At its most simplified, it usually comprises a holy trinity of a lean body, a full head of hair and chiseled, symmetrical facial features. Despite its now-gender-neutral reach, certain controversial figures adjacent to the movement might even declare things like being an \u201calpha male\u201d necessary, too. We\u2019re all waiting on the edge of our bench press seats for the scientific backing on that aspect of it.<\/p>\n
More recently, it has launched firmly into the lexicon, getting meme\u2019d across the internet in the process. Are you a regular on the Katy Trail<\/a>? Now you\u2019re a cardio-maxxer. Does the Las Palmas staff hate seeing you roll in for happy hour? Margarita-maxxing sounds sexier than \u201cdrunk on a Tuesday while the sun is still out.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up for the Arts & Culture newsletter to get the latest stories delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n THANK YOU!<\/p>\n You’re all set.<\/p>\n CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cLooksmaxxing\u201d is hardly a novel concept on the surface \u2014 fitness, fashion, and maintaining hair that will get you closer to God are as ingrained in Texas culture<\/a> as football, BBQ and air-conditioning. Somewhere along the way, though, podcasters, influencers and perhaps even keyboard-armored incels have started signaling permission for men to go beyond relying on weightlifting and a thick mustache.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dallas, meanwhile, has long maintained a reputation as a mecca for the image obsessed. Men\u2019s Health Magazine once named it the <\/a>nation\u2019s fifth most vain city <\/a>because of the region\u2019s unyielding appetite for cosmetic treatments and procedures. Plano bested Big D in the No. 2 spot on the same list. According to an Axios data analysis<\/a>, Botox use rose across Texas last year.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody wants to look and feel their best at every stage of life, and I think that\u2019s key in all of this,\u201d says Sarah Hayes, co-founder of Bespoke Health and Beauty<\/a>, an upscale medspa in Rockwall. \u201cWe now live in a time where we\u2019re able to do those things for people \u2014 women and men.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Our ladies who lunch make sure the toasted baguette on the table matches a Fendi Baguette purse. Our megachurches need to be blessed with the latest state-of-the-art production gear to ensure virality. And our aesthetic medicine professionals stay booked, keeping everyone right and tight along the way.<\/p>\n Big interest in Big D <\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s part of Dallas culture \u2014 people in Dallas like to look pretty. They like to have nice things. They like to eat nice food and go nice places,\u201d says Megan McKinney, a Dallas-based mental health counselor and founder of Pillow Talk Sex Therapy<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Guys of all backgrounds are quietly becoming more comfortable indulging in Dallas culture\u2019s focus on looking nice, according to Dr. Michael Wierschem.\u00a0<\/p>\n He offers a long list of aesthetic treatments at Dallas Men\u2019s Health<\/a>. Wierschem is a board-certified urologist with a doctor of medicine from UT Southwestern whose patients include divorced Highland Park dads, porn stars and even a fair share of women looking for things like laser hair removal. His office, tucked into Turtle Creek, has manifested like a man cave that made a wish to become a doctor\u2019s office. Your bachelor uncle would feel right at home, and that\u2019s the underlined point of what Wierschem does.<\/p>\n He did have to Google \u201clooksmaxxing\u201d when asked about it, but he immediately affirmed that versions of it have echoed in his exam rooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alec Spicer for Dallas Observer<\/p>\n Wierschem says men not only in Dallas but across the world (a map filled with pushpins marking where his patients visit from hangs in the waiting room) seem more interested in cosmetic treatments lately, even if they aren\u2019t forthright about it.<\/p>\n \u201cGuys just don\u2019t like talking about this stuff [openly], to be honest with you,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n The doctor says that hesitance hasn\u2019t subsided much, even 30 years into his career, and even as his lobby map fills faster than ever. The hushed tones still linger when his patients broach the subject of any kind of enhancement, but especially with anything south of the waistline.\u00a0 <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve done all kinds of things, and guys just aren\u2019t comfortable with any of it,\u201d he says. \u201cThey just don\u2019t like their junk being messed with. So I just try to make them comfortable, and usually after about five or 10 minutes, they\u2019re pretty comfortable, because it\u2019s an uncomfortable thing to talk about, whether it\u2019s erectile dysfunction or enhancement.