Five gates decide it — donor fat, weight stability, skin quality, health and expectations. Here's each one, plainly, so you can pre-assess yourself before sending a single photo.
Pressure from anyone else, a contour panic sparked by filtered photos, or hoping surgery fixes something surgery can't reach — each earns a slower, kinder conversation first. Hip dips are normal anatomy; correction is an informed preference, never an obligation.
The page that says soWhat it means: the harvest needed for your pattern isn't there. What happens: you're told from photos rather than on the table. For small refinements, filler can be the rational choice for exactly this situation — weighed honestly in filler vs fat transfer. Where the modest volumes still work on a slim frame, and where biology sets the floor, is the subject of am I too thin for hip dip surgery.
What it means: the contour is still changing, and grafted fat would change with it. What happens: a date replaces a yes-or-no — roughly six months after your plateau. Keep sending photos along the way if that helps you plan.
What it means: the eye is reading loose skin as much as a hollow. What happens: that question is addressed first, because volume alone may not read as a smooth line. The reasoning is set out in skin quality, major weight loss and hip dips.
What it means: an uncontrolled condition or ongoing nicotine use puts anaesthesia or graft survival at avoidable risk. What happens: the operation waits until the condition is controlled and nicotine has stopped for four weeks — the safety page explains why these gates exist.
What it means: the hoped-for change is larger than one session can reasonably deliver at 50–70% survival, or is a different goal altogether. What happens: an honest re-scope — staging, a different operation such as the one compared in hip dips vs BBL, or the advice to do nothing.
That's exactly what assessment is for — send photos and the honest read comes back, gate by gate.
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