The Mainstream Rise of Looksmaxxing
The painful future of young men
It comes out of nowhere. Emerging from a usual TikTok scroll filled with recipes you’ll never make, edits from a show you’ve never watched, videos from a concert you weren’t at. Flashing sequences of bones, squinted eyes, sharp jawlines. The comments are filled with words you’ve never heard before, barely English: “Morning routine to ascend and mog the whole school (scientifically proven).”
The proposition of the video is thrilling: you can look better, and thereby achieve a better life. By applying yourself, by cultivating discipline, by taking a hammer to your face and ordering hormones through the mail. You can have women, respect, success. The data is conclusive. The world is cruel. It’s all at your fingertips.
It’s enough to make you watch a few more videos. Soon your feed looks like this:
“Just be yourself. Or be someone better.” “Would she have ‘accidentally fallen asleep’ if you looked like this?” “How to debloat properly.” “Narrow clavicles versus wide clavicles.” “Rating people walking around a street market in Pakistan.” “How to get away with FRAUDING your HEIGHT when you TAKE OFF your SHOES.” “When all the peptide and growth hormone abuse finally catch up to me and I have a heart attack on the modelling runway but an NT chad catches me and in my final breaths I look up at his perfect visage as a tear runs down my titanium implanted skull and bruised zygotes wondering why him and not me.” “When you look into the mirror at 2am after your fifth surgery and you suddenly don’t remember what you actually looked like.” “Proof that BP is real (brutal).”
Now you know what it all means. Now you know vendors of unregulated Chinese research chemicals on Telegram. Your mom thinks your new mini fridge is for drinks, but really it’s to keep your peptides cool until it’s time to inject them into your stomach. You’re at the gym 5x a week. You’re intermittent fasting. Your bonesmashing routine is elaborate, consisting of 4x weekly 30-45 minute increments of hitting your face with varying degrees of intensity, targeting your chin, cheekbones, and mandible. When smashing your mandible, you have to bite down on a towel. You dye your eyebrows a darker shade. Your upper eyelid exposure in the mirror haunts you, so you cut your medial cantus—the inner corner of the eyelid—with household scissors to enhance eye sharpness.
This is the looksmaxxing runway, and the fate of an increasing number of teenage boys. We’ve all heard of it by now. Terms like mogging and mewing, and more niche vocabulary such as ‘true jester’, ‘bonesmashing’, and ‘cortisol spiking’ are circulating widely. Looksmaxxing was referenced in Super Bowl ads, and on Xaviersobased’s new album. Ken Carson DM’d Clavicular (the most famous contemporary looksmaxxer) asking about weight loss drugs. When Clavicular was arrested a couple of weeks ago, it made national headlines; a few days ago, he was profiled in the New York Times.
It isn’t surprising that a culture which places such pressure on appearance would produce something like looksmaxxing, but the speed, size, and intensity of its rise are all still remarkable. And while the terminology, mythology, and leading figures of looksmaxxing have become general knowledge, most people still know very little about the movement’s history, philosophy, and nuances.
How did a radical self-improvement ideology that started in anonymous online forums break into the mainstream? And why is it that young men across the world are getting one-shotted by it?
This deep dive gets into these finer points, tracing looksmaxxing from its forum origins to mainstream rise, examining the frameworks, practices, media aesthetics, and personalities that have carried it there, and theorizing what it might mean about where we’re headed as a culture.
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At the core of the looksmaxxing movement is the idea that your physical appearance is the single most important determinant of your social, romantic, and career success. Appearance is measured on something called the PSL scale: a hierarchy framework for rating facial attraction that originated on early looksmaxxing forums. Jawline definition, eyelid exposure, facial symmetry, and body fat percentages are all taken into consideration.
The PSL scale operates on a range of 1-8, divided into tiers based on attractiveness. The lowest tier (1-2) is “subhuman,” described as unanimously unattractive or disfigured. PSL 3 refers to noticeably below average faces with multiple perceived flaws. PSL 4 is average; PSL 5 is moderately attractive with no standout features; PSL 6 is very attractive; PSL 7 is extremely attractive and rare; PSL 8 is basically unattainable.
