Gen Z Singles Turn ‘Solomaxxing’ Into an Aspirational Trend

For Carmen Hyden, the concept of solomaxxing clicked into place right after she ended a serious two-year relationship. “The idea of rushing into another one felt impossible,” she recalls.

Now 28 and nearly three years single, Hyden has completely stepped away from dating to pour her energy into self-development. Her routine now includes solo travel, reading, paddleboarding, road cycling, and bouldering. She has also adopted meditation and breathwork, started a walking club, and works as a skin therapist at Facegym in London, where she lives.

Variously called singlemaxxing, alonemaxxing, or bymyselfmaxxing, solomaxxing is an emerging lifestyle choice among young people who deliberately avoid romantic relationships to invest in their own independence. For Hyden, this shift has been liberating. “It’s changed the way being single feels. It’s no longer something to fix or move on from,” she shares. The trend, she believes, removes the stigma attached to being unmarried and alone, reframing solitude as something desirable rather than a problem to solve.

Solomaxxing gained serious momentum on TikTok over recent months, as Gen Z users turned to the platform to vent about the soaring costs of dating. In the United States, inflation has climbed to a three-year high, pushing gas and grocery prices upward,a surge driven by shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing US and Israel conflict with Iran. According to a BMO Real Financial Progress Index report from earlier this year, the average cost of a date in 2026 hit $189, a 12.5 percent increase from 2025 that outpaces the general rise in living expenses.

Across the Atlantic in the UK, where Hyden lives, a Barclays study found that adults spend over £111 ($147) per month on dating and dating apps. More than half of Gen Z respondents said these costs have completely discouraged them from dating. The financial strain has even pushed some dating platforms to offer free gas as an incentive to keep users active.

Still, Hyden insists her commitment to solomaxxing has little to do with money. For her, it is about “building a life that feels full on its own terms.” She explains, “Being alone means no one is triggering you or pulling you out of your own rhythm.” Rather than avoiding people, she sees solomaxxing as a way to unlock her potential through new hobbies, rituals, and self-discovery,activities she is happy to fund. “There’s no loneliness filling the gaps, just contentment.”

Bella DePaulo, a social scientist and author of Single at Heart: The Power, Freedom, and Heart-Filling Joy of Single Life, views this development as a healthy shift for Gen Z, especially in how it challenges the long-held belief that marriage is the ultimate relationship milestone. “It is such a remarkable twist, after decades in which marriage was seen as a sign of societal and personal stability. People who married were said to have ‘settled down.’ The irony is that single life, for people who want to be single, is completely stable. It is marriage that is unstable,” DePaulo notes, pointing out that marriage can be undone by separation, divorce, or the death of a spouse.

The term solomaxxing is rooted in Gen Z’s broader obsession with personal optimization,from looksmaxxing (improving appearance) to proteinmaxxing (dietary focus) and nutmaxxing (pleasure seeking). Despite the playful absurdity of the “maxxing” trend, solomaxxing carries real weight in how it reimagines the role of relationships in modern life and acknowledges the many ways those relationships have evolved.