Getting ready for a big date used to involve a nice scrub in the shower, a fit check and carefully applying your favorite fragrance. But that’s no longer the case if you’ve dipped into the new pheromone maxxing trend, which is giving “signature scent” a whole new meaning.
The new phenomenon appears to be enticing teen boys and young men, who are testing the theory that giving up the standard hygiene routine — washing their hair, taking showers, using deodorant, wearing cologne — in favor of embracing their sweaty aroma will amplify their natural pheromones. And it’s all in the name of making themselves more sexually appealing to women.
Social media sites like TikTok and Instagram have become a veritable hub for young men dabbling in pheromone maxxing, where they post videos boasting about how long they’ve gone without showering — in one case, four months — and describing the “success” of their endeavors, like “more compliments” on their unwashed locks.
Of course, women and scientists alike are casting doubt on the veracity of this looksmaxxing offshoot — and in some cases, on pheromones themselves. In 2025, Physiology & Behavior conducted a thorough review of androstadienone, a steroid in male sweat. It concluded the classification as a pheromone was “inconclusive.” Likewise, research suggests there is no “direct evidence” of the existence of pheromones in humans, chemist George Preti of the Monell Chemical Senses Center told Smithsonian Magazine in 2012.
Dr. Shereen Teymour, a board-certified dermatologist in New York, tells USA Today, “Pheromone-maxxing takes a kernel of legitimate science — the fact that humans produce individual chemical odors and that smell can influence how we perceive other people — and stretches it into a conclusion the science doesn’t support.”
Given the dedication of these pheromone maxxing followers, it doesn’t seem the trend is going to dissipate anytime soon. But whether it will result in dozens of women flocking to their natural musk remains to be seen.