Bone-Smashing to Jaw Fracturing: The Dark World of ‘Looksmaxxing’ 

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Emma Craythorne (0:44)

Unbelievable.

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And now, NFL Network is on the ESPN app. More football, more coverage, more ways to watch. Football's on, all season long on ESPN and streaming on the ESPN app.

Emma Craythorne (1:00)

Here's what's coming up on today's episode.

Ellie Rashid (1:02)

There is this whole dark underworld.

Emma Craythorne (1:04)

It's much darker than what I originally thought when I thought, oh, it's just people looking after themselves.

Ellie Rashid (1:09)

For the hard maxing, I mean, some of the practice is essentially fracturing the bones in your face with a hammer.

Emma Craythorne (1:23)

Hello and welcome to the After Hours Skin Clinic. I'm Dr Emma Craythorne.

Ellie Rashid (1:27)

And I'm Dr Ellie Rashid. And we're both Consultant Dermatologists here in Central London.

Emma Craythorne (1:31)

But this is our favorite clinic, where we unpack the evidence and challenge the trends and answer the questions you always wanted to ask your dermatologist.

Ellie Rashid (1:40)

And if you don't have one, you do now.

Emma Craythorne (1:42)

I have loved research.

Ellie Rashid (1:43)

I so have I, absolutely loved it.

Emma Craythorne (1:45)

Because I didn't do anything at all. And I just talked to my two teenage daughters.

Ellie Rashid (1:49)

Oh, perfect.

Emma Craythorne (1:50)

And they told me everything.

Ellie Rashid (1:51)

Done, sorted.

Emma Craythorne (1:53)

So what is the episode?

Ellie Rashid (1:54)

So the episode we're gonna do is all about looks maxing. So my friend's son, my friend called me on a video call and was like, oh my god, you have to like, see if there's something wrong with my son.

So I was like, oh, okay, what's happened?

Emma Craythorne (2:08)

How old is your son?

Ellie Rashid (2:09)

15 at the time.

Emma Craythorne (2:10)

Okay.

Ellie Rashid (2:11)

And I was like, what's the issue? He said, really painful jaw, like really painful jaw. And I thought, oh my god, does he have like mumps or something? Like what could possibly be happening? He's got lymph nodes that have come up.

Emma Craythorne (2:25)

Tental abscess.

Ellie Rashid (2:25)

So yeah, I was thinking of all the things that could give someone jaw pain. So then I started to ask questions and then I, I mean, they don't live in London. So then got the camera to look inside the mouth. I was like, what could possibly be wrong? Then when I was asking him questions, I said, you know, is there anything that you've been doing? Like, you know, is there something that's put like a repetitive injury? And then he confessed to the fact that he had been doing this practice, which was to try and enhance his jaw, which was to put his tongue on the roof of his mouth and repetitively sort of create suction with your mouth shut and breathing through your nose. And I came to learn that this practice is called mewing. And there's this whole world, which is called looks maxing, which is different practices to try and enhance someone's physical appearance.

And I have done, I've gone down a rabbit hole, Emma. Completely gone down a rabbit hole. This world that was unbeknownst to me, but I find absolutely fascinating.

Emma Craythorne (3:36)

It is interesting, isn't it? Because the concept of looks maxing is essentially that you are trying to create what this particular community feel is the optimal aesthetic look. Where your eyes should sit, where your eyebrows should sit, where your jaw should be, what your height should be, what your muscles should be, in order to be the most successful, the most employable, the most dateable person. And that sits within that one particular group. And they've really analyzed it to the nth degree, like scoring systems about what score you are. And depending on what score you are, where you fit in to this particular world and how successful you're likely to be in all of these different avenues of life. There is an idea where you have good health practices, where you have a good diet, you exercise well, you have good self-care, you clean your teeth, you brush your hair, you have your hair cut. You know, these things that actually do benefit you as an overall person to be as healthy as possible. But then when I went into the looks maxing side of things, because I was also like, well, that's okay, people are just wanting to like be the best that they can be. Take pride in their appearance. Take pride in their appearance.