People are skipping showers for this bizarre TikTok dating trend; What is Pheromone Maxxing?

First came skincare routines, gym plans and elaborate grooming rituals. Now, TikTok has apparently found a way to turn not showering into a dating strategy.

Enter pheromone maxxing, a recent trend linked to the wider looksmaxxing movement. The basic idea is that letting your natural body odour become stronger could make you more attractive because of supposedly powerful human pheromones. Some people taking the trend seriously have been skipping showers and deodorant before dates. The more extreme versions circulating online have even included claims about drinking urine to increase pheromone production.

It sounds bizarre, but there is a real question underneath all the TikTok chaos: does our natural scent actually influence attraction?

The short answer is: probably in some ways, but not quite in the magical, date-guaranteeing way social media suggests.

What is Pheromone Maxxing?

Pheromone maxxing is essentially an attempt to make your natural scent part of your attractiveness. Instead of covering body odour with deodorant, shower gel or perfume, people following the trend believe that allowing their natural musk to come through will make them more appealing to potential partners.

The trend has been circulating online since at least 2024, but has recently received renewed attention on TikTok and other social media platforms. It has largely emerged from the same online world as looksmaxxing, where appearance and attractiveness are treated almost like projects that can be continuously optimised.

There is one small problem with the theory: science has not established that humans have a magic attraction pheromone that works the way these videos claim.

Do humans actually have pheromones?

Pheromones are chemical signals that can influence the behaviour or physiology of other members of the same species. They are well established in many animals. Humans, however, are a different story.

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Researchers have spent decades looking for a substance that can be definitively identified as a human pheromone. So far, there is no robust evidence showing that a particular chemical acts as a human pheromone that automatically makes someone more sexually attractive. A review published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B found that commonly claimed human pheromones had not been supported by strong, reproducible evidence.

That does not mean smell has nothing to do with attraction.

Our sense of smell can influence how we respond to other people, and research has explored whether natural body odour can carry information about another person's biology, mood or compatibility. But the effects are much more complicated than the "don't shower and everyone will want you" version being served up on TikTok.

A recent systematic review found that research into compounds sometimes described as putative human pheromones has produced mixed results, with effects appearing subtle and dependent on context rather than automatic.

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So, yes, your natural scent may matter. No, that does not make skipping your shower a scientifically proven dating hack.

What about pheromone perfumes?

This is another area where marketing can run ahead of the evidence.

You may have seen perfumes and colognes advertised as containing "pheromones" that supposedly make the wearer irresistible. But research has not established that these products reliably increase sexual attraction.

One study examining substances marketed as human pheromones found no statistically significant increase in sociosexual behaviour or evidence that the substances made wearers more attractive.

That does not mean a fragrance cannot make someone more attractive. A pleasant smell can certainly affect how we perceive a person. But that is different from proving that a bottle contains a secret chemical switch for attraction.

In other words, if someone compliments your new perfume, it may simply be because you smell really good.

And then there is Looksmaxxing

Pheromone maxxing did not appear out of nowhere. It is part of a much bigger internet obsession with looksmaxxing, a term used for attempts to maximise physical attractiveness.

The trend can range from fairly ordinary things such as skincare, exercise, better grooming, sleep and hair care to much more extreme practices involving cosmetic procedures, steroids or potentially dangerous attempts to change facial structure.

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There is nothing particularly strange about wanting to look after yourself. Getting a haircut, finding a skincare routine that works or becoming fitter are hardly revolutionary ideas.

The issue begins when self-care turns into the belief that there is always something wrong with your face, body or appearance that needs fixing.

Health experts have raised concerns that some parts of the looksmaxxing culture can contribute to anxiety, body dysmorphia, eating disorders and even self-harm, particularly among young people exposed to extreme appearance-based content online.

Pheromone maxxing takes that same idea and applies it to smell: if attractiveness can be optimised visually, why not chemically too?

Does that mean natural body odour is bad?

Not at all. Everyone has a natural scent, and body odour is influenced by several factors, including sweat, skin bacteria, hormones and individual biology. Being attracted to a partner's natural scent is also not a completely foreign idea. People can have strong preferences about how someone smells, and those preferences can be personal.

But there is a fairly big gap between liking someone's natural scent and deliberately becoming unhygienic because TikTok says it will make you irresistible.

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Skipping deodorant occasionally is one thing. Turning poor hygiene into a dating philosophy is another.

And if your date is sitting across the table trying not to breathe through their nose, the experiment probably has not gone particularly well.

The problem with turning attraction into a formula

The strangest thing about pheromone maxxing is not the smell. It is the idea behind it.

Looksmaxxing, pheromone maxxing and similar trends all suggest that attraction can be broken down into a checklist. 

Should you try pheromone maxxing?

If by pheromone maxxing you mean becoming more aware of your natural scent and finding a fragrance that works well with it, there is nothing particularly revolutionary about that.

If it means skipping showers, abandoning basic hygiene or following extreme advice because you have been promised that your "natural musk" will make strangers fall for you, the science does not support the claim.

You do not need to smell like a department store perfume counter either. Clean skin, clean clothes and a scent you genuinely like are a perfectly reasonable starting point.

After all, attraction may have a chemical side, but dating is still considerably more complicated than smelling sweaty and hoping for the best.

(Disclaimer: This article is for general informational and entertainment purposes only. Readers should not follow potentially harmful hygiene, health or lifestyle practices based solely on online trends.)