These tiers have assumed labels like low-tier normie, mid-tier normie, high-tier normie, Chad-lite, and Chad. The surrounding slang evolves constantly, with newer terms like “True Adam” and “True Eve”1 emerging recently. To make matters more confusing, as looksmaxxing has moved into general TikTok relevance, these agreed upon standards have shifted, leaving little consistency across different looksmaxxing subsets.
Baked into the PSL scale is a very narrow idea of attractiveness. The “ideal” male construction includes a sharp jawline, height (6’0 at least), and “hunter” eyes—little upper eyelid showing and a slight upward eye tilt—rather than “prey” eyes. Facial structures like jaw projection, forward facial growth, and straight, white teeth all matter. So does low body fat, visible muscle and veins, hollowed cheeks, prominent cheekbones, and clear skin with no redness or acne. Clear in these standards is a preference for Eurocentric, caucasian features. There are very few non-white looksmaxxers.
While PSL score is the primary rubric for determining how attractive someone is, looksmaxxers also consider “appeal,” or overall attractiveness and subjective charm, which is assessed by less rigid standards, and with women’s attraction specifically in mind. For example, someone might have a chiseled jawline, ideal facial ratios, and hollow cheekbones, yet not be perceived as especially attractive to the average woman—in this framework, they would be considered high PSL but low appeal. Conversely, a man whom women find very attractive but who lacks those technical traits might be described as low PSL but high appeal. Within the community, there is ongoing debate over which matters more: appeal or PSL.
But neither your PSL nor your appeal are set in stone. If they were, looksmaxxing wouldn’t exist. “Maxxing” attractiveness, as measured by these standards, is the movement’s central project.
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Looksmaxxing methods typically fall into two categories of differing intensity: “softmaxxing” and “hardmaxxing.”
Softmaxxing refers to common self-improvement practices that are generally low risk and non-surgical. Typical examples include mewing, gua sha, skincare, diet changes, dermarolling, topical peptides, sleep optimization, vitamins, gym training, and detailed dental and grooming routines.
Hardmaxxing, by contrast, refers to high-risk, high-reward interventions meant to definitively change one’s appearance. Examples include steroid use, injected peptides, double jaw surgery, LeFort procedures, trimaxillary osteotomy, hair transplants, rhinoplasty, facial implants, otoplasty, blepharoplasty, jaw advancement, and height surgery. Figures like Clavicular have publicly discussed pursuing several of these procedures, which has further normalized them within the space.
One of the more common examples of hardmaxxing is “pinning” peptides, a process which involves injecting substances directly into the face or body to improve skin quality, healing, muscle growth, pigmentation, and more. Often, these peptides are sourced as unregulated research chemicals from Chinese suppliers and TikTok bots. Peptides frequently promoted on TikTok and forums include GHK-Cu, BPC-157, CJC-1295, Ipamorelin, Argireline, and Melanotan II. Proponents point out that these are naturally occurring chains of amino acids in the body, but the long-term effects of their artificial injection have not been studied.
Another extreme hardmaxxing practice is bonesmashing, which involves repeatedly striking facial bones with blunt objects. These microfractures, allegedly, will heal structurally enhanced, and create forward growth that increases facial definition, a shaky claim that has varying degrees of scientific backing (not to mention a clear risk of injury).
The results of these tactics are not always appealing or well suited to the individual. When outcomes look unnatural, they are described as “uncanny.”
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This all might be sounding very insane. Any attempt to understand why looksmaxxers go to these lengths will fail if it does not grasp the complex swirl of ideologies and social factors behind it.
Analyses of looksmaxxing often cite the male loneliness epidemic as a driving factor, framing looksmaxxing as a final resort or ‘rational’ reaction to a hostile dating market.
