Harvest, purification, micro-droplet placement — the whole operation, its volumes, its survival arithmetic and its honest limits.
Fine, low-pressure liposuction from the flanks, waist or thighs — volumes chosen for the graft plan, with a genuine (modest) waist-contouring bonus. Harvest quality is survival's first lever: aggressive suction kills cells before they ever reach the hip.
The harvest is processed to concentrate viable fat cells and remove fluid, oil and debris — the quiet step deciding how much of what's placed is even alive.
Typically 150–400 cc per side, layered in many fine passes across well-perfused planes of the lateral hollow — never boluses. Placement craft decides both survival and smoothness: the goal is a line, not a lump. Each side is planned and filled independently, with different volumes where the two differ — close symmetry is uncommon in any body, and a deeper dip on one side is suited to exactly this kind of side-by-side planning.
Roughly 50–70% of transferred fat gains a blood supply and stays — so plans include deliberate modest over-correction, and the honest verdict belongs to months 3–6. What remains then is living tissue, permanent by default. Neither "the fat all dies" nor "the result is instant" survives contact with that arithmetic — both are audited in the myths roundup.
Usually 1.5–3 hours under sedation or general anaesthesia, day-case or one night; entry points of millimetres in natural creases; garment with lateral protection fitted before discharge; typical Istanbul stay 5–7 days.
Very lean patients may lack donor fat (told plainly, from photos). One session has a natural ceiling — larger goals stage. And skin quality matters: significant laxity after major weight loss may need its own conversation first.
Fat transfer to the lateral hollow changes the side silhouette; it does not add projection behind. If projection is the real goal, that is a different operation with a different recovery — see hip dips vs BBL before anyone quotes you.
Modest volumes make this slim-friendly, but not donor-free. When photos show too little material at the flanks, waist or thighs, you are told so — and for small refinements, the non-surgical options may be the more rational route.
Grafted fat behaves like your own fat in both directions, so a contour planned mid-journey — dieting, GLP-1 medication or post-bariatric — is planned against a moving target. The operation waits for around six months at a settled weight; the candidacy gates explain why.
No nicotine four weeks before and four weeks after surgery is the absolute rule of fat grafting, because new fat depends on the small vessels nicotine constricts. Until that is possible, the plan simply waits.
If significant laxity after major weight loss is what the eye reads, adding volume alone may not deliver a smooth line. That changes the conversation first — explored in skin quality and hip dips.
Pressure from a partner, a contour worry sparked by filtered images, or hope that surgery will fix something it cannot reach — each earns a slower conversation first. Hip dips are normal anatomy, and "do nothing" is a respected outcome of assessment (the page that says so).
Photos in — your realistic volume range, donor read and plan out. Free.
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