Looksmaxxing
Systematically maximising your physical attractiveness, from skincare and fitness up to (for some) surgery.
Grade note: the umbrella is neutral; every method under it earns its own grade below.
looksmaxxing.guide · evidence desk
Every term the community actually uses, graded honestly. What changes your face is boring: sunscreen, sleep, body fat and a dermatologist. What goes viral is usually what hurts you. Filter by grade and see why.
Systematically maximising your physical attractiveness, from skincare and fitness up to (for some) surgery.
Grade note: the umbrella is neutral; every method under it earns its own grade below.
Non-invasive, reversible improvements: skincare, body-fat reduction, hair, posture, dental care, style, sleep.
Why: nearly everything with real evidence lives here. The community's own rule (softmaxx first) is correct.
Permanent medical or surgical intervention: rhinoplasty, jaw implants, orthognathic surgery.
Why: real procedures with real results, and real risk. Only after softmaxxing, only with a board-certified surgeon, never DIY.
Broad-spectrum SPF 30+ every morning. The single highest-evidence anti-aging step that exists.
Why: photoaging causes most visible skin decline; prevention is proven in RCTs. Boring, cheap, unbeatable.
Prescription vitamin-A derivatives for texture, acne and photoaging: the second pillar of evidence-based skincare.
Why: decades of peer-reviewed dermatology. Needs a prescriber and patience (months), not a TikTok routine.
Dropping to roughly 12–15% body fat reveals jawline and facial structure more than any facial "exercise".
Why: facial adiposity is a major attractiveness variable in the literature, and it's actually changeable.
The two evidence-backed treatments for male pattern hair loss.
Why: both have strong trial data. Finasteride is prescription-only for a reason: get bloodwork and a doctor, not a group-buy.
Strengthening deep neck flexors to correct forward-head posture; improves how your neck and jawline read.
Why: standard physiotherapy with decent evidence. It fixes posture, not bone.
Alignment, whitening, hygiene. One of the highest-impact and most underrated appearance investments.
Why: smiles weigh heavily in first-impression studies, and treatment outcomes are predictable.
Holding the tongue flat against the palate, claimed to reshape the jawline over time.
Why: plausible influence on a still-growing adolescent face, and no evidence it remodels adult bone. Harmless posture habit, dishonest miracle.
Chewing hard gum to hypertrophy the masseter muscle for a wider-looking jaw.
Why: muscle can grow modestly, but hours of daily chewing is a documented route to TMJ dysfunction. Small upside, real downside.
The eye-corner angle the community obsesses over, plus the exercises and hacks claiming to change it.
Why: the trait is real anatomy; every non-surgical method sold to change it is fiction.
Deep-set, hooded, positively-tilted eyes treated as the male ideal, with routines promising to develop them.
Why: that's orbital bone structure. No exercise, tape or tongue posture builds it after puberty.
Forum-born 1–8 "objective" attractiveness rating (from the PSL forum ecosystem).
Why: pseudo-metric with deflated anchors: it reliably makes normal faces score "subhuman". A tool for rumination, not measurement.
The claim that tongue posture or chewing projects the adult maxilla forward.
Why: adult craniofacial bone does not remodel from soft-tissue pressure at any meaningful scale. Orthognathic surgery exists precisely because it doesn't.
Striking your own face (hammer, massage gun, knuckles) hoping "microfractures heal back more angular".
Why: medically false and genuinely destructive: documented fractures, nerve damage, and at least one reported case of blindness. Never.
Deliberate starvation to thin the face and "hollow the cheeks".
Why: this is an eating disorder with a rebrand. Cardiac risk, cognitive decline, and it doesn't even target facial fat. Seek help, not macros.
Steroids, SARMs, HGH, appetite-suppressant stimulants bought without medical supervision.
Why: hepatic, cardiac and endocrine damage that can be permanent, traded for cosmetic changes a doctor could supervise safely where legitimate.
The fatalist ideology that looks are genetically fixed and determine your entire social worth.
Why: the danger here is psychological: it's the pipeline from self-improvement into hopelessness. Every graded item on this page is a counter-argument.
Visibly outshining someone in attractiveness ("he mogs the whole room").
Grade note: harmless as a joke; corrosive as a lens (see blackpill).
Community tiers for very attractive men (Chadlite ≈ "conventionally handsome").
Grade note: meme taxonomy. Fine as vocabulary; meaningless as a life verdict.
Most of this niche is young men trying to feel better in their own skin, and that's legitimate. But some patterns are warning signs, not optimisation:
If that sounds familiar, talk to someone qualified. It costs nothing: BDD Foundation (UK) · NEDA (US) · 988 Lifeline (US) · Samaritans (UK & IE)