\u201d <\/p>\n On the facial injectables end, Hayes, who is a registered nurse and certified aesthetic injector, has also seen a steady incline in patients over the last five years<\/a>. She attributes the booming demand from men, in particular, to social media\u2019s ability to meet curious scrollers where they are and on their own terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to be unheard of to see a man in a before-and-after,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I think the fact that we\u2019re able to showcase that now, other men are able to see, \u2018oh, he\u2019s doing injections and he looks good. I\u2019m going to go do injections.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Her male patients, which she excitedly says span \u201cfrom rodeo cowboys to CEOs,\u201d gravitate toward under-eye treatments and injectable jawline contouring the most. She adds that many of them are sent to Bespoke by their wives.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of people think only women and gay men get injections, and I will tell you, I have more straight men [patients] than I do gay men,\u201d Hayes says. \u201cEverybody is learning more. I think the injectable industry is starting to produce more normal looking people as opposed to the overdone look that was rampant when injectables really hit the market.\u201d<\/p>\n More than face value<\/p>\n Aesthetic satisfaction isn\u2019t limited to the face for the men of today.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Luke Garry is a 21-year-old Gen Z man living in Keller. He\u2019s got a gynecomastia procedure<\/a> on the horizon this month, something he first started looking into a couple of years ago. \u201cMan boobs,\u201d as they are often ridiculed, are largely non-threatening to physical health, but they\u2019re dysmorphic, formidable foes in the mirror. For Garry, they\u2019ve haunted him for nearly five years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something that has just always been in the back of my mind since I was about 16,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Garry was prescribed SSRI medications around the age of eight, and he says doctors told him he developed enlarged breasts as a side effect, but because it\u2019s a specific type of tissue that sits underneath the nipple, simply working out can\u2019t offer any improvement. For him, going under the knife for a procedure that takes the same amount of time as an episode of \u201cLove Island\u201d is an easy trade if it means going to the beach won\u2019t come with a wave of anxiety anymore.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I gained 400 pounds, that would be something I could change,\u201d Garry says. \u201cBut this is not something I can deal with on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s also comforted by his surgeon\u2019s \u2014 Dr. David Azouz in North Dallas \u2014 assurance that gynecomastia procedures are quite common, often reaching seven to eight in a single day at Azouz\u2019s office. According to a study from the National Institutes of Health<\/a>, nearly half of all adolescent men form some type of gynecomastia, while about 65% of men between the ages of 27 and 92 experience it.\u00a0<\/p>\n As for Garry, although he is familiar with \u201clooksmaxxing,\u201d he doesn\u2019t subscribe to it. He says his decision is ultimately inspired by the invitations he has declined from friends going to the beach, and by dreading those anxious nerves of changing at the gym.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t look masculine to me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt makes me feel just\u2026 uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n Down to girth<\/p>\n Wierschem does notice cultural trends among certain treatments. Gay patients make up the vast majority of his scrotum botox (yes, that\u2019s a thing) appointments. Erectile dysfunction and hair-loss prevention seem to be the greatest equalizers. Meanwhile, younger guys \u2014 he will only see patients 21 and up \u2014 who are early in their sexual exploration wind up in his office after facing a near-universal panic that they\u2019re a little light in the briefs. Wierschem quells some of their fears with honest analysis. Some of the guys who come see him don\u2019t actually know what \u201caverage\u201d looks like, and if he thinks they should be satisfied with what they\u2019ve already got, he tells them.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen more penises than all of the prostitutes in Dallas combined, so I can tell you what\u2019s normal,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alec Spicer for Dallas Observer<\/p>\n Still, his younger patients usually come for penile lengthening and girth enhancement. He says the former typically takes between three to six months to see noticeable results, while he says the latter can be felt by the time you leave the office, making it one of the most popular items on his menu.