A BBL or Brazilian butt lift is certainly an appealing surgical procedure, as Creo Clinic notes that over 396,000 people opted for plastic surgery in 2020. Going natural is also advantageous, so which is better?
Both BBLs and natural derrieres have their pros and cons. Foregoing surgery is safer, especially as BBLs have a bad reputation for leading to serious consequences and even death. If you don’t have a Kardashian-shaped rump, though, you can feel insecure.
If you’re on the fence, I can totally understand where you’re coming from. That’s why, in today’s guide, I’ll cover both the advantages and disadvantages of leaving your rear as is as well as undergoing a BBL.
The Pros and Cons of Brazilian Butt Lift Surgery
Have you been long contemplating a Brazilian butt lift? Johns Hopkins Medicine says that it’s the fourth most popular procedure, with only breast lifts, breast implant removal, and breast augmentation topping it.
Before you contact a single surgeon, make sure you read through this section thoroughly. It should certainly help you decide whether a BBL is the right move for you.
Pros
1. You Can Finally Have the Rear You’ve Always Wanted
Do you have a rather flat rear? Are you tired of people comparing your butt to a flat bicycle tire or a pancake?
You’ve tried squatting at the gym for years, and while your butt muscles are toned and rock-solid, your rear still doesn’t look shapely.
As the Kardashians have become the standard of beauty and remained that way for more than a decade, people are more obsessed with bigger butts than ever, even in the days of MC Hammer.
You know that surgery is the only way you’ll ever achieve the butt you’re after.
Once you get a BBL, you’ll finally have that dream butt, and you can cut back on all the squats too! (Unless you don’t want to, of course.)
2. BBLs Look Surprisingly Natural
We’ve all seen terrible photos of plastic surgery gone wrong or heard horror stories through the grapevine that is the Internet.
You may worry that if you go under the knife for a cosmetic procedure like a BBL that you too will look like a walking freak show.
You don’t want your butt to look like two balloons you’re smuggling under a pair of leggings or jeans. You just want shape, size, and volume.
A BBL is the right procedure for you. The results are anything but freakish and instead look incredibly natural.
That’s because a Brazilian butt lift isn’t an implant. The procedure takes fat from your own body and then inserts it into your butt.
You don’t have to worry about unnatural implant migration or any other unappealing effects. Your rear will look like it’s always supposed to have been this way.
Anyone who meets you for the first time won’t be able to guess you had a BBL!
3. The Surgeon Needn’t Make Huge Incisions
Okay, but what about surgery scars, I can hear you asking. They don’t go away, marring your physical appearance. The scars are also a dead giveaway that you’ve undergone a cosmetic procedure.
A Brazilian butt lift requires only tiny incisions. The surgeon is not cutting out large chunks of you, so your butt shouldn’t have any kind of noticeable scarring.
That, too, contributes to the natural look of a BBL.
4. Additional Body Contouring
Where do you think the fat that goes into your butt during a BBL comes from? That’s right, it’s your own body!
The surgeon will perform liposuction on your trouble areas that are full of fat such as your stomach and your legs.
Not only will your butt look superb, but your body will look slimmer and more contoured even if you didn’t lose any weight.
5. Lasts Longer Than Butt Injections
Have you tried a butt injection or two? You might have had good results, but those results were anything but permanent.
Within a year or two tops, your butt began going flat again. That meant withstanding more painful injections.
Not anymore! A Brazilian butt lift can last for at least five years but very often double that or longer.
Cons
1. A BBL Is Still Surgery
Even if the incisions are small enough, at the end of the day, a Brazilian butt lift is still surgery.
That means you have to find a surgeon, have a number of consultations, get a quote, and see if your medical insurance covers it.
Most medical insurance does not pay for cosmetic procedures, BBLs, or otherwise, which means you’re on your own in the finances department. But more on that to come.
Then you have to take time off work, go to the hospital, receive anesthesia, and recover.
It’s a lot on anyone!
2. BBLs Are Expensive
Knowing that you have to shoulder the financial burden of a BBL, exactly how much is this procedure going to cost you?
That varies by region.
If you live in a more populated, expensive state, then a Brazilian butt lift is not going to come cheap.
According to Brazilianbuttlift.com, in a state like New York, the average cost is $7,171 for the procedure.
In Illinois, it’s $7,382; in California, it’s $8,505; in Texas, it’s $7,544; and in Arizona, it’s $6,875.
The procedure can be up to five figures, sucking $10,000+ right out of your bank account.
After all, you have to factor in other fees as well, such as the anesthesia costs, surgeon’s fees, lab tests, medications, and aftercare.
3. The Recovery Is Difficult
If you were hoping for a quick recovery from a BBL, you might be a little disappointed.
