From 4.2 to 6.8: One User's 12-Month Looksmaxxing Journey
Marcus didn't want to download the app. His roommate had been talking about BlackPill for weeks — facial analysis, attractiveness scores, AI-driven improvement plans — and Marcus thought it sounded like a gimmick. Another selfie app dressed up in pseudoscience.
Then he downloaded it anyway. Took his first scan at 11 PM on a Tuesday. Lighting was bad. Angle was worse. But the score came back: 4.2 out of 10.
He took another scan with better lighting. 4.3.
The number didn't lie. And for the first time, Marcus had something he'd never gotten from mirrors, friends, or dating apps — a baseline that wasn't going to change because someone felt sorry for him.
Twelve months later, his score read 6.8. Here's how every tenth of a point was earned.
Want to see where you stand? Get your own baseline score with BlackPill for iOS or BlackPill for Android. The AI doesn't care about your feelings — and that's the point.
Month 0: The Baseline Scan
BlackPill's initial analysis broke Marcus's 4.2 down into component scores:
| Feature | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Facial symmetry | 5.1 | Below average |
| Skin clarity | 3.2 | Poor |
| Jaw definition | 3.8 | Below average |
| Facial harmony (ratios) | 4.9 | Average |
| Eye area | 5.0 | Average |
| Overall grooming | 3.4 | Poor |
Two things stood out immediately. Skin clarity and grooming were dragging the composite score down hard — and those were the two most actionable categories. You can't reshape your orbital bones without surgery, but you can fix your skin and clean up your presentation.
The AI Coach flagged the same thing. Its first recommendation: "Your highest-ROI improvements are skin clarity and grooming. Addressing these alone could move your composite score by 1.0 to 1.5 points within 90 days."
Marcus decided to trust the data.
Months 1-3: The Skin Overhaul
Marcus had never had a skincare routine. His "routine" was bar soap and whatever moisturizer was cheapest at the drugstore. BlackPill's AI Coach prescribed a four-step protocol:
- Gentle cleanser (CeraVe Foaming) — morning and night
- Chemical exfoliant (Paula's Choice 2% BHA) — every other evening
- Moisturizer (CeraVe PM) — morning and night
- Sunscreen (SPF 50, every morning without exception)
Nothing exotic. Nothing expensive. Total cost: roughly $45 per month.
The first scan after 30 days showed skin clarity at 3.9 — up 0.7 from baseline. By day 90, it hit 5.4. The before-and-after scans showed noticeably fewer blemishes, more even skin tone, and reduced redness around the nose and cheeks.
Composite score at month 3: 4.9. Up 0.7 points from doing essentially one thing right.
Research backs this up. A 2020 study in the British Journal of Dermatology (Jones et al.) found that perceived skin health accounts for roughly 25% of overall facial attractiveness ratings. When your skin looks unhealthy, it tanks everything else. When it looks clear and even, it lifts the entire face.
Months 3-6: Jaw Training and Grooming
With skin trending upward, the AI Coach shifted focus to the next highest-ROI targets: jaw definition and overall grooming.
Jaw training involved two components:
- Mewing — correct tongue posture, maintained consistently throughout the day. Marcus set hourly phone reminders for the first two weeks until it became automatic.
- Jaw resistance exercises — chewing mastic gum for 30 minutes daily, alternating sides. Research from the Journal of Oral Rehabilitation (Kiliaridis et al.) shows that consistent masticatory exercise increases masseter muscle cross-section by 15-20% over 6 months, visibly sharpening the jawline.
Grooming optimization was more straightforward:
- Got a proper haircut from a barber (not a budget chain) — one that complemented his face shape. The AI Coach suggested styles that work with his forehead-to-jaw ratio.
- Cleaned up eyebrows — removed unibrow growth and shaped the tails.
- Started maintaining facial hair at a consistent 3mm stubble length rather than alternating between clean-shaven and patchy growth.
Month 6 scan results:
| Feature | Baseline | Month 6 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facial symmetry | 5.1 | 5.3 | +0.2 |
| Skin clarity | 3.2 | 5.8 | +2.6 |
| Jaw definition | 3.8 | 4.9 | +1.1 |
| Facial harmony | 4.9 | 5.1 | +0.2 |
| Eye area | 5.0 | 5.1 | +0.1 |
| Overall grooming | 3.4 | 6.2 | +2.8 |
Composite score: 5.6. That's a 1.4-point jump in six months, and Marcus hadn't touched a surgeon's office, hadn't taken any supplements, hadn't done anything that required more than 45 minutes a day.
The data was clear: the biggest movers were the categories that started lowest. Skin and grooming alone accounted for 80% of the improvement so far.
