Viral ‘bone smashing’ trend is so horrifying it could ruin your face
Please don’t smash your face with a hammer.
The latest dangerous viral TikTok trend is supposedly convincing people — mostly young men — to break their bones to achieve a chiseled jawline.
“Bone smashing” is the practice of repeatedly hitting one’s bones, typically the cheekbones or jawbones, with a hard object like a hammer, to create micro-fractures in the hope that the bone structure will heal in a more attractive shape.
The hashtag #bonesmashing has 261.9 million views on TikTok as some users are claiming to take part in the trend to create a chiseled jawline — but the majority of the videos appear to be from users advocating against the practice.
The practice previously went viral in 2018 and has been connected to incels, according to internet database Know Your Meme.
“I honestly never thought I’d have to come on here and say this, but please don’t intentionally break the bones in your face,” Dr. Prem Tripathi, a plastic surgeon in San Francisco, said in a TikTok video.
The expert warned that broken or fractured bones will heal on their own but may not heal correctly and cause disfiguration.
“If you’re not given the genetics to have a [strong] jawline, unfortunately, you have to see a professional,” Tripathi said.
He also discredited other methods for creating a sharp jawline, including mewing (resting the tongue at the top of the mouth, rather than at the bottom), mouth taping or chewing on jaw toners — which he noted can actually destroy your jaw joint.
While bone smashing seems like an absurd idea, the reasoning credits Wolff’s Law.
The theory was coined in the 19th century by German anatomist and surgeon Julius Wolff, who noted that bones are not inanimate structures and continue to change over the course of a lifespan as they remodel themselves in response to stress.
Wolff argued that applying force or physical stress to your bones can increase the rate at which bones remodel themselves and result in stronger, thicker bones, as the lack of such stress or force can lead to thinner or weaker bones.
However, critics have noted that the theory and bone smashing are oversimplifications of how bones work and can lead to severe lifelong issues.
Instead, the theory leans more toward providing reasoning for the benefits of weight-lifting exercises for bone health — not purposefully breaking bones for aesthetic reasons.
The supposed popularity of bone smashing comes as men and Gen Z’s plastic surgery craze has hit an all-time high.
The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery reported that Gen Z is booking cosmetic procedures more now than ever with 75% of plastic surgeons seeing a spike in clients under 30.
And it’s not just women.
Men, too, have jumped into the $6.4 billion Botox market — it’s called “Brotox.”
More than 265,000 men received Botox injections in 2020, 182% more than received the procedure two decades ago, per recent figures from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
“Men want to look good too!” board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Jennifer Levine, who has seen a recent uptick in male clientele at her Upper East Side practice, previously told The Post.
