Brazilian Butt Lift in Bellevue
A Brazilian butt lift moves your own fat from where you have excess to where you want volume — liposuction and augmentation in one operation, with no implant involved.
This procedure deserves a candid safety conversation, and it gets one here. The BBL historically carried a higher complication profile than other cosmetic operations; the modern standards that changed that — ultrasound guidance and strictly subcutaneous injection, per the ASPS Gluteal Fat Grafting Safety Advisory — are how Dr. Day performs every case.
Anesthesia is administered by a board-certified anesthesiologist or CRNA, and consultations run forty-five minutes to an hour because the planning deserves it.
Your surgeon
Dr. Kristopher Day is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, and is fellowship-trained in craniofacial surgery.
Meet Dr. DayThe operation
Every consultation — and every operation — is with Dr. Day.
Fat is most often harvested by 360-degree liposuction of the trunk — abdomen, flanks, and back — with the arms and thighs as additional donor sites when the plan calls for them; contouring those areas is half the result. The fat is then purified and re-injected in careful passes, with ultrasound guidance establishing and confirming the subcutaneous plane above the muscle before and during the initial passes. That discipline — strictly subcutaneous injection — is the core of modern BBL safety.
Roughly forty to fifty percent of transferred fat establishes permanent blood supply, so Dr. Day places measured extra volume to offset the expected resorption. What survives at three to six months is yours for good.
Surgery runs two to four hours depending on how much fat is harvested and how complex the contouring is, under general anesthesia given by a board-certified anesthesiologist or CRNA at an accredited facility. Because the volume comes from your own tissue rather than an implant, the result moves and feels like the rest of your body, and implant-specific complications are simply not part of the picture.
Is it right for you
Candidates need enough donor fat to harvest, good health, and stable weight. Very lean patients sometimes do not have the raw material, and the consultation gives you that answer honestly rather than proceeding to an underpowered result.
Post-weight-loss patients are a large part of this practice's BBL work. Major loss — through lifestyle change, bariatric surgery, or GLP-1 medication — often leaves the shape deflated even when the number on the scale is right. A BBL redistributes what remains: contouring where there is still excess, restoring projection where the loss took it. It combines naturally with a tummy tuck or body lift as part of a staged post-weight-loss plan, and weight should be stable first.
Nicotine stops six weeks around surgery — fat survival depends on blood supply, and smoking is its enemy. Blood thinners, NSAIDs, herbal supplements, and vitamin E pause two weeks before, with nutrition and hydration guidance in the days leading up.
Recovery
The defining rule: no direct sitting on the new fat for two to three weeks. A BBL pillow shifts weight to the thighs when sitting is unavoidable, and side- or stomach-sleeping protects the graft while it establishes blood supply.
Walking starts the day after surgery, light exercise builds in weeks two to four, and full activity returns at four to six weeks. The settled volume — after expected early resorption — reads at three to six months.
The timeline of what you see: volume changes immediately, then swelling dominates the first week or two and is not the result. Weeks three to six is when the shape actually starts telling the truth, and three to six months is when it is final. Judging early is the most common way patients make themselves miserable over a result that turns out well.
How the weeks before and after surgery fit together is covered in the practice's recovery guide.
The male BBL
Fat transfer with an athletic male profile as the goal.
A Brazilian butt lift for a man is planned to a different shape: flatter, firmer, and athletic, with squared fullness instead of rounded projection. The harvest sites shift with it, most often the abdomen, flanks, lower back, and chest, so the contouring reads masculine from every angle.
The safety protocol does not change with the aesthetic: ultrasound-guided injection into the subcutaneous layer only, on every case. Pricing matches the main line, starting from $8,950, and lean patients hear the honest answer about donor fat before anything is scheduled.
Results
View the Full GalleryBrazilian Butt Lift
Brazilian Butt Lift (Side Views)
Questions, answered
The rest belong in a conversation. Consultations are unhurried by design.
Is a BBL safe?
Performed to modern standards, its safety profile has improved dramatically — and the alarming statistics that made headlines describe historical practice. A 2017 task-force survey in Aesthetic Surgery Journal estimated mortality at roughly one in 3,400 before modern standards; after subcutaneous-only injection became the standard of care, a 2020 follow-up survey in the same journal measured roughly one in 15,000, in range with other common aesthetic operations, and ultrasound guidance has strengthened the protocol since. The safety lives in the protocol, not the calendar: subcutaneous-only injection, confirmed by ultrasound, by a trained surgeon in an accredited facility — the way every case is done here. Ask any surgeon you consult exactly how they inject; you deserve a specific answer.
How much of the fat survives?
Roughly forty to fifty percent establishes permanent blood supply. Dr. Day places measured additional volume to account for that, so the settled result at three to six months matches the plan.
Why can't I sit afterward?
Two reasons: direct pressure in the first two to three weeks can compromise fat that has not yet built its blood supply, and it can deform the contour while the graft settles into place. A BBL pillow, side-sleeping, and short modified sitting protect the investment until it takes.
How long do results last?
Fat that survives the first months is living tissue with permanent blood supply — it stays. It behaves like the rest of your fat afterward, changing modestly with your weight.
What if I don't have enough fat?
Some lean patients simply lack donor volume, and you will hear that honestly at consultation rather than after an underpowered operation. Where transfer is not the right tool, the alternatives — including scaffold-based options such as AlloClae, or implants — are discussed candidly.
Will I have visible scars?
The liposuction access points are two-to-three-millimeter openings placed in natural folds or otherwise inconspicuous spots, and the injection sites are similarly small. Most patients find them faded to barely noticeable within several months.
Can it be combined with a tummy tuck?
Frequently — the liposuction that shapes the donor areas complements abdominal contouring naturally, which is why the two are so often planned together. Combined plans stay within the practice's operating-time safety limits and are staged when that is the safer call.
How much does a BBL cost?
A Brazilian butt lift starts from $8,950. The largest additional factor is operating-room time, including energy-based liposuction (VASER or Renuvion) in the harvest plan, itemized in writing at consultation. CareCredit and Alphaeon financing are available.
Financing Options