The loneliness epidemic, however, is not just a problem of dating, but one of friendship. Studies suggest weak male-to-male support systems are as consequential as romantic outcomes in shaping perceived loneliness. The Looksmaxxing community can alleviate the former by ingraining young men into an affinity group, not unlike the hundreds of thousands of “gooners” described in Daniel Kolitz’s Goon Squad article.
Which is not to say that the looksmaxxing community is one coherent ideological body. Over time, a rift has emerged between ‘redpill’ and ‘blackpill’ looksmaxxing frameworks. The redpill, associated with popular right-wing conservative figures such as Nick Fuentes, Andrew Tate, and Sneako, promotes exaggerated, traditional displays of masculinity, optimizing hygiene, posture, muscularity, and personal style as a means to becoming a “high-value man” and ultimately achieving dominance over (and the desire of) women.
While grounded in dissatisfaction with modern feminist movements—in particular the post-Me Too era of empowered anti-patriarchal accountability—the redpill mindset is nonetheless optimistic at its core. Redpilled individuals describe a rigged dating system that can be hacked through action and hard work. Almost anyone, the redpill says, can become part of the 20% of men that attract 80% of women.2
The blackpill, however, internalizes nihilism, believing that soft self-improvement will achieve nothing. If you are not born normatively attractive, your situation is hopeless no matter how much “game” or status you achieve. “It’s over.” You must literally break and rebuild yourself to have a chance. Blackpill ideology captures a community of men who attribute their lack of romantic and social success solely to physical appearance. Grounded in lookism and eugenics-adjacent thinking, the blackpill elevates rigid, highly Eurocentric beauty standards as determinative.
A logical outcome of these ideological foundations is that redpillers promote softmaxxing as an effective strategy, while blackpillers dismiss it as “cope”, or a superficial improvement that does not meaningfully change one’s underlying attractiveness. Topical peptide products and most standard self-care routines are prime examples of ‘cope.’ Hardmaxxing, to a blackpilled looksmaxxer, is the only path forward.
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In our present cultural vacuum, it should be no surprise that looksmaxxing and political ideology have blurred. This blurring is complicated and at times contradictory.
Looksmaxxing is often associated with the general rise of Christian nationalism, but is actually much more closely associated with the youth-driven, America First–aligned “groyper” scene, which often overlaps with, but is not identical to, blackpill or accelerationist thinking, and treats social decline as permanent and reform as futile.
Looksmaxxers show less attachment to the traditional or religious value systems that earlier redpill movements adopted. Most looksmaxxers are better described as nihilistic or politically disengaged, rather than ideologically conservative, a common misconception. In looksmaxxing circles, societal collapse is viewed as inevitable rather than preventable. Global politics are considered irrelevant, and have little bearing on personal outcomes. Society is stacked against them, and collective, political, or economic agency is minimal.
Putting aside the question of whether these perceptions are well-founded or the product of endless social media information streams and peer isolation, this worldview is ripe for an obsession with one’s looks. Personal optimization becomes the only arena of progress that remains within the individual’s control.
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While to many observers looksmaxxing appeared to ascend into mainstream relevance overnight, it has been a concerted movement for over a decade.
Looksmaxxing emerged around 2014 on forums such as 4chan, Looksmaxxing.org, Looksmaxxer.com, Lookism.net, PUAHate, and Incels.me. These spaces overlapped with incel and redpill communities, and were shaped by lookism. Discussions on these forums often drew on eugenics-adjacent beliefs, evolutionary psychology, and racialized hierarchies of beauty.
The story of looksmaxxing’s rise to general popularity is a story of niche internet forums gradually being leaked onto major platforms such as TikTok.
Pre-leak, the most prominent TikTok looksmaxxing reference points were models like Chico Lachowski and Jordan Barrett, and creators such as Dillon Latham, K Shami, and Lance Barker, who are largely regarded as pioneers of men’s self-care content. Their content had very little in common with today’s looksmaxxing: lighter in tone, less severe, with the most common advice pertaining to basic skincare, grooming, and optimizing your hairstyles based on face shape.
