If you’re wondering whether you should hit yourself in the face with a hammer, the answer is no. Yet, that’s what some people on TikTok seem to be doing, with the stated goal of improving their facial appearance. People have been using the term “bone smashing” to refer to the practice of hitting themselves in the face with hammers, bottles, or other blunt objects in the pursuit of beauty. In fact, videos with the phrase “bone smashing tutorial” have already garnered over 267.7 million views on TikTok. Regardless of what people on social media say about this practice, keep in mind that there’s no evidence that breaking the bones in your face will be a smashing success, no pun intended. How are people even justifying the practice of self-pummeling? Well, they appear to be crying Wolff, meaning they’re citing something called "Wolff’s Law." Back in the 1800s, German surgeon Julius Wolff formulated a law based on the observation that your bones are constantly undergoing remodeling, with old or damaged bone continuously being broken down and absorbed back into the body, replaced by newly laid bone. Applying mechanical force or physical stress to your bones can actually increase the rate at which such remodeling occurs, resulting in stronger, thicker bones. So, the bone-headed claim is that you can use a blunt object to cause fractures in your face in a manner that can re-shape it from what it looks like now. It’s essentially being touted as a permanent makeover, allowing you to give yourself more of a “chiseled” look, so to speak. The belief is that when the bones in your face heal from you beating the crap out of them, they will become stronger. What people aren’t being told is that Wolff’s Law is a gross oversimplification of how bones work. In other words, your face won’t collapse if you do weight-bearing exercises, but it just might if you hit yourself in the face with a hammer.
