Hip dips, answered plainly

Inward curves on the outer hip, between the hip bone and the thigh — created by your skeletal geometry (where the femur's greater trochanter sits relative to the pelvis) and how fat and muscle distribute around it. They are a normal anatomical variant visible on most bodies to some degree, more on some frames than others. They are not a sign of being unfit, overweight, underweight or 'built wrong.'

Honestly: no — and you deserve that answer before spending another year trying. The dip sits over bone position and fat distribution; the muscle that squats and side-work build (gluteus medius and friends) lies largely above and behind it. Training improves strength and overall shape and is worth doing for its own sake — but it cannot place volume into a hollow that bone geometry created. That's precisely why fat transfer, which does place volume exactly there, works.

It's targeted fat transfer: fat is harvested gently by fine liposuction (usually from the flanks, waist or thighs), purified to concentrate living cells, and placed into the lateral hollow in many micro-droplet passes across the right planes. The entry points are a few millimetres, hidden in natural lines. The result is your own living tissue smoothing the waist-to-thigh line.

Typically somewhere in the range of 150–400 cc per side depending on the depth and length of your dip and the smoothness you're after — your assessment gives you your number. Because roughly 50–70% of transferred fat survives long-term, placement is planned with that arithmetic — modest deliberate over-correction within safe limits, judged honestly at 3–6 months.

No — and the difference matters for choosing what you actually want. A BBL is global gluteal augmentation: projection, size, shape of the buttock itself, usually with large volumes. Hip dip correction is targeted lateral work: filling a specific hollow so the silhouette line flows, often with far more modest volumes and no change to projection. They can be combined when both are genuinely wanted — but neither requires the other.

Sometimes, honestly. The plan needs harvestable donor fat, and hip dip correction's modest volumes make it accessible to slimmer patients than a full BBL — but very lean bodies can still lack the material. Photos settle it quickly, and 'not enough donor fat' is an answer you'd be given plainly rather than discovered on the table.

The fat that survives the settling months (judged at 3–6 months) has its own blood supply and behaves as living tissue — long-lasting, ageing with you, responding to major weight change like any fat on your body. No device, no maintenance schedule, no repeat by default.

Entry points of a few millimetres — for both harvest and placement — positioned in natural creases and underwear lines, fading toward invisibility over months. There is no incision in the traditional sense on the hip itself.

Here's this procedure's plot twist: the grafted zone is your sides — so side-lying is the position to avoid for the first ~3 weeks, while back- and front-sleeping are completely fine (the mirror image of BBL recovery). Expect bruising and swelling at both donor and graft sites for the first weeks, a garment with lateral protection, walking from day one, desk work within about a week, and exercise rebuilding from week 3–4 — side-loading last.

You'll look fuller than your final result early on — that's swelling plus planned over-correction, by design. Swelling settles over weeks; surviving fat stabilises over months. The honest verdict — the shape that stays — belongs to the 3–6 month mark, which is when photos are compared and any top-up sensibly discussed.

They exist (large-volume dermal or biostimulatory fillers) and deserve an honest comparison: temporary (typically 1–3 years), surprisingly expensive at the volumes hips need, and not without lump/migration risks at scale. Fat transfer costs more upfront, uses your own tissue, and what survives is permanent. For small refinements filler can be rational; for a genuine contour change, the arithmetic usually favours fat — and you'll be shown both sides before deciding.

Typically 5–7 days — assessment confirmation, the procedure, early recovery with the team nearby, and a final review before flying home. Follow-up continues remotely with photo reviews.

Priced individually — dip pattern, volumes and any accompanying contouring shape the plan. After a free photo assessment you receive a clear all-inclusive written quote, typically 50–70% below comparable private treatment in the UK, US or Northern Europe (indicative — confirmed individually after assessment). Dr. Erdal holds Türkiye's official health-tourism authorisation (No. 2026034015610080000444996).

Travellers from the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Germany and the Nordic countries can generally enter visa-free for short tourist stays, with direct flights to Istanbul from most major cities. Rules can change — verify officially before travel.

You send photographs — front, side and three-quarter views — and describe in your own words what bothers you. Dr. Erdal reviews them personally and tells you what he sees: whether targeted fat transfer would change your contour meaningfully, roughly what volumes your dip pattern would call for, whether your donor fat looks sufficient, and — genuinely — whether his advice would be to do nothing at all. If a plan makes sense, you receive a clear all-inclusive written quote. No charge, no obligation. Start from the contact page.

Often, yes — and for many patients the combination is what makes the difference. The fat placed into the hip hollow is usually harvested from precisely the areas people want slimmed: flanks, waist, outer thighs. Contouring above the dip and filling the dip itself therefore happen in one operation. It matters because the eye reads the transition between the two, which is why addressing a deficit below while leaving excess above can disappoint. Whether it suits you is confirmed at assessment — see combining procedures and hip dips and love handles.

Yes, though the brief is different. Men who seek it are usually after a straighter, fuller lateral line rather than an hourglass curve, which generally means more conservative volumes and a different emphasis in placement. The operation itself, and the recovery rules, are otherwise the same. There is more detail on the hip dips in men page.

It is the norm rather than the exception; close symmetry is uncommon in any body. Fat transfer happens to suit asymmetry well, because each side is planned and filled independently — different volumes where different volumes are needed. It is discussed openly at assessment, including how closely the two sides can reasonably be brought together and what would remain. See asymmetric hip dips.

All surgery carries risk, and this operation is no exception — a modest procedure is a description, not a reassurance. The recognised ones include bruising and swelling (expected rather than complications), contour irregularity, partial graft loss that may warrant a top-up, occasional oil cysts and, rarely, infection. They are discussed with you individually before any decision is made. The safety page sets them out in full, alongside the anatomical reasons this particular procedure sits in relatively forgiving territory.

Not by default. Most plans are built as a single session, sized with the 50–70% survival arithmetic in mind. A second session becomes a sensible conversation in two situations: when your goal is larger than one session's natural ceiling, so the work is staged by design, or when partial graft loss leaves less than was planned. Either way it is discussed at the 3–6 month verdict, once swelling has gone and survival has settled — never sold upfront. The month-by-month results timeline shows where that conversation sits.

Usually, yes. Surgery waits until you have held a settled weight for around six months, because grafted fat behaves like the rest of your fat in both directions — contour planned mid-journey is planned against a moving target. Weight-loss journeys also tend to make dips more visible as padding goes, and can leave skin laxity that changes the plan (see skin quality and major weight loss). You can still send photos during the journey; the honest answer may simply be a date rather than a yes or no.

It does not rule you out, but it sets a firm condition: no nicotine for four weeks before and four weeks after surgery. Nicotine constricts the small vessels that newly placed fat depends on to establish a blood supply, so this is the one rule of fat grafting that is not negotiable. A gate you cannot pass yet is not a rejection — it is the first line of the plan. The full set of gates is on the candidacy page.

It depends, and it is an individual read rather than a rule. Grafted fat survives pregnancy variably, so for some patients the honest advice is to wait until after the last planned pregnancy, and for others proceeding now is reasonable. Mention your plans at assessment so that the advice reflects your timeline. Life timing by decade is covered in hip dip correction by age.