‘Looksmaxxing’ influencers rise

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Hankering for a chiseled jawline, a male TikTok influencer strikes his cheekbones with a hammer — highlighting the rise of “looksmaxxing,” an online trend pushing unproven and sometimes dangerous techniques to boost sexual appeal.

Looksmaxxing influencers — part of an online ecosystem dubbed the “manosphere” — have surged in popularity across social media, capitalizing on the insecurities of young men eager to boost their physical attractiveness to women.

In posts across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, they promote pseudoscientific methods to achieve everything from pouty lips to chin extensions and almond-shaped “hunter eyes,” often while monetizing their popularity by endorsing a range of consumer products.

In more extreme cases, these influencers advocate taking steroids, undergoing plastic surgery and even “leg-lengthening” procedures to become more attractive.

While women may pay regular visits to aestheticians or buy new beauty products, spurring a global beauty retail market worth hundreds of billions of dollars, the manosphere at times promotes a DIY approach that draws on the nearest toolbox.

“Babe, what’s taking you so long in the bathroom?” reads the caption flashing across a viral TikTok video of a man seen hitting his cheeks with the sharp edge of a hammer, in what he calls his “skincare routine.”

Underneath the video are dozens of comments warning that “bone smashing,” also known as the hammer technique, is “dangerous” while others hail it as a legitimate way to achieve an angular jawline.

In other videos, British influencer Oscar Patel promoted “mewing,” an unproven technique that involves pressing the tongue into the roof of the mouth for improving jaw and facial structure.

Without offering evidence, he told his nearly 188,000 TikTok followers that such tricks would turn them into a “PSL god,” an internet slang for exceptionally attractive men, short for Perfectly Symmetrical Looks.