TEN YEARS AFTER THE BRAZILIAN BUTTOCK LIFT BOOM, KENYA HAS DEVELOPED ITS OWN VERSION.
From viral magazine covers to operating rooms, the Brazillian butt lift’s legacy has reshaped global beauty standards in Kenya, a localized version of the procedure is gaining popularity — and redefinings what enhancement looks like.
In 2014, Kim Kardashian transcended internet virality with one magazine cover. The infamous Jean-Paul Goude shot, which graced the cover of Paper Magazine in November of that year, featured Kardashian draped in Old Hollywood glamour, holding a sparkly black gown below her exposed behind.
“BREAK THE INTERNET KIM KARDASHIAN,” the headline read. And break it did.
Two years later, the impact of Kardashian’s cover was palpable. Gone were the beauty standards that favored Eurocentric features and thinness — the hallmarks of the carly aughts. With that one shot, Kardashian ushered in a new era of beauty that embraced what many considered exaggerated curves, voluminous lips and chiseled, flawless features. Instagram “baddies,” which Her Campus defined as “someone who is confident, always well-dressed, has near-perfect makeup, and isn’t easily messed with, typically associated with “females and femininity,” quickly became the blueprint, inspiring a plastic surgery boom in the U.S. and around the world.
One particular procedure that grew in popularity was the Brazilian buttock lift. From the carly aughts through the 2010s, the operation – which the Cleveland Clinic describes as “a cosmetic fat-transfer procedure that enhances the size and shape of the buttocks without implants” – became the fastest-growing aesthetic surgical procedure of the decade. Now, while body contouring procedures like BBLs, tummy tucks and others still reign supreme, Western beauty ideals are shifting back toward the aesthetics of the carly 2000s.
Kenya, however, is moving in a different direction. Dr. Tilman Stasch, founder of Riverside-based Dr. Stasch Clinic & Medispa, a leading Nairobi clinic offering cosmetic, surgical and therapeutic treatments, says that shift points toward what he has coined the “Kenyan buttock lift.”
“The procedure is extremely popular,” Dr. Stasch shares while he’s fittingly on his way to perform a Kenyan buttock lift procedure. He adds, “I perform at least two or three every week.”
Dr. Stasch, who opened Dr. Stasch Clinic & Medispa in 2012, says he developed the procedure after beginning practice in Kenya 15 years ago. “The procedure is fundamentally different from the Brazilian butt lift, which most people will be familiar with,” he explained.While the Brazilian butt lift “enhances the posterior side of the buttocks” and prioritizes “posterior enhancement,” its Kenyan counterpart focuses on a different area. According to Dr. Stasch, many East African women naturally have “anterior posterior buttock projection.”
“However, they do have the so-called ‘hip dips,” he said, explaining that these are “dimples in the lateral hip area.” It’s an area, he notes, that “East African women want to enhance.” Love handles, or “excess fat deposits that accumulate around the waistline and hips,” per Healthline, are also manipulated during the procedure.
“With buttock lifts, one can either have silicone implants placed to achieve the desired effect.
However, Dr. Stasch says he is ‘exclusively using fat’ to help women achieve a more curvaceous figure. ‘A successful Kenyan buttock lift involves liposuction and liposculpture of the tummy, waistline, back, and other areas where fat tends to accumulate, followed by transferring the harvested fat to areas that need enhancement most — such as the hip dips or other regions of the buttocks, he explains.
The localization of the procedure is rooted in patients’ desire for the following: a narrower waistline with a flat tummy, full lateral hips; a “smooth S curve, creating a curvy figure-eight shape”; and a round buttock shape with maximum projection in the mid buttock region — to ultimately help his patients, as Dr. Stasch puts it, “look sexy in a tight dress.”
Like other countries around the world, Kenya is influenced by global beauty trends and standards. And even though the Kenyan buttock lift is rooted in that influence, Dr. Stasch argues it is also connected to traditional cultural truths across Africa. “I think there’s always been a phenomenon of ethnic culture that curvy bodies and large buttocks are signs of fertility and probably also wealth,” he explains.
However, the impact of social media cannot be ignored. Both local and international influencers continue to champion body types that feature “very narrow waistlines and very big buttocks,” and their millions of followers may be encouraging East Africans to adopt a similar aesthetic.
Dr. Stasch disagrees. He says most of his patients come to his practice to “enhance what they already have.” “Compared to other countries like America, where I have been sharing notes with a lot of surgeons who put a lot into the buttocks, most Kenyan women want a kind of moderate volume increase, and it’s more about shape than necessarily size,” he explains.
However, the impact of social media cannot be ignored Both local and international influencers continue to champion body types that feature “very narrow waistlines and very big buttocks,” and their millions of followers may be encouraging East Africans to adopt a similar aesthetic
Dr. Stasch disagrees. He says most of his patients come to his practice to “enhance what they already have.”
“Compared to other countries like America, where I have been sharing notes with a lot of surgeons who put a lot into the buttocks, most Kenyan women want a kind of moderate volume increase, and it’s more about shape than necessarily size,” he explains.
Despite the specifies of the Kenyan iteration, the risks remain as serious as other buttock lift procedures. There have been fatalities linked to buttock lift procedures around the world, including in Kenya. Dr. Stasch notes that these risks are often tied to procedures performed by under-qualified practitioners.
“The reason why people have died is that surgeons have introduced fat into the muscles and injected it either too deep, in the wrong direction, or injected too much fat into the area,” he explains. “That has then led to fat being taken up by the blood vessels, which can lead to fat embolism and clots in the heart and lungs.”
For those interested in the procedure, Dr. Stasch underscores the importance of seeking a practitioner with extensive experience in plastic surgery and buttock lift procedures. He also believes that ensuring patient safety requires honesty about the procedure, recovery, and expectations.
“We never compare one patient with models on Instagram or online,” he says. “We always look at the patients themselves and how best they can look — that really gives us a lot of big smiles and a lot of happy patients. □
