By Bela Koganti
~ 9 minutes
Where were you when ASU frat leader frame mogged Clavicular? According to Merriam-Webster, looksmaxxing refers to:
“efforts, sometimes extreme, young men take to look more attractive”
Under the looksmaxxing umbrella, you’ve got frame mogging, black pill, True Adams, True Eves, and everything in between. Now, with so many terms thrown around Tiktok, Instagram Reels, and Youtube Shorts, it can seem impossible to figure out what’s real or how any of it even works. So, let’s embark on a journey through a few of the most popular looksmaxxing techniques.
A Precaution
Before we begin, it’s important to note that you absolutely do not need to do any of this. In fact, some of these techniques are much more harmful than beneficial, which we’ll explore. Your genetics and individuality make you, you! So, even if you feel compelled to change on the outside, hold onto who you are on the inside and don’t damage yourself just to chisel your face a little more. Alright, now that we’re clear, let’s get started!
Bonesmashing
We’re starting off with a scary-sounding and somewhat severe one. Bonesmashing is literally pummeling your facial bones–specifically those on your cheeks, chin, and jawline–with a hammer to alter your bone structure. Thanks to Wolff’s Law, many indulgers believe that the ‘bonesmashing’ changes the shape of their bones, therefore defining their faces.
In the nineteenth century, German surgeon Julius Wolff explored the observation that bones continuously reshape themselves as old, broken bones dissipate into the body and are replaced by new ones. Thus, he proclaimed that mechanical force and trauma to your bones can speed up the replacement process, making thicker bones; looksmaxxers adopted his theory, banking on the hope that those thick bones will appear more prominent and defined in their faces.
Essentially, they hit their faces to break or ‘smash’ the bones and make new, chiseled ones. However, it really only makes them worse for the wear. The mechanical force Wolff discussed was really meant to mean exercising and lifting weights, not pummeling your face. While your bones may end up healing differently than before, you really don’t know that they’ll end up looking any better. Also, your facial appearance doesn’t just result from your bones. Tissues and organs could be irreversibly damaged, and pounding your skin could cause lesions that could easily get infected. Your nutrition and hormones also affect your bone health, so bonesmashing may not even do much at all.
Honestly, hurting yourself with whatever mallet you can find really isn’t worth it. Rather than ending up chiseled, it’s much more likely that your bones will reshape in unnatural looking ways or simply not change at all.
Limb Lengthening Surgery
Okay, this one is also intense! Limb lengthening surgery is a procedure in which a surgeon breaks the femur or tibia in a patient’s legs before putting a magnetic rod and pins inside the bone to ensure and manipulate a lengthened bone. Post-op, patients adjust the rod a little each day, stretching out the bone, muscles, tendons, skin, and arteries. Generally, limb lengthening surgery can make you up to six inches taller. Limb lengthening was first meant to fix leg length differences and misalignments from birth deformities, disease, and injuries. However, it has recently become a popular cosmetic surgery.
While many look at limb lengthening surgery and only see the promise of getting taller, you’re also sidelined for quite a while after surgery. You’d likely need extensive physical therapy to recover, and you could be unable to exercise- or even walk unassisted- for about twice as long as the months spent adjusting the rod. For instance, if you spent three months stretching your legs out, you’d spend another six months fully sedentary or, if you’re lucky, doing minimal walking with crutches and walkers. And of course, you’d need multiple follow-up appointments with your doctor. Jeez.
Other than being bored to death during the recovery phase, there are multiple risks associated with limb lengthening: blood clots; infection; damage to nerves and blood vessels; improper and misaligned bone healing; tightness; and the rod malfunctioning, causing you to need another surgery.
Of course, limb lengthening surgery is a terrific option for you if you really, really, want to get taller, or if it’ll correct leg length misalignments. However, you must be ready to undergo months of sedentariness, thorough physical therapy, numerous doctor appointments, and the aforementioned side effects and risks, which could require even more surgery or lead to severe health issues.
