Sculpting jaws, giving scores: Inside the world of looksmaxxing

Marvin ponders his attractiveness before giving himself "a solid 7/10". With a bit more work, he feels he could improve.

"I'm not happy with my skin, eyebags and my jawline could be better," Marvin says. "If I sort all that, then I'd be a 9/10."

The 26-year-old is a keen "looksmaxxer". His day starts early with a hard gym workout, then he's back home and his routine starts. After a warm and ice-cold shower, he cleanses his face and rubs a frozen cucumber over it, which he says will reduce puffiness, acne and brighten his skin.

Then he carries out jaw and other facial exercises, videos of which he often posts to his 35,000 followers on TikTok.

"This is the Zygopush," Marvin tells me, while pressing his thumbs directly under his cheekbones and massaging upwards towards his ears in an attempt to hollow out his cheeks.

"Then there's the Hunter squeeze," he says as he pushes his index fingers against his temples and squeezes his eyes, which he says will make them more "wolf-like" in shape.

As he describes his daily regime, he laughs.

"People do sometimes think, 'What is this man doing?'"

But Marvin's confident it's helping him achieve the appearance he desires - a hollow-cheeked, chiselled profile with sharp, pointed eyes and strong jawline. Getting that look, he explains, is when a man "peaks" - he says he's gone from "unsatisfied carpenter working nine to five" to an "online entrepreneur".

Welcome to the online world of "looksmaxxing", where a growing number of young men are going to great lengths to get what they see as the perfect face and body, and therefore the perfect life.

Men are now carrying out a range of daily tasks - from workouts in the gym and a good skincare routine (known as softmaxxing), to taking growth hormones and unregulated peptides.

At the other end of the spectrum (known as hardmaxxing), they "bone-smash" or have jaw surgery to "ascend" and reach a Neanderthal-like appearance.

If you don't fit this aesthetic and you're not at least working to change the way you look then you're at risk of falling into the "sub three" category, as Marvin puts it, and becoming "not a very good-looking human".

He uses a face analysis app, which assesses pictures of him to check which kind of areas he might want to work on. Such apps have thousands of reviews on app stores.

For some men, looksmaxxing has given them a rulebook on what........

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