The term “looksmaxxing” has taken the internet by storm, leading to questions about whether it’s just a harmless trend or a serious cause for concern.
Looksmaxxing, the act of optimizing one’s physical attractiveness, has become increasingly popular among young men.
The most prominent face of the movement is Clavicular, a 20-year-old content creator who was expelled from college and is now known for promoting harmful techniques aimed at enhancing his followers’ appearance.
Image credits: 60 Minutes Australia
The looksmaxxing community has its own lingo. Improvements can fall into the category of “softmaxxing,” which includes exercise, diet, and skincare, or “hardmaxxing,” which involves steroid use, hair transplants, or even cosmetic surgery.
Within “hardmaxxing,” there is also “bone-smashing,” which involves using a hammer or another hard object to tap one’s chin, jaw, and cheekbones in order to achieve a chiseled look.
Image credits: Clavicular
Clavicular, born Braden Peters, is among those who have popularized this dangerous trend. According to the streamer, bone-smashing causes minor damage—after the bones heal, he claims, people will have greater facial harmony and therefore be more attractive.
“Bone-smashing is legit,” Peters told his young, predominantly male audience in December.
Image credits: Clavicular
But medical experts strongly advise against this.
Adam Taylor, a professor of anatomy at Lancaster University, told Bored Panda that short-term consequences associated with bone-smashing include bruising, loose or knocked out teeth, bleeding gums, and fractured or broken bones.
The trend can also leave long-term consequences, such as nerve damage, scar tissue formation, and changes in biting mechanics.
Image credits: Wyabalenci
“The bones in this trend are targeted using the basic understanding of Wolff’s law, where bone remodels its shape/size in relation to the forces applied to it,” Taylor noted.
“The principle of Wolff’s law is sound, but not the application in this context.
“Applying forces to the side of the jaw in this way is not going to change the shape of it or structure of the jaw. It is actually targeting it across the bones’ weakest axis and is much more likely to fracture it.”
Image credits: Clavicular
“Bones load in a multidirectional way and changing the shape and thickness of them cannot be achieved by repeatedly impacting them.
“The most likely outcome is short or long term injury, which may leave the face disfigured and a long way from the initially desired outcome.”
Facial bone healing, particularly in the jaw, can take around six months, the professor noted, adding that this may include wiring the jaw in a fixed position to limit the movement while the two (or more) broken parts heal back together.
Image credits: 60 Minutes Australia
Looksmaxxing has existed for at least a decade, with roots in online “incel” (involuntarily celibate) communities and the so-called “manosphere.” Members of these communities are hostile to feminism and maintain a belief in male supremacy.
Peters, who often appears kissing multiple women during his livestreams, recently walked out of an interview when asked whether he identified with the incel community.
“Do I identify as an incel?” the looksmaxxer said. “I mean, how could you ask me that question as a follow-up after you asked me about my relationships to women. I mean, that’s quite literally the worst sequence of questions I think I’ve ever heard.”
Image credits: Clavicular
60 Minutes Australia correspondent Adam Hegarty then asked him about his relationship with the controversial “manosphere” influencer Andrew Tate, who is currently facing charges of r*pe, a*sault, and human trafficking in the UK.
“Too bad I didn’t have time to look into, you know, anything about potentially, you know, who your wife cheated with, but don’t try to go down that line of questioning with me,” Peters said before leaving the interview.
In a viral video, Peters and Tate can be seen singing along to Kanye West’s song Heil Hitler.
When confronted about his use of racial slurs last year, the famous looksmaxxer replied, “It’s not a racist thing. It’s just a fun word to say.”
Image credits: Clavicular
Peters began looksmaxxing at 14, ordering testosterone and fat dissolvers online and using Photoshop to adjust his image to create what he perceived as the most attractive version of himself.
The New Jersey native said his parents, a businessman and a stay-at-home mother, gave up trying to intervene when they realized “there was nothing they could do to stop my ascension.”
He recently told his fans that his mother used to take his hammer away when he was growing up to prevent him from bone-smashing. “They had to hide the hammers,” he said.
Several weeks into his freshman year of college, he was expelled for possessing steroid hormones. According to Peters, trolls on the looksmaxxing forum, where he was a frequent poster, had contacted the school to inform officials that he had the substance in his dorm.
He then began posting videos on TikTok and doing livestreams in which he rated other people’s looks.
Peters currently has almost one million followers on TikTok and offers paid courses to help people “ascend,” or become more attractive.
Image credits: Clavicular
“I never expected any of it to go viral or myself to become a public figure,” Peters told The New York Times in February.
The influencer has also said that years of steroid use have left him infertile and has defended the use of m*thamphetamine to suppress his appetite, claiming, “It’s really not as bad as people think.”
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