Over time, exemplars like Chico and Jordan became subjects of increasingly technical feature breakdowns, with forum users measuring and debating their features, including jaw width, eyelid exposure, brow tilt, canthal tilt, eye spacing, cheekbone placement, chin projection, facial ratios, and other highly specific aesthetic criteria.
But the looksmaxxing ecosystem, and its more extreme practices, remained relatively insular until Dillon Latham leaked forum content onto TikTok in 2023, thereby exposing its niche terminology, hierarchies, and practices to a much broader and younger audience. A surge of TikTok interest in more extreme hardmaxxing tactics followed, accelerated by self-appointed gatekeepers (old forum members) in the comments.
Many longtime forum members felt betrayed, citing a Fight Club-style norm that looksmaxxing was not meant to be discussed publicly. An old forum member referred to the leak as “the burning of the Library of Alexandria.” Latham was doxxed, with personal details such as his phone number, home address, and family address circulated online, further sensationalizing the scene. Around the same time, influencer K. Shami (AKA Syrian Psycho) posted a viral transformation video that boosted mainstream exposure and participation among young male audiences.
So began the slow (and then fast) mainstream rise of looksmaxxing. The community’s adjacency to Christian nationalist and America First conservatives fueled its uptake, and the two groups have only further merged in recent months. Nick Fuentes recently said that 2026 is the year of locking in and ascending. “I don’t want to catch anybody not mewing. Lean is the law. This is the year that we are all ascending. We’re doing what we need to do to increase our looks, our money, our power”.
The sheer size of the looksmaxxing community is often underestimated. While Clavicular’s visibility has driven much of the recent relevance, there are hundreds of popular looksmaxxing creators with audiences in the hundreds of thousands, made up mostly of young men between the ages of 14 and 23. Some of the most referenced modern figures include Hullo, Bass, Sunshine, Derb, Matias, Romulus Ramses, Nocturnal Kent, and Androgenic. Many of these creators sell looksmaxxing guides that their audiences can purchase to ‘ascend’. There are also several looksmaxxing figures who have become immortalized as horror stories for causing irreversible damage to their appearance, including Mike Mehlman, James Sapphire, AndrewMaxxer, and Scolo.
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“Motherfucker do you think that I’m doing this shit as a fucking form of entertainment? I’m not a character, I’m not a well developed character. I- This is a fucking horror story”
- Clavicular
Any discussion of looksmaxxing must include Clavicular, the 20 year old who has become the mainstream face of the movement. His mythology is built on dramatic before-and-after “ascension” comparisons, viral clips of him allegedly running over a stalker in a Cybertruck while remaining eerily calm to avoid “raising his cortisol levels,” and his publicly documented routine of testosterone, minoxidil, dutasteride, accutane, and crystal meth. He has recently appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among others.
Compared to a typical TikToker or influencer, the nonstop output of Clavicular’s streaming has allowed his persona to proliferate at breakneck speed. An army of clippers distribute his slightest action. Last month, he went viral when he told a popular conservative podcaster that he would vote for Gavin Newsom over JD Vance because Newsom “mogs” him, (belying the un-political, apathetic martyrdom these influencers are seeking). A week after, Clav and Nick Fuentes streamed together to discuss disenfranchised young men, and shortly after that they both got banned from all Miami nightclubs (alongside Sneako and the Tate brothers) for playing Ye’s controversial Heil Hitler song during a night out. Clavicular appeared in Elena Velez’s Remilia-sponsored New York Fashion Week show. Peter Thiel is rumored to provide him with financial backing.
Clav’s approach to streaming is singular, and functions as an affirmation of the looksmaxing thesis. He’s not doing pranks or engagement baiting. He goes to parties around the country surrounded by a camera crew for the sole purpose of picking up girls, mogging, and demonstrating to his viewers that looksmaxxing works. Every successful interaction further cements his theory, and by extension the blackpill community’s hypothesis that lookism is the genuine, unspoken foundation underlying our society.
