Editor’s note: Playboy Club model Lex FlexiBohl works in a highly unusual field: Contortionism. In a recent chat, she shared how she got into the field and the events she still dreams of doing.
Playboy: How did you move towards the point where you were pursuing contortionism full time?
Lex: In the past 2-ish years, I wanna say, because I’ve never had my own contortion teacher. I’m all self-taught, especially with pole dancing. I never had technical skills. But then I started networking, and I heard of a couple production companies down here. And then one person hired me. It was the Mint Dispensary, and they wanted a contortionist for a carnival cannabis event.
I got hired by them, and then I just kept the ball rolling. And every time I would go to an event where I’d see other performers and production companies popping up, I would start trying to work with them, and it started picking up from there. Now I get hired for events through these production companies. I’m hoping that it continues to snowball. Especially because back in May is when I first started hair hanging.
Playboy: How do you train to do hair hanging?
Lex: So that’s very new for me. But, apparently, I picked it up a lot faster than the average person because it usually takes people almost months to almost years to actually lift their feet up off the ground. And I did it the second time that I ever attempted to try. So it’s a little bit of a natural gift for it.
I think [hair hanging] it’s mental to you. Pain tolerance-wise, it’s scary thinking you’re gonna end up ripping your hair out. Once you start to trust your body and think that it’s not gonna detach itself. And then there’s a breathing through the pain aspect, because it can get pretty painful. But I have a really high threshold for pain, so it’s not really it’s not too bad.
Playboy: How about training for contortion? The poses on your Instagram are pretty incredible.
I think it just takes more dedication because when you’re younger, your bones aren’t all the way fused together, and so you just have different movement. I started so young, so I think it’s just consistency. If you were to stretch every day and just rest a few times when your body tells you to, I think everyone would pretty much be able to do it unless they had a medical condition otherwise.
I personally have really loose joints and ligaments, so that could also be part of why I’m so flexible. I’ve had to strengthen to keep my shoulders and my knees from dislocating because if I turned too fast like this, I [would] dislocate a shoulder. Wow. Not anymore because now they’re stronger.
Playboy: Is there a show or event that you really like to perform at?
Lex: Yes. I do want to get contacts on cruise ships because I feel like I’ve never been on a cruise, and that would be awesome. [And] I always wanted to perform for Cirque du Soleil.
Lex FlexiBohl is on The Playboy Club. Talk to her now.
