What Is 'Bonesmashing' And Does It Work? The Controversial Incel TikTok Trend Explained

There's a weird new trend that started in the incel community gaining steam on TikTok, and it's raising concerns from some. The trend is called bonesmashing and it involves repeatedly hitting yourself in the face with a blunt object to reshape your bones into a more Chad-like shape. But does the potentially dangerous bone smashing trend even work? Here's what we know.

What Is Bonesmashing?

Bonesmashing, or bone smashing, is the practice of hitting the bones in your face, specifically the jawbones and cheek bones, repeatedly, using an object like a hammer (some simply use their fists) in order to reshape them and make them more prominent. The idea is based on the principle of Wolff's law, which claims that bones will remodel themselves after undergoing trauma.

The origins of bonesmashing are a bit murky, but they seem to have risen from forums like Looksmax.org, a men's self-improvement site that is purportedly popular with incels and helped popularized other questionable looks-maxxing trends like mewing. The earliest apparent mention of the trend is a 2018 Vice article defining various incel terms and it only exploded after that.

Does Bone Smashing Work?

The effectiveness of bone smashing has been largely questioned over the years, even by those in the looks-maxxing community. The incel wiki lists some of the common opposing opinions on it, including that bone smashing only causes swelling and not real bone growth and that people aren't reasonably able to stress their faces enough to cause bone remodeling.

You can find plenty of debates about bone smashing on Looksmax.org, where people are torn on the effectiveness of the practice. The practice has even become something of a meme to lots of people on the forum, but that doesn't mean some people don't seem to legitimately believe in it. Generally, though, it should be assumed that any practice that involves smacking yourself in the face with a hammer should be avoided.

How Is Bonesmashing Used In Memes?

Bonesmashing has been making its way around the internet for years, but only recently has it become popular on TikTok. While there are some legitimate videos about bonesmashing on the platform, most of them are satirical based on just how wild the idea of bone smashing is.

Bone smashing was largely popularized on TikTok by user @jamesthebonesmasher, who posts seemingly satirical content about bonesmashing and claims it gave him a chiseled jawline. This has inspired other users to post videos referring to bonesmashing, although it can be hard to tell who is memeing and who is joking. Some of the most popular videos show people before and after allegedly bonesmashing, and most of these seem to be jokes.

For the full details on Bonesmashing, be sure to check out our entry on the meme here for even more information.