Clavicular’s presence raises compelling questions about politics and culture. Neither the left nor the right quite knows what to do with him. He, in turn, wants nothing to do with them, dismissing politics as “a circus show.”
His rise has reignited the ‘platforming’ debate in the media class, with some taking the position that covering him is ethically irresponsible. This framing of Clavicular as a unique bad actor, like most anti-platforming hysteria, is inaccurate, uncurious, and pretentious, and ignores the fact that he is an embodiment and expression of something that has been percolating in youth culture for over a decade.
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Looksmaxxing has travelled on the back of memes and music. Memes as a communicative landscape, filled with ambiguous irony tinged in nihilism, have been fertile ground for looksmaxxing to take root in, allowing it to capitalize on pre-existing and overlapping personal and political sentiments.
Music in Looksmaxxing TikTok edits has formed a distinguishable genre, commonly referred to as “Blackpill music” or “BP music.” BP music is primarily characterized by hardstyle remixes, Eurodance, hyperpop, and occasionally female sung pop. Most of these songs channel a sense of nostalgia and romanticization, and are often slowed down or sped up from their original versions. Another signature is a metal clanking sound sourced from Read Dead Redemption 2. In the game, this sound indicates ‘low honor.’
There are hundreds of songs considered to be BP music, but some of the most popular include: poster boy by 2hollis, It’s A Dream by Snowstrippers and Lil Uzi Vert, Good Looking by Suki Waterhouse, 4 Morant by Doja Cat, ecstasy by SUICIDAL-IDOL, Washing Machine Heart by Mitski, I Don’t Know by Erika, Kiss Me Again by Roy Bee, Die Young (Lil Texas remix), Heartbeat by Childish Gambino, Freak Show by Punkinloveee, All The Things She Said, nuts by Lil Peep, Lucky (I’m So Lucky Lucky) by Lucky Twice, life imitates life by quannnic, Stolen Dance by Milky Chance, Roi by videoclub, The Perfect Girl by Mareux, Fright Night by Punkinloveee, SugarCrash! by ElyOtto
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In today’s world, you can’t control much. Many of today’s young men feel that way at least. Physical appearance presents itself as an exception: something concrete and controllable when other forms of stability are out of reach. Viral edits, ironic memes, livestreams, and general jestermaxxing all threaten to conceal what is at the heart of this movement, which is the promise of achievable transformation.
Looksmaxxing is not a simple phenomenon. It incorporates trends of self-improvement culture, digital subculture, and sociopolitical ideology. It blends grooming advice with extreme body modification. It leverages obsessive self-scrutiny and the desire for a friend.
And now it has caught algorithmic momentum. Ideas once confined to fringe message boards are repackaged for broad audiences. A niche fixation is now framed as an absolute necessity: ascend.
Given the size and rapid growth of the movement, the open question is whether this is just a passing trend or something that will become a lasting part of men’s culture. Of course cultural fatigue will set in. But the core drivers of looksmaxxing, particularly the perceived disenfranchisement and hyperonline isolation of young men, are not going away. Neither is the current political climate, or the sense of manosphere impunity that many looksmaxxers ground their thinking in. In the same way makeup, cosmetic procedures, and skincare became embedded in women’s culture, some extreme looksmaxxing practices like peptide use may gradually be absorbed everyday “self care” for men.
Addressing the vices of looksmaxxing starts with meeting its adherents where they’re at, rather than further stigmatizing and isolating them. Looksmaxxing is, in so many ways, a logical outcome of today’s culture, and diffusing it will be an uphill battle. We’ll never get anywhere if we don’t allow ourselves to look this beast squarely in the eye, prey or hunter.
One thing is clear: It’s never over.
Definitions
A glossary of looksmaxxing terminology
Looksmaxxing: Practices and measures taken to optimize one’s appearance, grounded in the belief that physical appearance is the single most important determinant of success.
Blackpill: The broader ideology underlying looksmaxxing that holds genetics to be the primary determinant of attractiveness, romantic success, and overall life outcomes.
PSL scale: A rating scale from 1–8 used within looksmaxxing communities to score physical attractiveness.
