A LOOKSMAXXER has hit out at his fellow influencers for encouraging young fans to take part in dangerous stunts such as “bone smashing”.
Ahmet, better known as Adix to his 250million followers, has scolded so-called hardmaxxers for making their fans “blindly follow unhealthy extremes” which can cause life-long health issues.
A disturbing online trend has seen the sharp rise of looksmaxxers – where young men share ways to improve their looks with techniques often straying into the extreme.
Smashing their own faces with a hammer to chisel a better jawline or undergoing leg extension surgery to be taller in order to get a girlfriend are all real tips shared by hugely popular influencers.
Now Adix – a man who proudly considers himself a looksmaxxing influencer and is famous for the “towel method” – says the warped trend of promoting violent, unscientific health tricks must end.
He bluntly told The Sun: “My view on hardmaxxing techniques such as bone smashing is very clear. I do not support them.
Read more in Looksmaxxing
“I would not recommend them, and I do not see them as a responsible or meaningful path to improvement.
“Unfortunately, there are sometimes isolated individuals who post shocking ideas purely to attract attention.
“I do not think those people represent the space in any serious way, and I do not think those methods should be taken seriously.”
Adix promotes a huge number of looksmaxxing techniques on his TikTok and Instagram.
One of these is the controversial “towel method” which is Adix’s most watched video on TikTok with over 24 million views.
During it he tells his fans how to perform the “jaw-defining” exercise.
Adix demonstrates how people can bite down on a rolled up, damp towel and clench for up to 15 seconds to strengthen up the jaw muscles.
When quizzed over why he shared the technique – which is not backed by science or approved by doctors – Adix said he was simply explaining the idea behind it.
“I posted about it because there was a huge amount of interest and discussion around the topic online, and a lot of people were asking how it was actually meant to work,” he said.
“My intention was to explain the concept as it is discussed within that space, rather than to present it as a guaranteed transformation.”
Having a strong jaw is often seen as the most important element for a “looksmaxxer”.
Videos showcasing an influencer’s “before and after” transitions of their face shape can rack up millions of views within days – enticing others to follow in the trend.
Self-titled looksmaxxing influencer Clavicular, 20, whose real name is Braden Peters, has helped to develop his own disturbing technique to improve his looks – “bone smashing”.
He details how to get the perfect jawline by using a hammer – and claims his technique is supported by science.
He will film himself in the mirror using a hammer-style tool and repeatedly hit himself with it under the guise of improving his jawline.
Clavicular has over 790,000 TikTok followers and 420,000 Instagram followers making him the biggest name in the looksmaxxing space.
Another influencer, known as AndrewMaxxer, boasts over 170,000 followers and regularly posts videos of himself taking a hammer to his jaw.
Facial plastic surgeon specialist Joshua Rosenberg told The Sun: “This is just facial trauma disguised as medical care, and there’s no world where facial trauma leads to better aesthetic outcome.
What is looksmaxxing?
A DISTURBING trend is urging young men to take extreme measures to improve their looks – all so they can get a girlfriend.
From smashing their own faces with a hammer to chisel a better jawline to having leg extension surgery to be taller, experts fear the twisted craze of looksmaxxing could turn deadly – and also harm young women.
First emerging in the early 2010s, looksmaxxing was a phrase used on disturbing misogynistic online forums.
The term quickly spiralled from self-improvement to a desperate desire for teenage boys to fit in by undergoing life-altering and permanent surgery.
In the last few years, it has spiked in popularity on social media platforms – with users widely sharing stories of how they got their “good looks”.
The basic principle is to improve your looks to help attract love interests – and a draconian spin-off has now emerged known as “hardmaxxing”.
Hardmaxxing comes from warped forums which recommend extreme measures to help others become “more attractive”, from Botox injections and steroids to expensive surgery.
These forums are also being blamed for a worrying number of suicides among young men who feel they don’t look attractive enough, an expert told The Sun.
Michael Halpin, Associate Professor of Sociology at Dalhousie University, said: “I observed a teenager stating that he was going to take his own life if he did not reach 6ft in height.
“While other users were told they were too ugly for ‘looksmaxxing’ and they should consider suicide.
“They are told they need to looksmax if they want to look better or ‘normal.’”
Read more here.
“It doesn’t exist. My advice would be stop. Period. There’s nothing about this that is going to work.”
Adix agrees that “bone-smashing” and other hardmaxxing tricks such as botox procedures or steroid use must not be normalised.
He said: “Health should always come first, and in my view anyone who genuinely understands looksmaxxing would tell you the same, because health and appearance are not separate things.
“Your health is reflected in how you look, which is exactly why harming your wellbeing in pursuit of aesthetic goals is fundamentally contradictory.
“I have consistently encouraged people not to take everything online at face value, to do their own research, and to speak to people who genuinely understand the subject rather than blindly following
extreme claims.”
He also says he understands the responsibility he has towards his fans who are over 95 per cent male and mainly aged between 18 and 24.
Most of his latest videos now talk about natural methods to looksmax such as improving a haircut, style or posture.
Adix added: “For me, looksmaxxing is simply one part of the broader self improvement culture.
“I don’t see it as something isolated, but as one aspect of the same mindset that encourages people to improve different areas of their lives, whether that is education, career, fitness, health, confidence or discipline.
“At its best, it is really about self development, self respect and
making the most of your potential.
“I have seen it bring together young people who are ambitious, disciplined and full of ideas, but who also share the common goal of wanting to improve themselves.”
Despite Adix and many other looksmaxxers not directly influencing their fans into doing harms to their own bodies, the subculture around it is shamed by many.
Many of the larger influencers, such as Clavicular, often use their platforms to show off a range of bikini-clad women to young viewers in highly-sexualised content.
Some of these videos regularly fall into the realm of “the manosphere” – the subject of Louis Theroux’s new documentary looking at the growing subculture of internet misogynists and their poisonous beliefs.
Dr Zoya Diwan, Aesthetic Doctor and dermatology specialist, said: “Trends like this don’t exist in isolation.
“For young women, being positioned as part of a ‘male gaze’ rating system reduces them to aesthetic validation tools rather than whole individuals.
“It reinforces harmful gender dynamics and unrealistic standards on both sides.”
Across social media, influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers are racking up millions of views from impressionable audiences such as Clavicular.