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve definitely seen a huge increase over the past 10 years,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m seeing a lot of young guys come in in their 20s, which always surprises me a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n For the girth treatment \u2014 which the doctor says can last between 2 and 5 years and will start your bill at $7,000 and up \u2014 Wierschem performs a minimally invasive, non-surgical procedure where he injects the penis with a hyaluronic acid filler to create volume.<\/p>\n \u201cI just saw a guy last month, and I did [his treatment] five years ago, and he [still] looks like I just did it,\u201d Wierschem says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Older men are quietly investing in their physical appearance, too. Wierschem says some of his patients will realize that after a divorce or three, things start to look and feel different since the last time they were date-maxxing.\u00a0<\/p>\n And though penis enhancement has become quite popular for men \u2014 and particularly young men \u2014 at Wierschem\u2019s practice, he maintains it\u2019s important to gauge a patient\u2019s goals first.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t do anything on my patients that I wouldn\u2019t have done myself. So, that\u2019s the bottom line there,\u201d Wierschem says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alec Spicer for Dallas Observer<\/p>\n Overweight men are often unknowingly burying an inch or two of their dicks in fatty tissue that can build near the crotch \u2013 he recommends a lifestyle change to them first, but if they\u2019re insistent on modern medicine, he offers GLP-1 injections. Men on medication for attention deficit disorder are more likely to experience a loss in libido. Mental health struggles with stress and anxiety can affect the ability to keep it at full mast for more than five minutes. Or get it up at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI look at their medications, I see what their social situation is, if they vape, how much stress they have,\u201d Wierschem says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Putting the men in mental health<\/p>\n As looksmaxxing flexes its oiled-up muscle as a cultural phenomenon, some experts are concerned<\/a> about the potential mental effect it can have on young men\u2019s body image issues and self-esteem.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Mental health professionals have expressed worries that, much like the litany of self-image issues women have been plagued by (and with far less medical research than men\u2019s healthcare<\/a>) since, well, the beginning of time, men will also see increased struggles with psychological well-being.\u00a0<\/p>\n More extreme versions of looksmaxxing have been promoted by highly controversial internet personalities like Clavicular<\/a>. Some men have gone so far as to use hammers on their faces<\/a>, assuming it will give them a more chiseled bone structure. Obviously, experts and medical professionals strongly advise against harmful behaviors like that.<\/p>\n McKinney says nearly all of the men she counsels struggle with body image issues and self-esteem, which can often be tied to sexual setbacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of it is just psychoeducation,\u201d McKinney says. \u201cI get a lot of men coming in that think that they should just be ready to perform at the drop of a hat, or that men are just supposed to want sex all the time. That is not true.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Much like Wierschem, McKinney has noticed more and more men in their 50s and 60s are seeking sexual-focused treatment after late-life changes like divorce and empty nesting. She has also observed parallels to Wierschem\u2019s patients: younger men fixate on size, while older men prioritize endurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe still have to make sure that you feel confident without [physical treatments], and that we\u2019re still working on the inner stuff and the beliefs around that, because that\u2019s the root of all of it,\u201d McKinney says. \u201cIt kind of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy \u2014 if you have anxiety about getting an erection and maintaining an erection, you\u2019re not going to get an erection.\u201d<\/p>\n Safety-maxxing<\/p>\n Like most aesthetic trends in healthcare, men\u2019s treatments haven\u2019t been without physical safety concerns.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dallas-mens-health_lobby-map_alec-spicer-e1792021087861.jpeg\")
From D-FW to Dubai: A map in the lobby of Dallas Men\u2019s Health marks where patients visit from.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dallas-mens-health_doctor-weirschem_alec-spicer-e1792020754975.jpeg\")
Dr. Michael Wierschem runs Dallas Men\u2019s Health in Turtle Creek. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/dallas-mens-health_anatomical-models_alec-spicer.jpeg\")
A lot of guys don\u2019t know what \u201caverage\u201d actually looks like. Various-sized anatomical models of penises often come in handy at Dallas Men\u2019s Health. <\/p>\n