Appeal: An individual’s attractiveness, generally viewed through the lens of women’s attraction and considered outside the more rigid looksmaxxing standards of chiseled jawlines, hunter eyes, hollow cheekbones, and similar traits.
Sub-5: A derogatory term for someone rated below average in attractiveness on the PSL scale.
Softmaxxing: Lower-intensity, non-permanent methods of improving attractiveness through traditional self-care. Includes skincare, going to the gym, using a gua sha, and getting a haircut that better frames the face.
Hardmaxxing: High-intensity, often permanent or risky methods of improving attractiveness, such as peptide injections, facial reconstruction surgery, and other invasive interventions.
Surgerymaxx: Pursuing multiple cosmetic or structural surgeries to systematically “fix” perceived flaws, such as nose jobs, jaw surgery, or limb-lengthening procedures.
Bonesmashing: A dangerous practice involving repeatedly hitting facial bones with a blunt object to create micro-fractures, with the belief that this will lead to a more chiseled facial structure.
Mewing: A technique where the tongue is pressed against the roof of the mouth to supposedly improve jawline definition over time.
Frauding your height: Making yourself appear taller through boots, shoe lifts, insoles, or camera angles.
Ascend / Ascension: To transform from being unattractive to attractive through looksmaxxing methods.
Cope: An action dismissed by blackpill adherents as ineffective or superficial self-improvement that will not lead to real ascension.
“It’s so over”: A phrase used in comment sections to suggest someone is too unattractive to ever meaningfully improve.
Brutal: Comment shorthand for “the brutal truth,” often posted under appearance-focused content to signal harsh judgment or a reaction of despair towards the poster.
Chad: A man considered to be the most attractive, typically framed as the top 1–2 percent of male facial beauty.
Chad-lite: A man considered extremely attractive but slightly below “Chad” level, often described as top 5 percent.
True Adam / True Eve: Alternative terms for a Chad-level man or woman.
Normie: An average person outside niche or highly online communities. In rating contexts, the term is often broken into tiers such as high-tier normie, mid-tier normie, and low-tier normie, in descending order of attractiveness.
Mogging: When someone visibly outclasses another person in attractiveness, especially in side-by-side comparisons.
Hunter eyes / Prey eyes: Terms describing eye area aesthetics. “Hunter eyes” are considered attractive, with low upper-eyelid exposure; “prey eyes” are considered unattractive, with high upper-eyelid exposure.
Canthal tilt: The upward angle of the outer eye corner, seen in looksmaxxing as a key marker of youthfulness, dominance, and attractiveness.
Forward facial growth: A desired facial structure where the midface and jaw project forward rather than appearing recessed.
Greys: Originally referred to new users with grey usernames on looksmaxxing forums; now used more broadly for people seen as new or uninformed about looksmaxxing.
Blackpill music / BP music: Music commonly used in looksmaxxing and blackpill edits, often slowed and reverbed for a melancholic or dramatic effect.
Jestermaxxing: A strategy for attracting women through humor and exaggerated clownish behavior, used when conventional attractiveness routes are seen as unavailable.
Written by Mikail Haroon (@mvkail)
The biblical naming is not accidental either, and reflects how the movement often borrows from religious and right-wing traditionalist ideals, recasting them as modern status icons.
The “80.20.” rule is a core tenet of the looksmaxxing ideology.
Maybe we should just lovemaxxing and touchgrassmaxxing a bit, just egomash and stop frauding our purpose in life, just be the tera chad of self respect and modesty, just mogg our last self not our past face.
Breath and think about what you already have, think about that thing you were obsessed about when you were 8yo, think about that thing that makes you genuinely smile day and night, think about this loved one, think about what will be remembered when the wrinkles appear and the body stop working.
There are only three times in life when you ascend, when you're born, when you raise a child, and when you die.
Open a book, crack a joke, be corny, be weird, be ugly. Who gives a fuck? Be you, not the one they told you to be
Great piece with great insights!