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 makes a "successful male", and crucially, how to become one. One of the biggest influencers is Braden Peters, AKA Clavicular, a sharp-jawed 20-year-old known in looksmaxxing terms as "giga chad"; 10/10.

In his own vernacular, he "mogs" everyone he meets - he is so at the top of his game that he outshines everyone in his presence.

Clavicular attributes his looks to, among other things, taking testosterone from the age of 14 and smashing his jawbone with a hammer to supposedly reshape his lower face - neither of which is recommended by health professionals.

His content, and that of similar influencers, has brought looksmaxxing out of niche underground subcultures and made it more mainstream.

But some who have been studying the manosphere - an ultra-masculine subculture that made headlines again this week as the focus of a new Louis Theroux documentary - believe looksmaxxing is a gateway to a more sinister world.

It's a word that was initially found in online forums for incels - young men who describe themselves as "involuntary celibate" - often full of misogynistic rhetoric claiming women are to blame for a man's lack of sexual encounters.

Journalist Matt Shea has made documentaries and written extensively about the dangers of toxic masculinity. He says misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate (who he has interviewed), Clavicular, and many other male influencers share the same ideology - and use it to make money.

"They tell young men how worthless they are," Shea says, "then offer themselves up as the solution.

"They sell courses on how to increase your sexual market value (SMV) - basically a measurement of how attractive you are according to their scale."

The higher your SMV, he explains, the more likely you are to have sex with a woman. Looksmaxxing, to a certain degree, becomes a way to climb the attractiveness ladder. If a woman doesn't want you after all that then either you haven't done enough self-improvement or it's their fault, as the logic goes.

"That," Shea adds, "is when it becomes dangerous."

Scrolling online, it's clear not every looksmaxxer buys into this ideology. There are many who say they do not identify with such misogynistic messages.

Leander would only speak to me after making clear he did not want to be associated with incel culture. Like Marvin, he considers himself a softmaxxer, and says he's improving his looks to feel good about himself.

In 2023 following a break up, he began to research looksmaxxing on his socials and developed a routine. In addition to going to the gym five times a week, he also has regular ice-cold face baths to "reduce puffiness", tries to sleep on his back, and, while he says masturbation is OK, he's cut out all pornography.

"Pornography has become so normalised for many men that it completely destroys their image and attraction of women," he explains.

While he doesn't rate himself on a scale of one to 10 like Marvin, Leander feels happy with how he looks now, "80% of the time". He doesn't want to sound "arrogant", but if you are not "conventionally attractive", he says, then there is little softmaxxing can do.

If you are in that category, the "non-conventional attractive side", or, in Marvin's terms, a sub five out of 10, Leander says he "can understand why it pushes you into an incel corner" - though he does not himself condone that.

Tom Thebe doesn't consider himself low ranking when it comes to his appearance. He's always been interested in fitness and looking good, but only became involved in looksmaxxing when he began to lose his hair aged 21.

"It really had a hit on my confidence," the now 23-year-old explains. "It felt out of control - scary. And it obviously makes you look older too, which is what nobody wants."

He researched different medication and started taking finasteride and minoxidil to help treat hair loss - both legal on prescription in the UK. Tom feels they made a huge difference and from there, says he began to get involved in looksmaxxing.

Now, along with the gym and a good skincare routine, he injects peptides - short chains of amino acids, or small proteins, which our bodies naturally produce and play key roles in our skin health, immune system and hormones. These have flooded social media sites and filled the fridges of influencers in recent months.

He takes GHK-Cu for his skin and hair growth, he says, and Melonatan II to deepen his tan.

The majority of these unregulated peptides have only been tested on animals, not humans, meaning they are not considered safe or effective. The Medicines Health and Regulatory Authority (MHRA) has issued warnings about their use, advising people not to take them.

Tom, who lives in Manchester, is unfazed. He gives advice on socials about how to enhance yourself and is thinking about setting up his own coaching business, but he does not see himself as an extreme looksmaxxer.

"The problem is when impressionable 18-year-olds see people bone smashing and extreme looksmaxxing, it definitely does have a negative effect on their perception of what they should look like."

"There is a spectrum to looksmaxxing," explains Anda Solea, a researcher at the University of Portsmouth who has been studying how easily incel culture can seep into society.

There's the positive side of men caring about their health and getting fit, "but the problem soon starts when it becomes the only thing, and you take risks on your health to try and improve your looks".

Solea says the posts young men see on their feeds, partly driven by powerful algorithms, can lead them into darker corners of the manosphere, where they are told they should be looksmaxxing or "you're going to get mocked".

If after going to such lengths to enhance their appearance, these men feel women are still not attracted to them, Solea asks: "Will they start to hate women because women are at fault for not wanting them?"

It's at this point Solea thinks some men may realise looksmaxxing isn't for them.

But as Marvin, Leander and Tom's experiences show, a man's motivation for looksmaxxing can be as much about how he sees himself as about how others see him.

Additional reporting: Elena Bailey

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