Softmaxxing: The First 90 Days (A Practical Plan)
A concrete 90-day softmaxxing plan — the highest-ROI, lowest-risk changes to make before ever considering surgery, in the order that actually moves the needle.
Why Order Matters
Most looksmaxxing failure comes from starting in the wrong place — jumping to hardmaxxing research before fixing the changeable things that are actually dragging the rating down. Softmaxxing is reversible, low-risk, and usually the highest-ROI 90 days you can spend. Here's the order that works.
Days 1–30: Baseline and Skin
Week 1 — get an honest baseline. Before changing anything, get an objective analysis of your current facial structure so you know which failos are soft (fixable) and which are hard (structural, genetics-driven). Guessing wastes months.
Weeks 1–4 — start skincare. A nightly retinoid (adapalene is the accessible starting point), daily SPF, and cutting out anything actively irritating the skin. This is the single highest-ROI softmaxxing change and the effects compound — start it first because it needs the most time to show results.
Days 30–60: Body Composition
Facial fat is the biggest confounder in how a face is perceived — a genuinely good gonial angle or cheekbone can be completely hidden until body fat drops. If you're "skinny fat" (slim frame, higher body-fat percentage, soft jawline despite not looking overweight), this is where the biggest visible gains are hiding.
A moderate caloric deficit with resistance training (preserves muscle while cutting fat) over 30 days reveals more jaw and cheekbone definition than most people expect. This is also when frame development — lateral delts, trapezius, posture — starts compounding with facial changes.
Days 60–90: Grooming and Presentation
With skin and body composition improving, the last 30 days is about presentation: eyebrow shaping/grooming, a haircut that suits your face shape (round faces benefit from height and angles; long faces benefit from width), beard density and lineup if applicable, and sleep consistency (chronic under-sleeping shows up as under-eye puffiness and dull skin).
What's Deliberately Not on This List
Surgery, fillers, jaw devices, and mewing claims are all hardmaxxing-adjacent or unproven, and belong after this 90-day baseline, not instead of it. The community consensus is consistent: fix what's soft and cheap first, then reassess what's actually left as a hard failo before spending money or taking surgical risk.
Track your progress with an objective before/after — get your PSL score at Lookizm on day 1 and again on day 90 to see what actually moved.
Find out your actual PSL score, tier, and failos.
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