What did @androgenic_clips actually say?
Two guys are having a conversation about whether testosterone changes the face, specifically the jaw. One says he thinks he looks better off testosterone. The other pushes back, arguing that the mandible has "a much higher density of antigen receptors" and that androgens make the jawbone denser. He frames this through his own personal experience, saying he had a "tiny jaw" before learning about steroids in 2019. Neither person is a doctor. Neither cites a study. This is bro-science delivered conversationally, which doesn't automatically make it wrong, but it does mean we need to check it carefully.
The core claims here are two distinct things that often get blurred together: whether testosterone causes bone growth in adults, and whether it increases bone density in androgen-sensitive areas like the jaw. Those are different questions with different answers.
Does the science back this up?
Partially, yes. The jaw claim has real biological grounding, but the framing around "growing bones" in adults is where it falls apart. After the growth plates close, typically in the late teens, exogenous testosterone does not meaningfully elongate or structurally reshape bones. That ship has sailed.
What does have support is the androgen receptor density claim. Research has shown that the mandible and surrounding craniofacial structures express androgen receptors at relatively high levels compared to other facial bones. Verdonck et al. (1999, European Journal of Orthodontics) demonstrated that testosterone influences mandibular growth during puberty specifically through androgen receptor-mediated pathways. The jaw is genuinely more androgen-sensitive than, say, the frontal bone. But that mechanism is most active during development, not in an adult taking TRT or running a steroid cycle.
There is also evidence that androgens increase bone mineral density systemically. Finkelstein et al. (2016, New England Journal of Medicine) showed testosterone administration increased bone density in hypogonadal men. Whether this translates to visible facial changes in adults is not well-established in the literature.
What did they get wrong (or right)?
Credit where it's due: the androgen receptor density point about the mandible is grounded in real physiology. That is not a made-up claim. The jaw does have relatively dense androgen receptor expression, and this is why it responds strongly to androgens during puberty.
But here is what they got wrong. The first speaker wonders how testosterone "grows your bones" in adults. The second speaker does not adequately correct this. Bone elongation in adults is not happening. Adult cortical bone does not grow in response to androgens the way adolescent bone does. The growth plates are gone. What you might see is changes in soft tissue, increased masseter muscle thickness from higher androgen tone, or changes in subcutaneous fat distribution around the face. These can change the appearance of the jaw without any actual bone growth.
The looksmaxxing community frequently conflates bone remodeling (a real, slow process) with bone growth (which requires open growth plates). Those are not the same thing, and treating them as equivalent is how people end up making poor decisions about hormone use in their early twenties chasing facial changes that aren't coming.
What should you actually know?
Testosterone does influence facial structure, but almost entirely through its effects during puberty when growth plates are open. In adults, the meaningful changes are softer: fat redistribution, muscle hypertrophy around the jaw, and skin texture changes. Bone density can increase with testosterone therapy in hypogonadal men, but this is a metabolic health benefit, not a cosmetic reshaping of your face.
If you are a hypogonadal adult starting TRT under medical supervision, your jaw is not going to get squarer. Your low-T symptoms may improve, your energy may come back, your bone density may stabilize. Those are the actual documented benefits. The facial reshaping narrative is mostly driven by people who started testosterone during or just after puberty and are attributing normal late development to the drug.
Anyone using or considering testosterone specifically to change their facial appearance is making a decision that has no strong clinical evidence behind it and carries real risks including suppression of endogenous hormone production, cardiovascular strain, and fertility impacts. That is a bad trade for a jaw that probably was not going to change anyway.