Young Men Build Beauty Obsession Without the Infrastructure That Managed Women's
Braden Peters took testosterone at 14, then smashed his jawbone with a hammer to reshape his face [2][3]. Dillon Latham stamps his face with micro needles in a practice called dermastamping [2][3]. Marvin, 26, films facial exercises for 35,000 TikTok followers, pressing his thumbs under his cheekbones and massaging upward [1][2]. All three are looksmaxxers, young men pursuing extreme measures to maximize their physical appearance through practices that range from routine grooming to unlicensed hormone abuse [1][2]. What distinguishes their obsession from the beauty culture women have navigated for decades isn't the goal. It's the complete absence of institutional guardrails.
"It's definitely funny that men had to come up with the brand-new terminology in order to justify the fact that they're doing what women have been doing forever," said Tefi Pessoa, host of the podcast "Tefi Talks" [2][3]. Pessoa argues that women have been chasing extreme beauty standards for decades and men are only recently catching up [2][3]. But the parallel reveals a critical gap: women's beauty industry developed medical oversight, regulatory frameworks, and consumer protections, however flawed, over generations. Looksmaxxing emerged from incel message boards in the early 2010s and exploded on TikTok in the early 2020s with none of that infrastructure [1][2].
Three Tiers, Zero Circuit Breakers
The spectrum of looksmaxxing practices illustrates what happens when body modification bypasses institutional channels entirely. At the entry level, practitioners like Marvin perform facial exercises they believe will enhance bone structure, the "Zygopush" and "Hunter squeeze" among them [1][2]. Marvin uses a face analysis app to identify areas he wants to work on [1][2]. The practices themselves may be relatively harmless, but no medical professional screens for body dysmorphia or intervenes when routine self-improvement tips into obsession.
Latham represents the middle tier. He grew up in a small Virginia town feeling insecure about his looks [2][3]. His looksmaxxing regimen now includes gym sessions, getting a perm, and dermastamping, puncturing his face with micro needles [2][3]. "I don't actually understand how people can't see the reality that is the better you look, the better you're treated and the more power you have," Latham said [2][3]. The logic is brutal but internally consistent. What's missing is any system to challenge that logic or offer alternative frameworks for self-worth before someone starts stabbing needles into their face.
Peters, known online as Clavicular, occupies the extreme end. Now 20, he began taking testosterone at 14 [2][3]. He has stated in interviews that he takes dutasteride and minoxidil to prevent hair loss, and has used methamphetamine as a stimulant and weight-loss drug [2][3]. He smashed his jawbone with a hammer in an attempt to reshape his lower face, a practice health professionals do not recommend [2][3]. YouTube terminated his original channel in November 2025 for facilitating access to websites that violate policies on illegal or regulated goods or services, then removed two additional channels he created [2][3]. By February 2026, he was walking at New York Fashion Week [2].
When Platforms Replace Physicians
Dr. Terry Dubrow, a plastic surgeon and co-host of "Botched," characterized looksmaxxing methods as "unregulated, dangerous, and fundamentally, it really just doesn't work" [2][3]. Dubrow noted that dutasteride used as a hormone blocker will stop genital development [2][3]. Mixing unregulated medications with street drugs creates polypharmacy, which is dangerous [2][3]. The situation, Dubrow said, amounts to "uneducated, unlicensed, 20-year-old-and-younger influencers giving medical advice to teenage boys" [2][3].
The contrast with women's beauty industry is instructive. That industry operates within, and often exploits, a framework of FDA cosmetics regulation, plastic surgery board certification, and eating disorder treatment protocols. The framework is inadequate and frequently fails to protect women from harm. But it exists. When a cosmetics company makes false claims, the FTC can intervene. When a surgeon performs unnecessary procedures, medical boards can revoke licenses. When influencers promote products, disclosure rules apply.
Looksmaxxing has none of this. It originated in online forums for incels, young men who identify as "involuntary celibate" [2][3]. These spaces are unmoderated, allowing extreme advice to proliferate without institutional pushback. When the practice migrated to TikTok, it gained reach but not oversight. The term did not gain widespread notoriety until mostly male content creators began discussing it on social media platforms in the early 2020s [1]. YouTube can terminate channels, but that's reactive enforcement, not systemic prevention. Peters appeared at Fashion Week weeks after his third channel was removed.
The Gateway No One's Monitoring
Some researchers studying the manosphere believe looksmaxxing is a gateway to more sinister content [2][3]. The progression makes sense: young men enter through self-improvement content, encounter the incel ideology that spawned looksmaxxing, and move deeper into communities built on resentment and misogyny. Women's beauty culture has generated decades of feminist critique, academic analysis, and counter-movements. Those responses don't prevent harm, but they create alternative narratives and off-ramps.
Young men pursuing looksmaxxing encounter no equivalent infrastructure. No public health campaigns address male body dysmorphia at scale. No consumer protection agencies monitor the supplements and unregulated hormones sold through forums and encrypted messaging apps. No medical establishment has built trust with this population or created accessible pathways to evidence-based care. The void fills with 20-year-olds giving hormone advice to teenagers.
Pessoa's observation that women have been doing this forever is accurate [2][3]. But women built, and were subjected to, billion-dollar industries with medical professionals, regulatory agencies, and social movements that at least attempted to manage the damage. Men invented looksmaxxing and are DIY-ing it through incel forums, unregulated hormones, and TikTok tutorials. The question isn't whether the obsession is new. It's whether anyone will build infrastructure before more 14-year-olds start taking testosterone and hammers to themselves.
