the first 8 times i smoked was via blunt because my friend said it would probably be easier to start out smoking a blunt instead of a pipe. when i first smoked out of a pipe i did it myself. the only people that i have seen have people do it for them were girls. i had to do it for this girl a couple weeks ago. i've also seen girls be able to handle either lighting it or holding the bowl and using the carb, but not both at the same time. i think its mostly a girl thing because i've seen a couple guys do it for the first time and they all were offered to have someone do it for them but none of them did. its pretty easy if you just do it a couple times.