Looksmaxxing, the internet-speak definition for improving your looks, involves everything from building muscle in the gym to upping your skincare game to getting plastic surgery. More controversial terms include mewing (pushing your tongue against the roof of your mouth to apparently achieve a more defined jawline) and bone smashing, which involves hitting your jaw and cheekbones to make them grow back stronger, though there is no evidence this is anything more than a meme. The latest looksmaxxing trend? Shaving off your eyelashes. Why? To look more masculine, supposedly.

Though the average modern man likely isn’t planning to Gillette his lashes anytime soon, social media is undoubtedly having an impact on how we perceive ourselves. New language abounds, from mogging (the act of being more attractive than another person, thereby dominating them) to aura points (a metric of essentially how cool a person is). Originating in incel message boards, the concept of looksmaxxing was a rebrand of self-improvement in video-game language, like a character levelling themselves up, with less of the accompanying superpowers.

While part of it might simply be guys wanting to enhance themselves, experts say the scale and tone of the movement is dangerous. “These trends are extremely concerning, not only because of the physical harm they risk but because they signal how deeply entrenched unrealistic appearance ideals have become,” says Professor Philippa Diedrichs, a body-image expert from the Centre for Appearance Research and Everybody Consulting. “They reflect a growing belief that self-worth is conditional on the way we look and that masculinity must be proven and performed through pain or transformation. It’s a mental health and public health concern as much as a cultural one.”

The algorithm is awash with creators promising changes to facial structure and overall attractiveness by following their programmes. To listen to these looksmaxxing coaches, it would seem that having the cut-glass jaw, hollow cheeks and so-called hunter eyes is a superpower, unlocking a superior lifestyle that brings more money, more social clout and, of course, more sex.

“It’s essentially a movement where people, often young men, pursue extreme appearance modification,” Diedrichs says. “Looksmaxxers claim that they are just making the most of their existing features, but actually many of the procedures that they promote or undergo are invasive, not medically indicated and come with significant financial costs and medical risks.”

Looksmaxxing has been around for more than a decade, but has hit the mainstream in recent years. It has grown alongside image-based social media platforms such as TikTok and the so-called “manosphere”, that part of the internet that promotes misogyny and a version of hyper-masculinity propagated by criminal figures like Andrew Tate.

The language around looksmaxxing can be terrifyingly specific and reduces attractiveness to cold scientific terms. A canthal tilt refers to the angle on the outer corners of your eyes and is seen as a strong marker of attractiveness. Other terms, such as high facial adiposity (excess facial fat), zygomatic arch (the bone that runs alongside the side of the head) and supraorbital ridge (brow), are all deployed to analyse the minutiae of the facial structure to determine if a guy is hot or not. Often, that’s exactly what plays out on looksmaxxing forums, where men post pictures for mathematical appraisals from other posters.

Naturally, this can be deleterious to mental health. “Appearance ideals have become more visible, more extreme and more difficult to attain due to filters, digital editing and the normalisation of cosmetic procedures,” Diedrichs says. “These ideals are not benign. Studies show that when people internalise restrictive appearance ideals –like those promoted by looksmaxxing – it negatively affects their mental health, physical health and the way they show up in their everyday life.”

“A lot of [looksmaxxing content] is targeting very young men who are still growing and developing,” says Robin James, the founder of Man By Himself and a grooming industry expert. Sold on drastic before and after images of guys who lost weight, built muscle and altered their faces, there are paid programmes that promise a whole new, better-looking you.

“Often, these young men have a meticulously planned strategy designed explicitly to maximise sexual attractiveness and facial proportions with the idea of becoming more dominant socially due to ‘alpha’ traits,” says Dr David Jack, an aesthetic doctor who runs his eponymous clinic in London. That strategy runs the gamut from moisturising serums to hair transplants, anabolic steroids to double jaw surgery. Injectable filler, which can be used to subtly reshape the face, can be another option.

“While some respond well to carefully chosen non-surgical interventions if they are doing them without pressure or to excess, there’s a fine line between enhancement and self-erasure,” Jack says.