Will we see a sea of bigger butts this summer?
New data shows that a specific cosmetic procedure rose during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Bloomberg. This new data comes from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The society found that butt implants rose by 22%, from 970 to 1,179, in the last year. A butt implant procedure is when a silicon-like implant is inserted into the butt. This gives the butt more volume than a butt lift. And according to the society, more people than ever are undergoing the procedure.
But while butt implants rose, other procedures were not as lucky. Filler procedures declined by 11 percent, Botox went down by 13 percent, and breast implants fell by 33 percent, according to the Cut. Augmentation via fat grafting, another method for making the butt bigger, also decreased. Though fat-grating is still more popular than butt implants. 22,000 Americans underwent fat grafting in 2020 and only 1,200 Americans had butt implants.
Butt implants weren’t the only cosmetic procedure to see an increase in the last year. Pectoral implants rose by 5 percent and breast implant removals rose by 8 percent. But what caused this notable increase? Perhaps the rise of TikTok and the increased use of other social media platforms that focus on looks during the pandemic. At least, that’s what Dermatologist Ava Shamban hypothesized.
“Presumably, seeing the higher, tighter rounder assets on social media or any number of reality distractions, had patients researching and ultimately scheduling procedures to give their bottom line a much-needed boost,” Shamban argued.
Shamban also guesses that the “modern-day ‘secretary spread’, or a general flattening of the buttocks” could have influenced this rise in butt implants. The fact that so many of us spent the past year sitting around could have flattened our butts. And some people chose to correct that with surgery. But, we don’t know for sure yet. What we do know is that you might see some people post-lockdowns and vaccinations with very different bodies than what they had before 2020.