Looksmaxxing

Looksmaxxing is when someone does many forms of facial exercising and body care routines, in an effort to improve their appearance. While Looksmaxxing can refer to simple hygiene, more extreme methods have become known with looksmaxxing, such as "mewing". Looksmaxxing is sometimes associated with incel subculture, and it started on "manosphere" message boards such as Lookism, Sluthate and PUAHate.^[1] Looksmaxxing became a TikTok trend, and became popular with teenagers in the 2020s, with some of its origins tracing back to mid-2014.

Looksmaxxing is when people perform body care routines to try to improve their appearance. Some of these practices are common and standard, such as clearing up facial acne, going to the gym, getting a new haircut, or moisturizing their skin. These practices are the most popular, and are known as "softmaxxing". Other practices have been associated with looksmaxxing, one popular practice is the act of "mewing", which involves moving your tongue to the roof of your mouth with the goal of getting a "square jawline".^[2][3] These methods are the most popular ones shared around TikTok, where men that look good are typically the ones giving the advice. These methods were used to be popular from magazines such as GQ, Esquire, and Men's Health sharing around skincare and hairstyle advice. Some people that practice "looksmaxxing" consider themselves to be making "facial gains".^[3]

Some people who practice looksmaxxing have also practiced more extreme methods. This has been called "hardmaxxing", and those who practice hardmaxxing call themselves "hardmaxxers". Practices known to be hardmaxxing include getting implants or limb-lengthening surgeries, starving themselves on purpose ("starvemaxxing"), using moisturizers to attempt to appear more white ("whitemaxxing"), and trying to avoid sexual climax to try to boost testosterone ("edging").^[2][3] Another method, known as "bonesmashing" is when someone hits their own face against objects to try to get a "chiselled look". While this practice is known as an inside joke and only a few people have actually tryed it, it has been warned as misinformation.^[4][5][6]

Some people that practice looksmaxxing also look for others to rate their appearance, with some engaging in anonymous message boards associated with incel sub-culture. This rating is sometimes known to be someone's "sexual market value".^[2][4] The people that do the rating and find this value usually check for different facial features. One of the most known facial features checked for is "hunter eyes", which refers to someone having a positive canthal tilt, which looks like the eyes of a predatorial animal. Other features checked for are hollow cheeks and "pursed lips".^[3][4] In order to have these features, some people perform acts such as mewing, rubbing around the eys, or even getting surgery.^[4][5][7]

People who get a low rating are sometimes harassed for their appearance, with some forms of harassment including suicide encouragement.^[2] Other terms have been created by people in an effort to "dominate others". Some of these terms are "mogging", which means asserting dominance over another person based on their appearance, and being "Y-pilled", which means that someone views themselves as more masculine than the other person and it is based on the word "redpilled".^[3][5]

Looksmaxxing started on "manosphere" message boards such as Lookism.net and Incels.me in the 2010s.^[8][9] In 2015, a forum site named Looksmaxxer.com was registered to the Internet Archive,^[source?] which created the term "looksmaxxing". This inspired the name to be used on anonymous imageboard websites such as 4chan. Looksmaxxing became a TikTok trend in the 2020s, and it was mostly watched by teenagers.^[2][3]

• Body dysmorphic disorder