Months 6-9: Body Composition and Posture
At 5.6, Marcus had cleared the average threshold. But the AI Coach identified the next bottleneck: facial adiposity. His body fat percentage was estimated at 22% — not overweight, but enough to blur jawline definition and soften the features that score well on facial harmony metrics.
The plan:
- Caloric deficit — 500 calories below maintenance, targeting 1 lb per week of fat loss
- Resistance training — 4 days per week, compound lifts focused on building upper body mass (which improves face-to-neck proportionality)
- Posture correction — daily doorway stretches and chin tucks to address forward head posture, which was compressing his jaw angle in scans
The body composition changes took longer to appear in facial scans than skincare did. At month 7, the composite barely moved — 5.7. Marcus almost quit the deficit. But the AI Coach's weekly check-in noted: "Facial fat reduction typically becomes visible in scans after 8-10 weeks of sustained deficit. Your trajectory is on track."
By month 9, the results showed:
- Body fat estimated at 16%
- Jaw definition jumped to 5.8 — the masseter work from months 3-6 was now visible without the fat layer obscuring it
- Facial harmony improved to 5.6 as lower body fat revealed more defined cheekbone structure
Composite score at month 9: 6.2.
A 2017 study in Evolution and Human Behavior (Foo, Simmons, and Rhodes) found that facial adiposity accounts for up to 2.4 points of variance on a 10-point scale. Marcus experienced roughly 0.6 points of that variance by dropping 6% body fat. The remaining gains came from the compounding effect — lower body fat made his jaw exercises and grooming changes look better.
Months 9-12: Refinement and the Final Push
The last stretch was about optimization, not transformation. The big gains were behind him. Now it was about consistency and targeting the remaining weak spots.
Changes in this phase:
- Upgraded skincare — added a retinol treatment (0.5%, three nights per week) to further improve skin texture. Skin clarity reached 6.8 by month 11.
- Continued mewing and jaw work — jaw definition crept to 6.3. Twelve months of consistent tongue posture and masticatory exercise had a cumulative effect that accelerated in the second half.
- Eye area — the one feature Marcus couldn't move much. He started using a caffeine-based eye cream to reduce puffiness and dark circles. The eye area score moved from 5.1 to 5.5 — modest, but visible in scans.
- Maintained body composition — held at 15% body fat, continued resistance training. The face-to-neck ratio improved as upper body muscle development progressed.
Month 12 final scan:
| Feature | Baseline | Month 12 | Total Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facial symmetry | 5.1 | 5.5 | +0.4 |
| Skin clarity | 3.2 | 6.8 | +3.6 |
| Jaw definition | 3.8 | 6.3 | +2.5 |
| Facial harmony | 4.9 | 5.8 | +0.9 |
| Eye area | 5.0 | 5.5 | +0.5 |
| Overall grooming | 3.4 | 7.1 | +3.7 |
Final composite score: 6.8. Up 2.6 points from the 4.2 baseline.
What the Data Tells Us
Marcus's journey confirms what BlackPill's aggregate data consistently shows: the most improvable features are the ones most people neglect.
Breaking down his 2.6-point improvement by category:
- Grooming: +3.7 points (the single biggest mover)
- Skin clarity: +3.6 points
- Jaw definition: +2.5 points
- Facial harmony: +0.9 points (mostly driven by body fat reduction)
- Eye area: +0.5 points
- Facial symmetry: +0.4 points (the hardest to change without intervention)
The pattern is clear. The features with the lowest baseline scores had the highest upside. This isn't surprising — it's regression to the mean combined with the fact that neglected features respond dramatically to even basic attention.
Marcus didn't take any shortcuts. No surgery. No injectable treatments. No expensive devices. His total spend over 12 months was roughly $1,200 — mostly skincare products, a gym membership, and mastic gum.
What he invested that money couldn't buy was consistency. He scanned every two weeks. He followed routines the AI Coach laid out. He adjusted when the data told him to adjust, not when he felt like it.
BlackPill's progress tracking does the same thing for every user — consistent scans, AI-driven routine adjustments, and data you can't argue with.
The Takeaway
A 4.2 is a hard number to see on your screen. It was for Marcus. But that number did something no friend, no mirror, and no Instagram filter ever could — it gave him a starting point that was real.
Every tenth of a point from 4.2 to 6.8 was tracked, measured, and earned. No guessing. No false confidence. No filtered selfies that collapse the moment you walk into a room.
Stop guessing. Start measuring. Take your first scan. See the number. Then decide what the next 12 months look like.
→ Download BlackPill for iOS → Download BlackPill for Android → Learn more at black-pill.app
Your transformation starts the moment you stop lying to yourself about where you are.