‘LT’ is slowly learning to walk again after undergoing intense, excruciating leg lengthening surgery.
He has spent four months at an orthopaedic clinic in Poland to get the controversial, yet legal, cosmetic procedure. To gain three to four inches and hit the over 6ft category, the Brit paid £65,000. He believes in doing so, he will have better opportunities in life, as people will take him more seriously.
To achieve his goal, the surgeon broke two of the biggest bones in the skeleton, and inserted metals rod into his body. LT compared the pain to a ‘boiling hot water sensation’ and said whatever you might imagine it to be, it’s 100 times worse.
Documentarian Ben Zand flew out to Warsaw to learn more about LT’s rationale for making such an extreme decision. It was part of his research for Channel 4’s Untold: The Toxic World of Perfect Looks, which explores the notion of ‘looksmaxxing’.
The term first emerged on incel messaging boards in 2014, before finding its way on to more mainstream platforms such as TikTok in the 2020s. It refers to men who are trying to improve their appearance, often achieved through extreme methods. This includes the aforementioned leg lengthening surgery, hitting their faces with hammers to improve the jawline, and injecting their face with aqualyx to reduce fat deposits.
After speaking extensively with LT, who wanted to remain anonymous, and other men who’ve fallen into the looksmaxxing world, Ben says that he now understands why men think that by improving their looks, their lives will improve.
‘As a documentary maker, regardless of what someone’s views are, I always try to find a way to understand them,’ he told Metro.
‘I found that these men, who are usually in their early twenties, just want to find happiness. They want to date somebody and that’s totally normal. It’s a need most people have. I can connect with that. I understand how it begins,’ he continued.
‘They just happen to have clicked on the wrong forum then the looksmaxxing world leads them to a crazy endpoint.’
The theory that drives this corner of the internet is that there is a scientific way to obtain the perfect life. If men are the right height, their jaw shape is correct, their body is ripped, and the shape of their eyes is right, women will fall for them and success will be easy. There is a racist element too, with European white being seen as the superior skin colour. Personality is irrelevant.
Ben added: ‘The thing is with conspiracy theories, there’s an aspect of truth. Looks do obviously matter to some degree in some situations. That’s not a lie, but it’s just they take it to the extreme.’
For part of his research, Ben allowed a looksmaxxer to edit a photo of his face to show how he could ‘improve’ it. The experience affected him more than he originally anticipated, deepening his understanding of how men can end up swallowed up by this world.
‘As a kid, I used to absolutely hate my nose and then I kind of got over that,’ Ben says. ‘I learnt to accept my appearance and everything has been fine so I didn’t think it would bother me. That was until the guy started analysing my face and telling me all the flaws.
‘He told me I had saggy eyes,’ Ben recalled with a laugh.
‘It made me start to fixate on it, which just shows why it’s so powerful. Once you start to highlight those minute things, it’s hard to not see them. You want to do something about it. You can totally see how the spiralling happens. It’s not that hard for people to get caught up in it.’
Leg-lengthening surgery
Leg lengthening surgeries are still fairly uncommon, but they are said to be rising in popularity. Hundreds of people go under the knife each year for the invasive procedure.
The process is legal, but controversial and is offered at at private clinics around the world.
‘The leg-lengthening aspect of looksmaxxing is just absolutely wild for multiple reasons. It costs an insane amount of money and it’s one of the most serious surgeries,’ explained Ben Zand. The procedure can cost between £15,000 and £150,000.
To achieve the desired height, a surgeon will make incisions in the leg and break the bone in two. A rod and pins are then inserted, and an attached device slowly moves the ends of the bone apart. Ben said: ‘This is all just to get a few inches in height. You never know if you’re going to recover from it or if you’re going to be able to walk properly again. It’s very dangerous.’ The recovery process takes around six months. People like LT believe by getting those extra inches, they’ll get more business opportunities, make more money, and attract women, so they take the risk.
Alex, who went from 5ft 7in to 5ft 10in through the four-hour surgery, feels more confident but added: ‘No one should feel the need to do this.’ He stated it was society’s view of shortness that needs to change.
Over four months, the rods in his legs were lengthened at a rate of one millimetre per day. ‘I went to therapy regarding this to talk about body image issues, but then it always gets followed into, “Oh, you have body dysmorphia?”‘ he recalled to NBC. ‘It’s almost the opposite where I’m painfully aware of what the reality of my body is, and I wanted to change it.’
