Starting Price: $4,200*
*Pricing Varies by Surgeon
A skinny BBL is a specialized Brazilian butt lift designed for leaner individuals with less body fat. Less body fat overall means having less where it counts – especially in the rear. While many patients are easily able to put more junk in their trunk with a BBL, trimmer patients may require a more strategic skinny BBL to get the job done.
The term skinny BBL once referred only to Brazilian butt lifts performed on small, thin patients. It has since evolved to include any BBL designed to create an impactful but subtle change in the buttocks. While it can mean small changes, we use the term here to refer to BBLs performed on trim patients.
As is true of a more traditional BBL, your plastic surgeon extracts donor fat using gentle liposuction to damage as few fat cells as possible during harvest. They then meticulously inject the healthiest cells into the buttocks, creating a more pleasing and desirable shape. The procedure enhances the buttocks while maintaining a natural look that complements the patient’s slender frame.
We just told you that a skinny BBL is largely the same as a traditional one, so you’re probably wondering what makes the procedure different. Here is the skinny. (See what we did there!)
Trim patients have less extra body fat, which means enhancing their buttocks requires some strategic planning. We can generally take donor fat from anywhere there is enough to pinch. This often means taking fat from the belly, and skinny BBL patients often have thigh lipo. The thighs tend to be a good donor site for almost everyone, and skinny girls who get lipo there can walk away with the much-coveted thigh gap.
But sometimes getting enough fat means thinking outside the box a bit. Your surgeon may need to take fat from several areas of your body, including your upper arms, bra roll, or inner knees. Skinny BBL patients are more likely to need multiple liposuction sites in order to harvest enough fat.
Alas, it takes more than a slim figure to qualify for a skinny BBL. Underweight patients, for example, typically aren’t good candidates. Although there are exceptions, most surgical candidates have a BMI between 25 and 19. Other requirements include being:
Please know that we’re begging you when we say this: never, ever intentionally gain weight to qualify for a skinny BBL. Some plastic surgeons advise their patients to significantly increase their calorie intake before a skinny BBL to ensure ample donor fat. If a plastic surgeon ever advises you to do this, leave their office and don’t look back. This is horrible advice.
Overeating to bulk up will result in more fat. But it is far more likely to be visceral fat than subcutaneous fat. Visceral fat is the fat deep within your body that surrounds your internal organs. It is very difficult to get rid of, and liposuction does not touch it! Liposuction only removes the subcutaneous fat just beneath the skin, and packing on the calories doesn’t usually yield this type of fat.
Besides being hard to get rid of and impossible to remove surgically, visceral fat is the bad fat that leads to heart disease, diabetes, and other health problems. If you don’t have enough excess body fat to qualify for a skinny BBL, you may have other options, such as dermal fillers. But please don’t try to gain weight for surgery. Doing so is potentially detrimental to your health and unlikely to get you the type of fat you need anyway.
Nope. A regular BBL and a skinny BBL both involve the same surgical skills and processes, so one is no less than the other. In fact, skinny BBLs sometimes require more liposuction sites and a more complex surgical plan, which can make a skinny BBL more expensive. At Mia Aesthetics, we work with several different financing partners to help make your plastic surgery desires affordable. We also offer specials periodically, so make sure you keep in touch!
At Mia Aesthetics, we do not perform BBLs on patients while they are awake. General anesthesia is a must. Contouring and shaping the buttocks without some degree of anesthesia simply isn’t comfortable for the patient, and it may not be safe. If you move the wrong way during surgery, fat could be injected somewhere you don’t want it. Potentially somewhere harmful. If a plastic surgeon is willing to do your BBL while you’re awake, they probably aren’t doing much back there, and your results won’t be very impactful.
Kind of… A skinny BBL is permanent in the sense that once it settles in, the fat we transplant into your buttocks isn’t going anywhere. But because we use your own cells, the fat in your buttocks will follow the same pattern as all of your other fat cells. If you gain or lose a significant amount of weight, the transplanted cells could expand or shrink accordingly. This will change the look of your rear end, so try to maintain a stable weight.
A skinny BBL can provide a subtle enhancement, giving you a natural look and feel. Your new butt will feel real because it is – it’s all you. But a skinny BBL is probably not the right fit if you’re looking for a dramatic buttock enhancement. Although the procedure can result in substantial contour improvement, it’s not going to provide a voluptuous rear end with pronounced curves or an exaggerated hourglass figure. You’ll look great after your procedure, but you won’t be leaving the clinic with J. Lo’s booty. You can view a skinny BBL case study with before-and-after photos here.
Healing after a skinny BBL is very similar to traditional BBL recovery. The first few days are the trickiest to navigate as you will be sore. Because a skinny BBL often requires multiple liposuction sites, you may feel as if you’re sore all over. We will give you pain medication to keep you comfortable.