The Dark Side of Looksmaxxing: Steroids, Bone Smashing, and the Pursuit of Perfection

What began as a niche internet movement has evolved into one of social media's fastest-growing beauty trends. Known as Looksmaxxing, the movement encourages men to maximize their physical appearance through everything from fitness and skincare to cosmetic procedures and, in its most extreme form, risky body modifications. While millions follow the trend online, medical experts warn that its darker side is leaving some participants with permanent injuries and serious psychological consequences. From Gaming Forums to a Global Beauty Movement Looksmaxxing emerged on online gaming forums during the 2010s, where users created the so-called PSL scale—short for Perfection, Symmetry, and Looks—to rate facial attractiveness. The scale attempts to assign numerical scores to beauty, placing most people into an average category while ranking celebrities according to perceived facial symmetry and proportions. Followers classify celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Zendaya as highly attractive, while figures including Margot Robbie, Angelina Jolie, Megan Fox, and model Jordan Barrett are frequently cited as examples of near-perfect facial aesthetics.