Last night I cuddled a particular professional for the first time, and I did something I am usually very cautious about: I said that she was beautiful. I checked if it was OK to say, and reassured her that I was definitely still thinking in platonic terms. She was fine with it, and I ended up giving her quite a lot of compliments during the session -- which really surprised me, since that's just not something I normally do.
The main reason being, I think it would almost always come across the wrong way. Other kinds of compliments like "that's a cool shirt" or "I love your laugh" are fairly neutral, but things like "you look beautiful" or "you have really pretty eyes" probably raise alarm bells for most women. At the very least it might sound like the guy's mind is somewhere other than "platonic land".
But it was really fun giving her all those compliments. I generally like being encouraging and building people up, and it was just really nice that she accepted what I wanted to give to her.
A little soul searching and I realised another reason why it meant so much to me. I was divorced in 2009, and I originally thought that closed off all avenues for giving and receiving affection ... then along comes platonic cuddling, which is all about affection! Giving compliments is a way of showing affection too, and I missed being able to do that. But that doesn't necessarily make it romantic. Just like a soft caress can be 100% platonic, physical compliments can be too.
Having said all that, I'm not recommending that people go around complimenting their cuddlers on their appearance. Most of the time it probably would give an unhelpful message.
And just to be clear, if I had to choose, I would much prefer a great cuddler to someone I saw as beautiful! (I have actually cuddled someone very pretty who wasn't all that into it, and it wasn't the best experience).
So ... female cuddlers: are compliments on appearance ever encouraging for you? Or just not appropriate/helpful in the context of platonic cuddling?