In a recent viral video, a man surprised a looksmaxxing influencer mid-livestream and yanked away his hat and wig, revealing his balding head. The incident kicked off a sprawling debate about authenticity, masculinity, and how far online male beauty culture had gone.
The influencer at the center of the clip was Androgenic, a 24-year-old creator whose content already blurred performance and self-improvement. While the clip looked absurd to some viewers, others read it as a public humiliation.
What happened in the viral wig snatch clip
The 11-second video originally came from a real-life livestream. It later spread on X, where it pulled in more than 14.6 million views.
At the beginning of the video, Androgenic was chatting outside in a busy public area. He wore a black tank top that showed off his arm muscles, along with a black baseball cap with his "hair" poking out of the bottom.
Suddenly, a stranger stepped in from behind Androgenic and ripped off the hat and attached hair in one quick motion before running away.
It revealed that the influencer had a receding hairline and close-shaven head, completely changing his appearance.
The 24-year-old took a moment to process what had happened and then turned visibly angry, chasing after the unidentified person as the clip cut off.
Who is Androgenic?
Before the clip went viral, Androgenic already had a following within the looksmaxxing community. He is an Australian influencer who built an audience through short-form videos and livestreams on Kick focused on the looksmaxxing trend and self-improvement.
Across his social media platforms, Androgenic posts fitness advice and before-and-after photos. His content often mixes physical training with commentary on modern masculinity.
The concept of "looksmaxxing" originated from male incel forums in the 2010s. It encouraged men to push their appearance to extremes to appear more attractive. In some cases, followers embraced dieting, cosmetic procedures, or dangerous self-experiments, and often, the only other people finding these men attractive are other supposedly straight incel men.
Mixed social media reactions to the wig reveal
Online reactions to the viral video landed all over the map. Many people mocked Androgenic and accused him of deception. @AutismCapital tweeted, "Androgenic was scalpmogged so brutally that it became national news. The world needed to know about the generational aura loss."
Others leaned into irony and niche internet slang. @JebraFaushay wrote, "This reminds me of when Clavicular got framemogged. Now this looksmaxxing gymcel gets wig snatched? Was he being mogged by a foid? My cortisol is being spiked, and now I'm stressmaxxing."
@GriffinMaxwellB joked, "When his WIG was publicly SNATCHED henny."
"doesnāt this solidify the whole ordeal as drag," @gn2ale asked.
Still, not everyone laughed. Several viewers criticized the prank as cruel.Ā
"I donāt find anything funny about thisā¦ I donāt understand why people would need to wear wigs in order to feel more confident," @thevivafrei tweeted. "But I also do not find anything funny about publicly humiliating people for their superficial insecurities."Ā
@KoalKottentail responded, "Humans have worn wigs & hair accessories for thousands of years as a form of aesthetic adornment, or social status, aristocracy, etc. It's a personal preference & a way to change into different appearances. This is fairly normal. Your point on public humiliation is spot on, though."
A few people rejected the entire discourse. "Iāve been so blissfully unaware of who any of these [expletive] people are," @illyrian_queen shared, "and I genuinely want to remain that way lmfaoooo."
Androgenic responded to fraud accusations
As fraud accusations spread, Androgenic addressed them directly. In a TikTok posted later, he said he had already been open about his hair loss.Ā
"I donāt know if people realize that I literally, publicly have been spamming viewers with me being bald for like two months,"Ā he said in the video. "And I literally, publicly have made videos showing that Iām wearing a wig, like days ago. But Iām glad this is going this viral, this is pretty crazy."
On X, @daily_telecrap called out the people calling him a fraud, saying, "He was posting himself bald on his socials for a while. Also posted that he just started wearing a wig while waiting for his hair transplant to kick in."
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