The term “looksmaxxing” is probably very familiar to your ears already. The name speaks for itself; it’s the act of improving your physical appearance using various methods, usually common around male teens. But recently a new division of looksmaxxing emerged: smellmaxxing, the practice of using expensive colognes to enhance physical attraction. Yes, it is a bit weird, so why are guys doing this?
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If you really think about it, this is normal behavior for adolescent boys. Going through puberty means that you want to be cool and you want to fit in. The difference is the fact that what makes you “cool” now is very different from what it was back then.
Social media plays a very big role in this. The more you are exposed to something that you don’t have, the more you want it. This is called the mere-exposure effect, and as you can see, social media really does itself a lot with it.
Apps like Instagram and TikTok give you a constant flow of content filled with a bunch of ideas and opinions. And since the content on these apps is mostly the trends that are happening, then those are what the users are getting. If something is portrayed as “cool” on social media, then there will be lots of people imitating it just to also be regarded as someone that is cool.
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The term and culture of looksmaxxing itself are from social media and it grew quickly post-pandemic along with other brainrot Gen Alpha terms as a joke, but weirdly, some people took it seriously. It made teenage boys self-aware of their own physical appearance, which makes them want to improve it. But that still doesn’t answer the question: what do designer fragrances have to do with this?
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Making Yourself Look More Masculine
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All looksmaxxing trends have one thing in common: Masculinity. The thing practically revolves around it, which makes total sense because of the fact that the ones that do looksmaxxing are all males. Usually, the poster child of looksmaxxing are guys with a defined jawline and an amazing physique.
Now, let's do a little bit of thinking. What is the only aspect of physical attractiveness that you couldn’t see? It’s body scent. And how do you improve body scent? By using colognes
Source: StockSnap from Pixabay
Axe body spray wouldn’t cut it. Brands like Axe aren’t seen as something “manly”, it just looks cheap and normal. Colognes, especially designer ones are the ones needed to make yourself feel more sophisticated and masculine.
Bro, Just Buy A Knockoff
But that pops out another question. Why designer colognes? Why not just any other cheap cologne? An average Joe couldn’t distinguish between a Tom Ford and a similar-smelling one that costs 10 bucks.
Well, it all comes down to psychology.
You would feel different if you wear a Casio than if you wear a Rolex. Casio, although good, is cheap and common. Rolexes make you feel rich.
It makes you feel important. Even if you bought a knockoff Rolex, you will still feel that you are fake despite all the praise that you get from wearing it.
Source: Lumapoche from Pixabay
The same goes if you wear designer perfumes. Yes, most people might not even know that you’re wearing a hundred bucks. But what’s important is that YOU yourself would feel a hundred bucks. You would feel more respect for yourself.
Smellmaxxing is a really weird thing in and of itself, but in reality, it’s just as normal as all the other things that teenage guys do. You just need some knowledge of psychology and a change of perspective to really understand it. Because at the end of the day, it’s really simple: teenage boys buy cologne because it seems cool.