It takes about six weeks to fully recover, and the first two weeks are certainly the most arduous.
Why is that? At that time, you cannot lie down or sit on your butt at all.
That’s right, at all!
Okay, so how do you sleep? On your stomach, of course.
How do you sit? You’ll need to stand or recline on your side as much as you can. If you must sit, you can do so on a pillow or donut seat.
You’ll have to plan at least a few weeks off work to accommodate for the recovery time as well.
4. The Procedure Does Carry Risks
Like any plastic surgery, a Brazilian butt lift has its risks.
You could develop an infection, the fat can reabsorb, or your tissue could die in a case of tissue necrosis.
Sometimes, the surgery can be fatal.
A 2022 publication of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal reports that, in South Florida alone, 25 people died from complications of BBL surgery between 2010 and 2022.
The mortality rate isn’t excessively high, but it’s not zero, either.
The Pros and Cons of a Natural Rear
Now that you’ve seen both sides of the coin as they pertain to Brazilian butt lifts, it’s time to examine the benefits and downsides of a natural rear.
You know, embracing what you were born with and strutting your stuff no matter what your butt looks like.
It isn’t always easy, but it may be worth doing!
Pros
1. No Surgery Here
Have you had surgery of any kind before? I have, and it’s not fun. I think most of us can agree with that statement.
Whether you must have your tonsils out or you want to enhance your butt with a procedure like a BBL, surgery is still surgery.
I already went over all that surgery entails in the last section. You have to take significant time off of work, for starters.
If you were hoping for a nice summer vacation or an end-of-the-year break for the Christmas holiday, you can kiss all that goodbye.
You’ll have to take at least a week off of work but up to two weeks. You won’t even enjoy your time off, as you’ll spend it groggy and recovering.
You won’t have to worry about long-term aftercare if you never undergo a BBL in the first place, nor will you have to stress about the risk of surgery scars.
Oh, and since no surgery lasts forever, you won’t have to think about going under the knife for yet a second time if you never had a first BBL, to begin with.
2. You Have Something to Be Prideful About
No matter what a person tells you, if they’re getting cosmetic surgery, it’s because they’re insecure.
We’re all insecure about something; that’s true. Many women (and men) assume that if they can only fix one area that they’ll never feel insecure again.
Then they fix one area and find another one, and so on and so forth. That’s how people get addicted to plastic surgery!
By embracing your natural rear as it is, it might become a source of pride for you. After all, it’s all yours and it’s all natural!
3. You Can Save Your Money
You already know from the prior section that a BBL is going to cost you at least $5,000 but could very easily be double that, depending on where you live and how many extra fees are tacked on.
That’s a lot of money to spend on anything except for a house or a car.
Think of what you could do if you were $5,000 richer.
Maybe you could finally tackle that home remodeling project that you’ve put off for years, or you can take a nice vacation (you will have the PTO, after all!).
You could even save it or set it aside for a rainy day, building financial confidence in the interim.
4. You Could Just Save Your Life
I’m not trying to scare you here, but BBLs are a surgery fraught with risks. That’s something I’ve talked about above as well as extensively in other posts.
If you choose a low-quality surgeon or if your surgeon lacks experience, then you could be another BBL victim.
I don’t want that for you, and neither does anyone else in your life who loves you so much!
By foregoing a Brazilian butt lift, your life is not at risk of the complications that going under the knife can cause.
Cons
1. Embracing a Less-Than-Perfect Butt Can Be Hard
I really only have one downside to going with a natural butt, and that’s that accepting yours isn’t easy.
Even if your butt is perfectly adequate, many women and men feel like it’s not good enough.
This can make those with flatter rears feel even worse about themselves since they don’t even meet those standards.
When you consider how plastic surgery has become a glorified part of society these days rather than something that people hide as it used to be, more people have gone under the knife.
Even those who haven’t had a BBL or another type of butt augmentation can enhance their photos very easily using free phone apps.
The world is growing faker and faker, which deepens body image insecurities.
I’m not telling you to fall in love with the way your butt looks right this moment. Instead, just accept it.
Accept that your butt is however round it is or not round it is.
Body acceptance is the first step on the road to confidence, after all!
Conclusion
Brazilian butt lifts or BBLs are all the rage these days. The surgery produces natural results, lasts a long time, doesn’t risk leaving large incision scars, and uses your own body fat, so it slims and trims other parts of your body as well.
However, a BBL can be dangerous, as many women have sadly died going under the knife for this surgery in particular.
If you want a BBL, that’s fine! Now you’re fully educated and can make that decision.
For those who aren’t sure, I recommend working on accepting yourself. Heck, I’d suggest that even if you want a BBL.
Even if you don’t love how your butt looks, accepting it is key to being a better you, surgery or not!
