Lifestyle

EYE EYE, CAPTAIN

Eye-Color Surgeries Are Yielding ‘Unnatural’ Results for Young Men

The procedures are drastic, the motivations are disturbing, and the outcomes are mixed at best.

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

PublishedApr 24, 2026, 4:14 PM EDT

UpdatedApr 24, 2026, 4:14 PM EDT

Updated Apr 24, 2026, 4:14 PM EDTPublished Apr 24, 2026, 4:14 PM EDT

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Young men are taking dangerous measures to alter their eye colors after online influencers suggested that brighter—and bluer, typically—eyes are more attractive to women.

The so-called “eye maxxing” trend is part of an increasingly popular online movement called “looksmaxxing,” in which young men seek to enhance their appearance by nearly any means possible.

Notably, the movement originated from the “incel,” or involuntarily celibate, communities. In these spaces, young men often base their value on the amount of female attention they receive and commiserate if they feel slighted or ignored by prospective romantic partners.

“Looksmaxxers” gather on online platforms to discuss ways to gain features they deem attractive, such as sharp jawlines, bulging muscles, and thick hair.

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While some looksmaxxing hacks, like working out regularly, can be healthy, the communities also spread many harmful and possibly dangerous suggestions.

These range from injecting themselves with steroids meant for livestock to gain muscle, to hitting their faces with hammers in the hopes of creating a stronger jawline, to using drugs to suppress appetite.

Now, GQ reports that the community of young men has increasingly taken a liking to yet another possibly dangerous cosmetic enhancement: changing the color of their irises.

The looksmaxxing community often references a racist “eye caste system” meme that sets different eye colors into a hierarchical order, suggesting people with darker iris shades belong to poorer-paying jobs while people with lighter eye color are the leaders.

The world’s most famous looksmaxxer, who goes by the name Clavicular, has recommended that his followers lighten their eye color, though he is not a fan of the only FDA-approved method for changing eye color: keratopigmentation.

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The procedure utilizes a laser to inject pigment into the thickest part of the cornea, and carries serious risks, including vision loss, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

The hazel-eyed 20-year-old told GQ that his “looksmaxxer” friend, who underwent keratopigmentation to change his eye color to light blue, did not receive natural-looking results from his treatments.

“ It’s very obvious looking that he had some work done. The look that he went for wouldn’t exist in nature,” Clavicular said.

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Although Clavicular himself has not undergone the procedure, he has suggested laser depigmentation an alternative route, which he believes yields more natural-looking results.

Laser depigmentation uses a laser to destroy iris melanin, thereby lightening eye color with unpredictable results. The operation is not FDA-cleared and is only available abroad, mostly in Mexico and Spain.

Still, three of Clavicular’s looksmaxxer friends had undergone the surgery to lighten their eyes.

“Even if you can’t control exactly what that looks like, even if you wind up on a weird part of the spectrum that’s a more gray color, that’s still objectively better than having brown eyes,” Clavicular explained to the outlet.

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He added, “So it doesn’t really matter too much, in my opinion, what you end up with underneath, because it’s gonna be an improvement.”

Spanish ophthalmologist Dr. Jorge Alió told GQ that he had concerns over the operation, including the possibility that it could cause inflammation.

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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