What is ‘looksmaxxing?’ Young men are justifying extreme physical transformations with pseudoscience

The cosmetically obsessed are maxing out more than their credit cards to keep up with the plastic Jones’.

“Looksmaxxing” is a dangerous viral trend encouraging men to reshape their faces and cutting away at their mental health.

From the most loathsome corners of the internet have sprung forums that promote aesthetic changes for men to upgrade their “sexual market value,” a pseudoscientific calculation of worth to a potential sexual partner that allegedly takes into account every facet of one’s face, from the cut of their jawline to the amount of space between their eyes.

The trend has really taken off more recently and joined the mainstream as videos on the subject have surfaced on more popular platforms, namely TikTok.

Unlike the cheery “glow up” — a physical, mental and style transformation that’s celebrated as a healing journey toward finding one’s confidence — looksmaxxing is rooted in harsh critiques and the belief that physical appearance is the sole cause of relationship woes.

The trend is closely tied with the “incel” — involuntarily celibate — community, who blame women’s supposed superficiality for issues that span well beyond the male victim’s love life.

There are levels to looksmaxxing: “Softmaxxing” typically refers to nonsurgical changes that can be made to the face, like shaping the jaw with mewing — a tongue exercise — or restyling the hair for a trendier cut.

“Hardmaxxing” is where the more extreme alterations come in, including plastic surgery.

A spike in young men seeking cosmetic procedures has followed the trend, with some traveling halfway around the world for the best and cheapest services.

Since 2021, EsteNove, one of Turkey’s leading hair clinics, has seen a 50% increase in male patients aged 18 to 24 — Gen Z— requesting hair transplants, the clinic confirmed to The Post. And 38% of all patients admitted social media affected their decision to have a procedure done.

The overwhelming majority of men who undergo the common procedure report a boost in self-confidence and an increase in their quality of life.

“I felt a profound sense of relief and happiness,” Randy Lahoe told Forbes after undergoing his transplant.

But the extreme end of the looksmaxxing trend and community pushing young men to feel bad enough about themselves to spend thousands of dollars to reconstruct their faces has concerned some.

Kareem Shami, a 22-year-old student in San Diego, California has become one of the leading looksmaxxing influencers, sharing his transformation and guiding men through their own.

The beauty buff moved from Syria to America in 2012 and was constantly bullied for his looks, he recently told The Guardian.

“I was deemed an outcast and it triggered something in me,” Shami said.

The Gen Zer now looks nearly unrecognizable from his old self, with a new hairstyle, arched eyebrows, smoldering stare, plump lips and chiseled face.

He insists that he only promotes softmaxxing and that “the majority of the posts that you see about ‘looksmaxxing’ are not serious.”

The sort of unserious videos to which Shami refers often promote “bone smashing” — an insane proposition to repeatedly hitting one’s bones, typically the cheekbones or jawbones, with a hard object like a hammer, to create micro-fractures in the hope that the bone structure will heal in a more attractive shape.

There is no evidence that men are actually doing this and the majority of the videos appear to be from users advocating against the practice. Nevertheless, the mockery alone implies the troubling nature of looksmaxxing.

The real danger seems to be how the trend is impacting men’s mental health.

James, who changed his name for privacy concerns, shared that he first discovered the “looksmaxxing” community when he was just 16, and his life was forever changed.

“Their general vibe was quite mean,” the young man, now in his 20s, recalled to The Guardian. “They’d take images people had posted of their impressive physiques and be like: ‘You guys forgot to work out your faces!’”

He admitted that he’s spent about $11,000 on procedures and will likely spend thousands more — his chin is next.

Unfortunatley, not every flaw can be fixed, according to hardline looksmaxxers — and they’ll let you know.

“I was learning about problems I hadn’t even noticed,” James said. “Some of these flaws aren’t fixable at all … for a lot of teenagers out there, it can definitely be bad for their mental health.”