One is excess above the hip bone; the other is a deficit below it. Most 'my hips look wrong' frustration is the two stacked together — and the fix reads them as one line.
What it is: excess fat above the hip bone, at the flank. The fix: removal — liposuction. It's a subtraction problem.
What it is: a volume deficit below and behind the hip bone, over skeletal geometry. The fix: addition — targeted fat transfer. It's an addition problem.
Fullness above makes the hollow below read deeper — the eye measures the drop between them. Treating only one often disappoints: lipo alone can make dips look worse; filling alone leaves the shelf above — the reasoning set out in why fixing one alone disappoints.
The flank fat being removed is often exactly the donor fat the dip needs — one operation subtracting where there's excess and adding where there's deficit, reading your side as one continuous line. This is the single most common combined plan in this practice. It is the first of the pairings set out on combining procedures.
Subtraction above, addition below — and the fat removed from the first is the material for the second. Here is what that actually involves, step by step.
Fine, low-pressure liposuction takes fat from the flanks, waist or thighs — the very fullness that makes the hollow below read deeper. Harvest quality is the first lever on graft survival: aggressive suction damages cells before they ever reach the hip, which is why the technique that treats your love handles is chosen for the graft's sake as much as the waist's.
The harvest is processed to concentrate viable fat cells and remove fluid, oil and debris. It is the quiet step between removing fat from one place and placing it in another — and it determines how much of what goes into the hollow is even living tissue.
Typically 150–400 cc per side, layered in many fine passes across the well-perfused subcutaneous planes of the lateral hollow — never in boluses. Because the eye measures the drop between the shelf above and the hollow below, the plan is drawn against the whole side profile rather than against the dip in isolation. The full operation is described on the surgery page.
Both areas swell and bruise, and a single lateral-protection garment does two opposite jobs: snug support where fat was harvested at the waist and flanks, with the grafted sides shielded rather than squeezed. Side-lying is out for about three weeks while sitting, back and front stay free — the calendar is on the recovery page.
What was removed is gone; what was added follows the survival arithmetic — 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. Individual results vary, and suitability is confirmed by personal consultation and examination.
What it means: on slimmer patients the fat that would be removed from above is also the fat needed below, and there may not be enough to do both generously. What happens: the donor read comes back from your photos before anything is planned — the first of the gates on the candidacy page. For small refinements with no reserve to harvest, the non-surgical options can be the more rational route.
What it means: after major weight loss, significant laxity can produce the same "my side looks wrong" impression without either an excess or a deficit being the main problem. What happens: removing and adding volume may not deliver a smooth line, so that question is addressed first — explored in skin quality, major weight loss and hip dips.
What it means: both halves of the plan are drawn against a contour that is still changing, and grafted fat behaves like your own fat in both directions. What happens: the operation waits for roughly six months at a settled weight — a date rather than a refusal.
What it means: plenty of people want the flank fullness gone and are untroubled by the hollow, or the reverse. What happens: the plan matches what you described. Asking about love handles should not return a hip dip quote, and asking about hip dips should not return a liposuction one — that is the upsell test, applied here as everywhere. And doing nothing about either remains a respected outcome of assessment.
Send front and back photos; the read comes back mapped: what's excess, what's deficit, and the one-line plan.
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