Punishing regimens of facial exercises. Intentional starvation. Reshaping the jawline or cheekbones by smashing them with a hammer or chisel.
These are some of the more extreme behaviors in a practice called looksmaxxing – an effort to maximize one’s looks at all costs – that’s attracting an enormous following of largely teenage boys and young men on social media. Looksmaxxing has gone from niche to mainstream since trending on TikTok in the early 2020s.
