Getting ready for a date usually comes with a fairly predictable checklist: Take a shower, apply deodorant, and find a shirt that has recently been through the washing machine. But one corner of the internet would like men to reconsider all three.
Meet “pheromone-maxxing,” the latest “maxxing” trend circulating among some young men online. The idea is to skip showers, avoid deodorant, or wear dirty clothes in hopes of amplifying their natural pheromones and making themselves more attractive to potential partners.
Pheromones are chemical signals released by an organism that can affect the behavior or physiology of another member of the same species. They are well documented in many animals, but scientists have not conclusively identified a human sex pheromone. Still, pheromone-maxxers believe their natural scent will increase the pheromones they emit and, in turn, make them more attractive.
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It is certainly one way to make a first impression. But the pitch takes a real phenomenon — the role scent can play in attraction — and stretches it much further than the science currently supports.
Pheromone-maxxing has emerged alongside the broader rise of looksmaxxing, an online culture in which boys and young men try to optimize their appearance through skincare, exercise, cosmetic procedures, and sometimes risky DIY practices, all in pursuit of becoming more attractive.
The Looksmaxxing Glossary: Every term you need to understand the internet’s most unhinged subculture
The most basic version of pheromone-maxxing involves giving up products that mask a person’s natural scent, including cologne and deodorant. Some stop washing their hair, while others avoid showering for days at a time.
“Stopped washing my hair at all and now I unironically get more compliments on how it smells and looks (from women),” one TikTok user wrote. “Pheromone maxxing is key.”
Another creator claimed that men cannot “pull baddies” because they wear cologne and deodorant. One adolescent described going three days without showering, then bathing and putting the same shirt back on to create what he called a “halo effect of pheromones.”
Not everyone stops there. More extreme accounts promote wearing unwashed clothing for long stretches or even drinking urine in an attempt to “sweat out toxins.” Those appear to be fringe extensions of the idea rather than a standard pheromone-maxxing routine, and neither is supported by scientific evidence.
It is also difficult to tell how many people are seriously following any version of the practice. Some creators appear sincere, while others may be joking, rage-baiting, or borrowing looksmaxxing language to attract attention. Social media commenters insist that almost nobody is actually doing it. Still, enough people appear to be taking the idea seriously that it is worth examining whether the supposed strategy can actually work.
Can “pheromone-maxxing” work?
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Pheromones are chemical signals released by an organism that can trigger a behavioral or physiological response in another member of the same species. They are well documented in many animals, including insects, where they can communicate everything from danger and food locations to readiness to mate.
Whether humans produce and respond to pheromones in the same way is much less clear. Evolutionary biologist Tristram Wyatt wrote in a 2015 scientific review that humans may well have pheromones because we are mammals, but scientists have yet to conclusively identify a human sex pheromone or demonstrate that one reliably produces a romantic response.
That does not mean our individual body odors have no effect on how other people perceive us: In the 1995 “sweaty T-shirt study“, women smelled shirts worn by men and generally preferred the scents of those whose major histocompatibility complex, or MHC, genes differed from their own. These genes play an important role in the immune system and may also influence a person’s body odor.
Yet, subsequent research is mixed. For example, a 2020 meta-analysis found no overall evidence that people choose partners with different MHC genes, nor a consistent preference for the body odor of genetically dissimilar people.
Unfortunately for those jumping on this trend, what builds up when you stop showering isn’t a proven supply of pheromones. Sweat itself is odorless — body odor only develops when sweat mixes with bacteria living on your skin, according to the Cleveland Clinic. As dermatologist Dr. Shereen Teymour told USA Today, “For the most part, [this trend is] bacteria-maxxing.” Skip basic hygiene for too long and you’re also risking inflamed hair follicles, irritation in skin folds, and skin infections. Definitely not attractive.
How did we get here?
The larger “looksmaxxing” trend comes from an online self-improvement subculture that first developed in incel (“involuntarily celibate,”) forums. Those communities frequently promoted the “black pill,” a fatalistic belief that appearance and genetics largely determine a man’s romantic and social future.
Within that worldview, looksmaxxing offered users a way to improve their odds. Members rank facial features, calculate their supposed “sexual market value,” and share strategies for “ascending,” or becoming attractive enough to move higher in the community’s rigid hierarchy.
The Looksmaxxing Glossary: Every term you need to understand the internet’s most unhinged subculture
That can include advice most people would recognize as ordinary grooming. “Softmaxxing” covers practices such as exercising, improving a skincare routine, getting a flattering haircut, dressing well, and taking care of one’s teeth. It can also include “mewing,” the disputed practice of holding the tongue against the roof of the mouth in hopes of creating a sharper jawline.
Beyond basic grooming, however, the methods can become far more invasive. “Hardmaxxing” may involve cosmetic surgery, anabolic steroids, unapproved peptides, and extreme diets. The most notorious example is “bonesmashing,” in which people repeatedly strike their faces, hoping their bones will heal into a more chiseled shape. Medical professionals have warned that this practice can instead cause fractures, nerve damage, and permanent disfigurement.
Researchers have also raised concerns about how easily looksmaxxing can blur the line between ordinary grooming tips and the ideology of the forums where it originated. A 2025 peer-reviewed study argued that the language of science and self-improvement helps ideas from incel communities reach younger users who may initially encounter them as innocent fitness or beauty content.
The movement from niche forums into mainstream youth culture is getting clearer. Consider 20-year-old looksmaxxing influencer Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters. He built his following by discussing extreme methods, including steroids, cosmetic procedures, bonesmashing, and, by his own account, using methamphetamine to suppress his appetite.
Now, Clavicular is on a 10-stop college tour with events near Penn State, Syracuse, Binghamton, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Coastal Carolina, and Texas A&M — all schools packed with fans in his target demographic. It has been a hit. 700 people were listed as planning to attend his Syracuse stop. Before his Binghamton appearance, one participating bar told students to “Start bone smashing and get that jawline in check because this is going to be a college core memory!”
All of this isn’t to say young men are abandoning soap en masse. But its emergence shows how easily the looksmaxxing framework can turn an ordinary choice — even something as basic as whether to use deodorant — into another supposed (and smelly) path toward self-improvement.
Source: https://mashable.com/life/pheromone-maxxing-tiktok-trend-explained
