What is the viral 'bone-smashing' trend that is making youngsters hammer their bones for a chiseled jawline!

Social media trends often go viral recklessly, and users record videos following the frenzy with suitable hashtags, but not all of these trends are safe enough to follow.

Many online trends turn self-improvement into a high-stakes competition by using filters, edits, and viral quick fixes that promise unreal results overnight. Young people often find themselves amid such trends from influencers promoting radical "glow-ups".

One such recent trend is ‘Bone smashing,’ which encourages people to use hammers on their faces.

What is the viral 'bone-smashing' trend on social media

A disturbing new trend called "bone-smashing" is going viral on platforms like Kick and Instagram, urging followers to bash their faces with hammers for sharper features.

It was popularized by 20-year-old looksmaxxer Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters. The trend twists Wolff's Law, a 19th-century idea from German surgeon Julius Wolff that bones adapt and strengthen under stress. As WebMD explains, modern science shows bones change for various reasons, but controlled stress like weightlifting helps; blunt trauma or hitting facial features for pain does not.

Clavicular, known for associating with figures like Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes, promotes the practice as a way to create "microfractures" for a more defined jawline.

In a Kick video, he explained to a police officer, "Do you guys know about bone-smashing? It's according to Wolff's Law, so when you break down a bone, it grows back stronger. So I'm trying to grow my cheekbones." He also shared, "My mom used to take these [hammers] away because I was always bone-smashing with a hammer. She had to hide them."

Meet Clavicular - the bone-smashing influencer

This controversial streamer, who landed a New York modeling job, pushes extreme looksmaxxing amid a history of scandals.

Last year, he filmed injecting fat-dissolving shots into his 17-year-old girlfriend's face as "Dr Clav," and posted about allegedly running over a pedestrian, joking they might be dead.

Clavicular connects bone-smashing to "ascending" one's attractiveness, a core idea in the looksmaxxing subculture that originated on incel forums with the goal of maximizing physical appeal.

Why are doctors warning about this bizarre trend?

According to a LADbible report, dermatologist Andrea Suarez reacted to Clavicular's claims, "I don't recommend hitting yourself in the face with a hammer," adding that blunt trauma won't build stronger bones and risks disfigurement or scarring surgeries.

Dr. Bruce Y. Lee wrote for Forbes in 2023, "There’s a big difference between the mechanical force on your bones that comes from walking or lifting weights in an appropriate manner versus the force from a blow from a blunt object." Risks can go as far as fractures, infections from soft tissue damage, bruising, and no guarantee of desired reshaping. A broken jaw would tank looks, not boost them.