What is BBL? Gluteal Fat Injection Procedure, Recovery, and Planning Guide with Dr. Mehmet Haşim Güner's Own Experience
BBL was originally formed as an abbreviation for Brazilian Butt Lift, but today it has transformed into a word that describes gluteal fat injection. Both a patient who has a small amount of fat injected into the buttock area and a patient who has a very large amount injected say "I had BBL surgery."
What is the Buttock Fat Injection Process We Abbreviate as BBL?
With the development of the modern world and the widespread use of social media, body appearance has come more to the forefront for women, and going under the knife for this reason has become very comfortable.
Technically speaking, the buttock fat injection procedure actually means an autologous organ transplantation. Roughly speaking, we can also call it an autologous cell transplant.
Autologous means coming from your own body. In other words, fat cells taken from your own body are transferred, grafted, moved, or—using its medical term—injected into another area of your body. The goal is for these injected cells to continue living in their new location.
A portion of these newly injected fat cells make contact with blood and are nourished through a method called diffusion, continuing to live. Another portion dies within a few hours due to a lack of nutrients. Over time, this dead portion is cleared away by our own body. Indeed, this dead cell portion can occur at a rate of 30-40% in every case.
What Increases Fat Cell Loss After BBL Surgery?
Heavy smoking
Inadequate nutrition
Infection
Prolonged immobility
Prolonged pressure on the buttock area
Therefore, patients who desire a significant change in buttock volume need to be careful regarding these matters.
The first 3 weeks after surgery are the most critical period. Why?
The formation of the new fat cells' own vascular network injected into the buttock area is completed in roughly 3 weeks. For this reason, we must act carefully during the 3-week phase to reduce fat loss. After their own vascular network has formed, no more cell loss will occur, so there are no extra rules to strictly follow in subsequent periods.
I Had BBL Surgery and Want to Retain as Much Fat as Possible in My Current Buttock Shape—What Should I Pay Attention To?
If you smoke, stop 1 week before surgery and do not use it for 3 weeks after surgery.
If you have general anemia, receive the necessary treatments regarding this before surgery. If you have an iron deficiency, use iron pills.
Since the day of surgery and the following day are usually spent in the hospital, pay attention to your mobilization during this time. On the first evening, be sure to take at least a short walk inside the room. Since movement activates muscles, it increases blood flow speed in every area of our body, allowing your fat cells trying to hold on to life to be nourished more easily via blood.
Use a BBL pillow. The common misconception here is thinking that this pillow is meant to be sat directly on. However, these pillows are designed for the back of the upper thighs. When you place this pillow under the back of your upper thighs, sit down, and lean your back, your buttock area remains suspended in the air. In this case, even if you sit for hours, pressure does not build up to extreme levels on your buttock area.
Whether you use a BBL pillow or not, not sitting statically for more than 2 hours provides extra support to increase blood circulation. You can achieve this during air travel by walking in the aisle for 1-2 minutes every hour, and you can make your breaks more frequent in this way during car journeys.
Use of antibiotics: Using them during the first week after surgery is very important to reduce the risk of infection.
What Should Be Considered After BBL - Buttock Fat Injection Procedure?
Buttock fat injection provides tissue enlargement using your own body fat through natural means.
It is a permanent procedure. Therefore, just as your buttocks have the potential for extra growth when you gain weight, they also have the potential to shrink extra when you lose weight.
For this reason, in cases of excessive weight gain, you may encounter a larger buttock than targeted and may not be able to fit into your existing pants.
Having this surgery does not prevent you from gaining weight. Patients think that they will not gain weight after a liposuction procedure. Since fat is collected via liposuction in BBL surgery as well, it is expected to be the same way. However, this is general misinformation. Neither weight gain nor weight loss is affected by any surgery. If you are not careful, you can gain weight again. Even patients who undergo gastric sleeve surgery can gain weight years later and return to their old state. You can read more detailed information regarding the liposuction process in my articles on this topic.
It is not an excessively painful procedure. Liposuction creates the pain, which is felt as muscle soreness in those areas. You can examine the details regarding the liposuction pain process in detail in our article titled "How Painful is the Liposuction Process?".
Severe pain in the buttock area due to fat injection does not frequently occur.
The use of a compression garment (faja) is very important, and this duration varies according to the physician. I recommend using it for at least 4 weeks.
How Should a Buttock Shape Be Planned with BBL Surgery?
The choice here is honestly up to the patient. However, I also make recommendations based on my own experience.
While more pronounced buttocks protruding from the body were favored in past years, today there is a trend returning to natural volumes.
When making a plan here, I deem it appropriate to guide the patient by conducting a detailed analysis ranging from the person's anatomy, shoulder width, and details they pay attention to when choosing clothes, to perceptions they might feel uncomfortable with socially. You can learn more details about buttock shaping in my blog post titled "Buttock Shapes and Types".
Why Is It So Important to Understand What the Patient Really Wants in Buttock Contouring?
To help my patients understand the situation more clearly regarding buttock shape, I conduct an analysis of what kind of buttock shape my patient desires by discussing through before-and-after examples.
Rather than a simple analysis like "What do you want?" or "Show me a buttock shape you like," it is necessary to hold a detailed conversation based on my own patient examples, covering how the buttock shapes my patient likes will create a perception in real life and its effect on clothing choices.
Patients Who Say "I Want a Natural Buttock"
If a patient who presents requests like "I want a natural buttock" or "Let it not be a very large buttock" likes patients with large buttock volumes, I emphasize to her that these patients are not natural, but patients with pronounced volume changes, and that if she wants it this way, one should not stay strictly within natural limits.
In this way, my patients can think in more detail about understanding exactly what they want.
Or, if they do not like large-volume patients and like my skinny BBL results, then I am firmly convinced that my patient truly wants a buttock that is not excessively large.
Patients Who Say "I Want a Large Buttock"
If the person truly wants an excessively exaggerated and large buttock and does not find such results disturbing, planning should be made in this manner.
However, for patients who do not fully detail the situation—from how a large buttock shape affects social life and daily clothing choices to what opinion people will form about them—more explanatory information should be provided, and the way should be paved for the patient to make a clearer decision on this matter. This detail is very important to avoid subsequent patient regret.
Sometimes a buttock that looks beautiful and natural in a photograph can in reality be excessively large and noticeable from the outside.
Enlarging the buttocks does not only change the main appearance; it also changes the person's waist-to-leg transition harmony. In a patient who does not want to look heavy, an excessively large buttock can create the perception of a heavier woman to those seeing her from behind.
Or, by creating a significant difference between buttock diameter and leg diameter, it can make it difficult for someone who loves wearing tight trousers to find clothing suitable for their body.
Alternatively, to hide a large buttock that becomes more eye-catching when walking on the street, a person may switch from the tight clothing they love to loose-fitting clothing that covers the body.
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