'Your face looks grotesque': How looksmaxxing can harm young men and boys

Most of us likely have days when we feel we're not looking our best.

Maybe our hair's a little wonky, or we look more tired than usual. Or perhaps there's a feature of our physical appearance that we've never quite made peace with. 

But for some young men who participate in an online community called "looksmaxxing," those self-critiques can become excessive. And the criticism they receive from other members — and their suggested remedies, which can include self-injury and surgery — are even more extreme.

Looksmaxxing is, on the surface, about trying to look your best in order to attract a partner. But a new study from Dalhousie University says while the community is framed as self-help, it can be harmful to participants.

"It is really caustic to the self-esteem of men and boys," says Michael Halpin, a professor of sociology at Dalhousie and the lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Sociology of Health and Wellness in February. 

"They're … saying terrible things.… 'Your body is disgusting.' 'No one will ever love you.' 'You'll never get a job.' 'You're going to be a failure unless you do some serious looksmaxxing practices.'"

While there are several sites devoted to looksmaxxing, Halpin's study examined the most popular message board by analyzing more than 8,000 comments on two of its main discussion boards in 2023. CBC News is not naming the site in order to limit participation from people who may be harmed by engaging with it.

The site has about 60,000 English-speaking members all over the world, and receives six million unique visitors per month. Halpin says all of the participants were men, mostly identifying as heterosexual, from various ethnicities, and ranging in age from 14 to their mid-20s.

Participants post photos of themselves and ask for feedback to improve their looks. Other members evaluate their height, weight, musculature, hair, skin, as well as more minute details such as how pronounced the jaw is, the size of the forehead, the hairline, the positioning of the ears, whether the eyelids tilt up or down, and the ratio of the upper lip to the chin.

Members then rate the user, with men who are 10/10 deemed "Chads," those just below them "Brads," those who are around 5/10 "normies," and those who are 3/10 or lower "subhuman" or "ogres."

Then come the suggested solutions. Skincare routines, exercise, dieting, eyebrow plucking, wardrobe improvement and hairstyles are less invasive or expensive techniques sometimes called "softmaxxing."

Other techniques are more intrusive and pricey: Botox, drugs such as hormones and steroids, surgeries on the jaw, eyelid, nose, brow ridge and teeth. Some suggest leg-lengthening surgery, a procedure in which the bones are broken or cut in the leg and the gap is slowly extended so bone will fill it, resulting in a height increase after healing.

"Bonesmashing" is another looksmaxxing technique recommended by users, which involves intentionally hitting bones — usually in the face, sometimes with a hammer — in order to create small injuries in the hope that the bone will grow back stronger and more pronounced.

One of the most commonly suggested interventions is mewing, a technique to ostensibly make the jawline more masculine by pressing the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth. Chewing specialized hard gums is also recommended by users for the same purpose.