Daniel Farbod felt suicidal because of his 5ft 7in height so found a specialist clinic in Turkey. ‘I think for other people, it is important to know how tough the surgery and recovery is – it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but for me, it changed my life and made me grow not only literally but also metaphorically as a person,’ he explained to Independent.
After the surgery, he was left wheelchair-bound – a fate he was aware of before going under the knife. The recovery was meant to take three months, but took around five due to complications. ‘I had nerve issues with my right leg and had to have it broken again. It was a very tough time.’ It took an additional three months for him to be able to stand up.
‘I went through all these sleepless nights, trauma and upset, and I finally achieved my goal [of being 5ft 10in],’ he said.
It’s not just men who opt for the procedure. Elaine Foo had leg-lengthening surgery, but it went badly wrong. She was 5ft 2in, but wanted to add three inches. ‘Taller means better. Taller means more beautiful. I just felt that taller people had more chances,’ she told BBC. She paid around £50,000 for the procedure in a London clinic.
The nail in her left leg broke through her femur, and so while her right leg reached the 7cm target, the left leg didn’t. This led to her spine curving and constant pain.
Eight years, five surgical procedures and three bone grafts later, Elaine says she is still recovering. She has a range of mobility issues and says she suffers from PTSD.
When asked if she would have done it, knowing the outcome, Elaine replied: ‘I would say a definite, “No, thank you very much”.’
Naturally Ben found himself trying to convince the men he met that there was another truth. However, their distrust of mainstream media made it a tough sell and a ‘frustrating’ experience.
‘They think if they’re not 6ft, they won’t be able get married, and have a kid. I’m not 6ft but I’ve got a longterm partner and baby. There’s a lot of things that prove them wrong that can be right in front of them, but they don’t accept it,’ Ben explained.
‘It’s a sausagefest,’ he says of the toxic incel forums.
‘It’s men talking to men about what women want, which just makes absolutely no sense.
There’s an element of misogyny because there’s this lack of willingness to listen to women.’
Talking to men, Ben has been shocked to discover that it’s become less of a niche area. There’s billions of views on looksmaxxing content on Tiktok and YouTube.
‘A lot of it is what women have faced for years, which is just being forced to ascribe to this look that isn’t natural. Now these guys are pushing that on themselves, and it’s an impossible beauty standard,’ Ben says.
The crossover to mainstream partly happened because there is money to be made. Looksmaxxing influencers, such as Austin Wayne, Kareem Shami, Jordan Barrett and Francisco Lachowski, have been able to be profit from men’s insecurities. Vulnerable men can also pay to attend schools that offer courses on being more attractive. Others charge to rate customers’ attractiveness out of 10.
Looksmaxxing glossary
Chad facing
When men contort their faces to exaggerate their cheeks, jawline and chin.
Mewing
The notion that a person can use the placement of the tongue to improve the overall facial structure.
Chad
The sexually active, genetically superior men, or ‘alpha males’.
The black pill ideology
Women select sexual partners based solely on their physical appearance.
Mogging
To be inferior to others, and dominate them by being more attractive, successful, and skilled.
Incel
Members of an online community of young men who consider themselves unable to attract women sexually. They typically have hostile views of women and men who are sexually active.
While working on the episode, Ben experienced a pretty big life change. He became a father to a little boy with his partner Isobel Yeung, who is also a documentarian.
As a result of fatherhood, the empathetic reporter found himself less able to put distance between himself and the people he interviews. ‘I’ve become softer for sure.’ He also finds himself thinking about what his son may find when he’s on the internet after witnessing how it can impact young men.
‘I’ve seen it so many times – a kid who feels a bit lonely, and doesn’t fully know who he is yet, can then be taken down a rabbit hole and end up with really dramatic views,’ Ben observed.
‘Now I find myself wondering, “How do I show my son he’s loved?” The guys I meet, you get the sense that they just needed more consistent hugs when they were five years old.’
It has made his mission to bring less talked-about subjects on to TV, to encourage more conversations, and hopefully, resolutions. He is hoping for a future where more education is given to those who need guidance.
‘We need to teach people how to consume the internet in a way that they don’t believe falsehoods, so they have a clear sense of what is a verified source that they can trust,’ Ben insists.
‘Making a documentary leads to more attention on important subjects. Hopefully some young men see my documentary, and think, “this is something I shouldn’t just take up”.’
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Untold: The Toxic World of Perfect Looks is available to watch on Channel 4
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