the trend targets adolescent and young men <\/a>who are trying to improve their physical appearance.<\/p>\nIt also advocates for the use of drugs and surgery, with some even turning to self-harm to change their facial features.<\/p>\n
Some men who take part in looksmaxxing will rely on \u201cbone smashing\u201d \u2013 taking a hammer and repeatedly striking their cheeks and jaw bones to create micro fractures, which they believe can help reshape the face. <\/p>\n
The trend first sparked mainstream attention in 2023, with Clavicular being one of the most well-known and outspoken in the space, amid a flurry of warnings from experts who say the dangerous substances and methods used could cause serious harm. <\/p>\n
Sunday night\u2019s episode of 60 Minutes Australia decided to delve \u201cinside the dangerous trend taking over the feeds of young men\u201d, and spoke to the 20-year-old who lives in Florida. <\/p>\n
But during a tense on-air moment with reporter Adam Hegarty, Clavicular walked out of the interview after being challenged on the looksmaxxing community\u2019s link to a range of misogynistic subcultures, including incels, also know as involuntary celibates \u2013 men who blame women for their non-existent sex lives \u2013 and Andrew Tate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not linked to that group in any way,\u201d Clavicular said, visibly disgusted at the idea of being associated with incels.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooksmaxxing is self-improvement, right? So it\u2019s about potentially ascending out of that category and so that would be one of the goals is to disassociate from being an incel and overcome that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hegarty continued with his line of questioning, with the young man abruptly ending the interview when he mentioned Tate, a self-proclaimed \u2018misogynist\u2019 influencer who is set to stand trial for alleged human trafficking in Romania.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve obviously shared company with Andrew Tate and other, dare I say, rather controversial figures, why do you spend time with people like that?\u201d Hegarty asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll right, have a nice day\u201d Clavicular replied, before adding: \u201cI see you want to make this political.\u201d <\/p>\n
After attempting to claim Hegarty \u2013 who isn\u2019t married \u2013 had been \u201ccheated\u201d on by his wife, he stood up and walked over to his livestream setup. <\/p>\n
Before the interview was derailed, Clavicular had discussed how he turned to bone smashing and drugs, be it injecting steroids or taking methamphetamine, to achieve his desired look. <\/p>\n
Clavicular, whose parents are former bodybuilders, claims to have started taking steroids at 14 years old. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason for me to go to the gym and work out in any way other than the most efficient one, and that was with anabolic steroids. So it\u2019s sort of like a cheat code,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Another \u201clooksmaxxer\u201d featured on the episode was 21-year-old Queenslander, Nocturnal Ken \u2013 who takes part in bone smashing, eating 500g of sugar every day and wearing makeup \u2013 said he learned about the controversial and dangerous method from the internet. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people don\u2019t understand how it works,\u201d he told 60 Minutes. <\/p>\n
\u201cBone smashing. What a horrible term. What it really is, is applying a controlled mechanical stress to bone tissue to grow it.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, these claims have been shot down by aesthetic surgeon Angie Taras, who described the practices as \u201cshocking\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just absolutely no scientific evidence behind most of the things that they are talking about,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Dr Taras said bone smashing was also an unhelpful method in changing the shape of the face, as it leads to temporary swelling and bruising, not permanently changing the shape of the skull. <\/p>\n
She also argued many of the before-and-after pictures used in looksmaxxing posts were likely down to puberty and secret aesthetic treatments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, puberty\u2019s happened. So their faces changed anyway,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you \u2026 wonder if they\u2019re getting other treatments as well that they\u2019re not talking about. So it could be a combination of both those things.\u201d <\/p>\n
Clinical psychologist Zac Seilder said the looksmaxxing trend was \u201creally concerning\u201d and \u201cnihilistic\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the online movement was \u201ctelling young guys that life is hopeless\u201d and they wouldn\u2019t be able to succeed in their careers, get a romantic partner or make friends without looksmaxxing. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about winning and competitiveness and, really, sadly, what it leads to is self-destruction,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Dr Seilder said the dangerous online trend provided an opportunity to unpack the psychology behind the young men taking part in looksmaxxing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that lots of them come from trauma backgrounds,\u201d he told 60 Minutes. <\/p>\n
\u201cLike, what is driving a 14-year-old to start to inject steroids, use meth, smash themselves with a hammer?\u201d <\/p>\n
He said young boys and men who follow in Clavicular\u2019s footsteps were \u201cvictims\u201d and in desperate need of empathy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are being played at an extremely vulnerable age when all they want is to fit in,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt just so happens that it is supercharged because of our tech platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Clavicular is best-known for his dangerous and severe methods, he also pedals many opinions which have been labelled misogynistic. <\/p>\n
The influencer was arrested on battery charges in South Florida in late March, with police alleging he and his 24-year-old girlfriend were involved in an attack against a 19-year-old woman at a rental property.<\/p>\n
Police later determined he \u201cinstigated the fight\u201d, which he filmed and posted online to \u201cexploit the two women\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An American influencer known for the dangerous techniques he used to \u201cmaximise\u201d his appearance has stormed out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2095,293733,64,63,293724,293728,447,250711,293719,293736,293732,293726,134,293737,2755,293725,187436,2041,2067,293734,293721,61495,293727,293722,293738,293720,293731,293730,293735,293723,2614,9012,85398,293729],"class_list":{"0":"post-603207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-angie-taras","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-battery-charges","13":"tag-bone-smashing","14":"tag-celebrities","15":"tag-cheat-code","16":"tag-dangeorus-method","17":"tag-dangerous-substances","18":"tag-dangerous-trend","19":"tag-dangerous-trend-targeting","20":"tag-entertainment","21":"tag-extreme-lengths","22":"tag-florida","23":"tag-jaw-bones","24":"tag-newswire-news","25":"tag-north-america","26":"tag-northern-america","27":"tag-online-trend","28":"tag-popular-american-influencer","29":"tag-poster-boy","30":"tag-secret-aesthetic-treatments","31":"tag-self-conscious-boys","32":"tag-tech-platforms","33":"tag-telling-young-guys","34":"tag-trauma-backgrounds","35":"tag-trend-causing-young","36":"tag-trend-targeting-young","37":"tag-trend-targets","38":"tag-united-states-of-america","39":"tag-young-boys","40":"tag-young-men","41":"tag-zac-seilder"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}