Dam and Living with Tourette’s

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Lorals look like regular panties, even coming in two traditional styles: bikini and boyshort. But if you tug on their stretchy material, you’ll feel they’re 10 times thinner and made of natural latex.

These single-use panties are, in fact, designed for oral sex and rimming. They were designed to take on the dental dam as a sexier and easier-to-use barrier method, according to Melanie Cristol who launched the sexual wellness brand Lorals in 2018.

Before becoming a sex tech entrepreneur, Cristol worked as an attorney. Not only was she a field organizer with the National LGBT Task Force, but she was also on the legal team that fought to bring gay marriage rights to the western US.

For the past 20 years, she’s also been living with Tourrette’s syndrome.

I spoke to Cristol over email to learn more about her venture into sex tech and why she credits Tourette’s for helping her change careers.

A deep dive with Melanie Cristol

What was your inspiration to start Lorals and what has your journey been like launching the product?

Melanie Cristol: I was on vacation, and we couldn’t have oral because we didn’t have dental dams. It’s hard to find them in stores in the US, much less on the coast of Mexico.

But even if buying one had been a possibility, using it would have been such a disappointment. I wanted to feel sexy, and a flappy sheet of rubber just didn’t fit the bill. So….we just didn’t have oral, and that was a big disappointment.

After the trip, I went back to my lawyer job, but I kept thinking about dental dams. I started having conversations with friends about their oral sex experiences, and so many of them were saying no to oral sex when they wanted to be saying yes.

Some said no because they were worried about STIs. Others said no because they felt self-conscious. Others said no because they’d been through sexual trauma and oral sex felt too intimate, and others said no because their partners had scratchy facial hair and oral sex physically hurt.

I realized that a better dental dam, one that people actually WANTED to use, needed to exist. If it were sexy, if it stayed in place, if it heightened the experience rather than detracted from it, so many people could say yes to oral more often.

So I quit my law job to reinvent the dental dam.

Where does Lorals stand right now in terms of being an FDA-approved product to prevent STIs?

Lorals is currently seeking clearance from the U.S. FDA, which would allow us to market our products as dental-dam alternatives that protect against STD/STI transmission. As part of this process, we are developing pinhole testing equipment for Lorals.

How does Lorals make oral sex more accessible? I’m keen to know if or how people with different disabilities may benefit from adding the latex panty into their sex lives.

Melanie Cristol: There are so many people who love the idea of oral sex and rimming, but when it comes to the reality, the actual skin-to-skin contact is a turn-off, or it feels physically uncomfortable, or emotional barriers come up—and so they say no.

Lorals provide an option in-between saying no and having full skin-to-skin contact. So, in a broad sense, Lorals make oral more accessible by helping people say yes to oral when they want those incredible sensations, yet something extraneous is holding them back from pleasure. 

One awesome thing about Lorals is that they’re hands-free and easy to use. If you’ve been interested in a barrier in the past, but the thought of holding one in place was either too taxing or simply not possible, Lorals keep the barrier in place, fitted snugly on your body.

We’ve spoken with medical professionals and heard chatter on Twitter about Lorals’ potential benefits for people with a variety of disabilities. An occupational therapist told us that Lorals might be useful for people with ASD [Autism Spectrum Disorder], as a different (and perhaps more pleasing) type of sensation during oral sex.

A gastroenterologist loved that Lorals could make oral more accessible for people with chronic IBS [irritable bowel syndrome] and colitis. Pelvic floor therapists are excited about the benefits for people with chronic vulvar or clitoral pain that has prevented them from enjoying oral.

And mental health professionals have recommended Lorals to patients who cannot receive skin-to-skin oral due to past trauma, gender dysphoria, or other reasons.

We know many people are using Lorals for these purposes, and we’d LOVE to hear more stories about their experiences. We know that sometimes it is super hard to open up about something doubly personal: oral sex and disability. As the founder, this means a lot to me, so please reach out via our website contact form and I’ll make sure to respond.

If you are comfortable sharing personal details, can you tell us about your experience with Tourette’s syndrome and how it’s influenced your career path? 

Melanie Cristol: I used to be a corporate lawyer, and now I own a company that makes panties for oral sex. That huge transition is all thanks to Tourette’s syndrome.

Back in 2009, I started my law career working in the LA office of an international law firm. My specialty was white-collar defense and corporate investigations—about as sexy as the law could get. It was definitely interesting, but I didn’t love it. But who gets to love their job?

In 2014 I went on a romantic vacation, and I found myself turning down oral sex when I wanted to say yes, I thought, “Why isn’t there a great product out there that would help me and others feel sexy and confident and would allay all of our oral sex concerns?”

So I’d gotten this idea I was really excited about. But there were two problems—wow was this taboo. Plus, it seemed insane to leave a stable, steady job to take an entrepreneurial leap—much less this one.

And that’s where the Tourette’s came in. I’ve had it for 20 years, and it started as cute squeals, like an elated mouse, a couple of times a day.

Then during law school, the tics started changing in nature. They were louder, angrier, and sounded like yells and grunts, probably 20 times a day. I’d squeal or growl and people would stare and comment.

For years it was awkward and humiliating, but I finally got used to it. By the time I left NYC a decade ago, I didn’t care much about my Tourette’s, and I also didn’t care much about what people thought of me.

So then, several years later, when I got the idea for oral sex panties, I knew it was taboo, I knew a lot of people felt uncomfortable with it, but I also knew that I was used to making people uncomfortable. So that left me with one problem—leaving this stable, steady job to make my product.

And I have Tourette’s to thank for that too!

After I got the idea for oral sex panties, the tics became extreme. My body yelled and grunted about 60 times a day, startling me and my office neighbors.

Every time I’d try to focus on the computer screen, another tic would take over my body and reverberate within my skull. If I weren’t blessed with this disorder, I probably would have been able to suppress my entrepreneurial desire for years, maybe even my whole life.

But during those few months, it couldn’t be ignored. My Tourette’s was literally yelling at me to GO FOR IT.

I finally listened. I quit my job, started my oral-sex panty company Lorals, and I never looked back. I am so grateful that Tourette’s has given me this incredible company, and I’m now able to help so many people around the world say yes to oral sex.

What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced starting a sex tech company focusing on an oral sex barrier for women? 

Melanie Cristol: The biggest obstacle is getting people to comfortably talk about oral sex. Our non-adult-industry contacts feel awkward about introducing an oral sex company to potential stakeholders; our customers feel uncomfortable leaving their name on product reviews.

There’s a lot of stigma associated with sex, particularly oral sex, and particularly oral sex for the benefit of women, transgender, and non-binary people. One of our major goals is to make these discussions commonplace!

Sex (including oral sex) is a fun and healthy part of life, and it doesn’t deserve the stigma it receives.

Do you have any plans to make a non-latex Lorals panty or to create one-time-use oral sex underwear for people with penises?

Yes, we are planning to do both of those things! As Lorals grows, we’re very excited about the possibility of offering a wide range of products to our customers. We want everyone to be able to have the types of sex they crave!

Image sources: Melanie Cristol, Lorals