If you’re absolutely certain that this is the surgery for you, go for it! But if you have even an inkling of doubt, reevaluate whether all this pain is worth a couple inches.
Haircuts
Finally! We’ve made it to something a little more accessible and relevant for the average person. All over social media, influencers have been pushing the narrative that haircuts significantly change people’s perceptions of your attractiveness (think: that popular haircare line BASED, those obviously dramatized haircut transformations, and arguments over whether people’s natural hair colors suit them best). But is this true?
In a study done by Nobert Mesko and Tamas Bereczkei, women’s faces were evaluated on femininity, youth, health, and sexiness when wearing six different hairstyles (short, medium-long, long, disheveled, in a bun, and unkempt) in comparison to faces that were bald (basic face). They found that only long and medium-long hair positively and significantly affected the evaluation rankings. Actually, the category that longer hair most affected was health—the male raters thought the women appeared more healthy with longer hair, even if they rated them lower on overall attractiveness. So, Mesko and Bereczkei theorized that because having longer hair is much more expensive than short (shampoo costs, haircuts, etc), it is associated with being more wealthy and having better genes.
Pretty interesting, right? Here’s a blog post that claims to know the correlation between haircuts and overall beauty. But remember—this is a blog, so it can’t really be trusted for anything more than basic observation skills. Pouya Zoghipour says hair color, length, and texture are the biggest factors. According to her, hair color comes with stereotypes, so you adopt those when meeting other people. About hair length, she doesn’t say what’s ‘best’ but believes that
“Long hair is often associated with femininity and youthfulness, while shorter hairstyles can convey confidence and assertiveness.”
Zoghipour also emphasizes that you must learn to understand and work with your natural hair texture, saying that
“Curly hair is often seen as playful and energetic, while straight hair is perceived as sleek and sophisticated.”
She has other tips, but these are her main three.
A Yale study, on the other hand, emphasized the correlation between your hair and your self-esteem. Think about it: if you wake up late with crazy hair and have no time to fix it, you’ll probably feel a little self-conscious all day, and you’ll probably be a little more reserved. You wouldn’t really be able to give as much energy and enthusiasm as you would on a day where, well, your hair looked fantastic and you felt fantastic. Look good, feel good, right? Plus, waking up late and not loving how your hair looks can often feel like the first sign of a bad day, so you can sometimes end up seeking out the inconveniences in your day.
So, while your hair somewhat impacts how attractive others think you are, it can also impact how you feel and your outlook on your everyday life. You know, I’d agree with Zoghipour that learning to love and care for your hair can pay fantastic dividends!
How Looksmaxxing Affects You, Not Just Your Face
Although the aforementioned ‘look good, feel good’ phrase is real and working, I’d argue that finding comfort and joy in the way you look now is much more impactful than crushing up your facial bones or getting surgery for a few more inches of height. While such strategies can absolutely help your self-confidence, just accepting and loving who you are now is a better long-term solution and can also protect you from any impostor syndrome.
According to Oxford Languages, impostor syndrome is
“the persistent inability to believe that one’s success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one’s own efforts or skills.”
I mean, a core belief of looksmaxxing is that those who are attractive have life easier. If you only found happiness and success after changing yourself down to the bone, you might catch a little bit of impostor syndrome.
And looking past how you see yourself, what about how you see others? When you fall so far down the rabbit hole of examining and picking apart yourself, when do you begin doing it to the people you see walking down the street? Personally, I already see looksmaxxers analyzing innocent teens’ lip syncs all over TikTok. Can you imagine doing that in real life?
Of course, looksmaxxing is often just an odd and pretty comedic way to disguise attempts to better your appearance. However, in some cases, two funny bonesmashing videos can soon lead to two hours on the black pill side of the internet, and that can lead to an entire adolescence spent critiquing and completely changing yourself. So, proceed with caution, and remember that none of this is actually necessary.
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