We’re naturally curious at Costhetics. It’s what helps us maintain our position as Australia’s leading source of news and information about cosmetic surgery and enhancement.
One subject we’ve been wondering about is buttock augmentation with autologous fat, also known as the Brazilian Butt Lift.
Team Costhetics wanted to know more about this trending procedure, so we did some research. Here’s what we found.
A Brief History of Butt Augmentation
Breast augmentation has been with us since the late 19th Century, but it took until the 20th Century (1969 to be specific) for cosmetic surgeons to focus on bottoms as well as tops. Butt augmentation was originally achieved with silicone implants just like the ones used in breast augmentation. In the 21st Century, however, surgeons put a new face on buttock augmentation with the ‘Brazilian Butt Lift’, a different approach to augmenting the derriere.
Butt augmentation was so rare before the year 2000 that it wasn’t even on the radar of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Today, the ASPS report that there has been a 16% increase in Brazilian butt lifts since 2012.
What is a Brazilian Butt Lift, how does it differ from other body contouring procedures, and why is it so popular? Let’s start with the “what” and then move on to the “why.”
Defining Terms: What is a Brazilian Butt Lift?
The Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) is a cosmetic surgery procedure designed to re-contour the buttocks. Unlike traditional butt augmentation which uses silicone or saline implants, the BBL involves autologous fat transfer, harvesting fat from one part of the body and re-injecting it somewhere else.
Liposuction is used to remove the fat. This serves to contour the areas around the buttocks. Other sites for harvesting include the stomach and thighs. The fat is then purified and injected into areas of the backside to make it rounder and fuller, as well as raised/lifted. Surgeons like this method because the fat tissue is pliable, giving doctors more control than they have with synthetic materials.
Make My Butt a Star
Fashion and style may make you think otherwise, but men are attracted to women with bigger butts. The desire may be hot-wired to genetics:
“The reason narrow waists and broad hips are so prized…is twofold. If a woman has a narrow waist, she’s not pregnant. And if she has broad hips it means that the underlying skeletal morphology is probably such that she’d be able to have a relatively unencumbered childbirth.” – Professor Gordon G. Gallup, Jr.
The popularity of a voluptuous backside may be linked, in part, to society’s changing views on curves and individuality. Big-bottom anthems like Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” and Meghan Trainor’s “All About the Bass” celebrate curvy girls. The trend may also be a result of Snapchat and Instagram and daily snapshots from booty-licious celebrities like Kim Kardashian and J’Lo.
What Goes Up Must Come Down
Have Brazilian Butt Lifts reached their saturation point? Are women re-thinking their silhouettes? Will the pendulum swing back to the flat-bottomed aesthetic of Twiggy and Kate Moss? Only time will tell.