"Do you even looksmaxx, bro?"
If you've been online over the past year, odds are, you've come across the term "lookmaxxing," a movement that has taken off with young men seeking to improve their appearance by any means necessary. For some, this involves taking drastic, dangerous measures.
Looksmaxxers online have promoted "bonesmashing" − a debunked practice of deliberately breaking bones so they heal back stronger and more chiseled. Some have advocated for "mewing" − another debunked practice aimed at sharpening the jawline. Some even say they've used drugs to lower their body fat percentage, or "leanmaxx."
Now, plastic surgeons are sounding the alarm on another disturbing trend: More and more young men, they say, are coming into their offices
in need of corrective procedures for looksmaxxing attempts gone wrong. One of the most common issues they say they're seeing are complications arising from self-injected filler.
Dr. Timothy Katzen, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, California, says he's seen an uptick in young men with DIY filler complications within the past five to seven years. Though he doesn't grill patients on their motivations, he suspects looksmaxxing is, at least in part, to blame.
Some of the cases he's seen, he says, have been disturbing, and he encourages looksmaxxers to stop and think before doing something so reckless.
"It's sort of this thing called The Superman Complex," Katzen says. "A lot of teenage, especially boys, and maybe men in their young 20s, get it. They think they're invincible. 'Oh, it can't happen to me.' 'Oh, I can do this better than the doctors.' 'I know what I'm doing.' 'I'm invincible.' 'Nothing can go wrong.' "
'Looksmaxxing' and why some men are doing filler themselves
People seeking to improve their looks isn't anything new (just take a look at, well, basically all of human history).
What distinguishes looksmaxxing from ordinary self-improvement is the worldview behind it. Looksmaxxers argue that success in pretty much every area of life is determined by your attractiveness. This includes your career, relationships, finances and overall happiness.
And, if looks really are the most important thing, why not do whatever it takes to improve them? Or so the logic goes.
Online, influencers in the looksmaxxing space have leveraged other men's insecurities to enormous fame while doling out aesthetic advice with little, if any, credentials.
"The thing that's most concerning is just getting aesthetic advice from anonymous influencers, rather than medical professionals," says Dr. Krishna Vyas, a plastic surgeon at Blechman Plastic Surgery. "That sometimes translates into dangerous outcomes."
Plastic surgeons have seen the fallout of looksmaxxing firsthand − and the plastic surgery boom among men shows no signs of slowing, either. According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 95% of facial plastic surgeons treated male patients in 2025, up from 92% in 2024. Men, the organization says, remain one of the fastest-growing demographics seeking facial cosmetic procedures.
But not every looksmaxxer is seeking these procedures from qualified professionals. On some looksmaxxing forums, men coach each other on how to administer filler on themselves, with materials obtained on the black or gray market.
In many cases, Katzen says, the men who come into his office with complications never really knew what they were injecting.
"Silicone is probably the most common," he says, and has also seen plenty of body oils and liquid cement. "Pretty much anything that you can get through a syringe injected, people will do it. And they think it's innocuous. They think it's a natural product, but the body quickly rejects it."
The dangers of DIY filler
The complications from DIY filler can be severe. It can cause infections. It can migrate from one part of the body to another. It can trigger a host of autoimmune diseases. And it can leave scar tissue that's costly and difficult to remove.
Katzen says he's gone on some looksmaxxing spaces online to try and talk sense into the young men doing filler at home. Most of the time, he says, his warnings fall on deaf ears.
"They quickly snap back and say, 'No, we know what we're doing,' " he says. "They're very, very defensive on their practice of doing it at home."
And the sad irony, Vyas says, is these men could spare themselves so many uneeded health complications, if only they sought these procedures from a doctor.
Katzen encourages looksmaxxers to step away from social media and think carefully before doing something they may regret.
"Don't get hypnotized by the internet," he says. "Things can go wrong. Things do go wrong. You may have to wind up spending a lot of money to get it fixed, and it may not look that much better once it's all done. So don't get it done to begin with."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Men are injecting sketchy substances in their faces for ‘looksmaxxing.' Doctors are horrified
