‘Strong but petite’: New ‘yoga boob’ surgery on the rise

There’s a new trend called “ballerina breasts”, or “yoga boobs”, with women lining up for barely noticeable augmentations.

Women are ditching Baywatch boobs, as small breasts suddenly become a big deal in plastic surgery, with women lining up for barely noticeable augmentations, whether through implants or fat grafts.

Dubbed “yoga boobs” or “ballerina breasts”, the au naturel appearance — which takes its name from women with slender, athletic builds — has cropped up in doctors’ offices across America, amid a rise in “undetectable” aesthetics.

It’s a stark contrast from the plastic surgery heyday of the early 2000s, when exaggerated busts reigned, according to New York plastic surgeon Dr Lara Devgan.

She receives 50 to 100 inquiries per month for “yoga boobs”, which she describes as “enough to fill out a sports bra while maintaining a sleek, sculpted silhouette”.

“There has been an overall societal trend toward slimness, and balanced and proportionate breasts are a huge part of that,” she told The Post.

Gianna Mazzilli never wanted ‘Baywatch-looking boobs’. Picture: Tamara Beckwith/NY Post

New York surgeon Dr Darren Smith told The Post that he too has gotten a higher concentration of interested patients than five years prior, and has 20 to 30 requests for the low-profile procedure every month.

“They want something kind of strong but petite,” he said of the “yoga boobs” fad.

“They’re not so much doing it to get other people’s attention, but they just want a little bit more volume to fill out their physique,” he said. “They want breasts that look like they have always been there and that they just fit their frame very nicely.”

New Yorker Gianna Mazzilli, 25, knew she “never wanted big boobs” — like the “fake-looking, big, Baywatch-looking boobs”.

She struggled with asymmetric breasts, but post-op, no one would be the wiser.

In fact, it looks so natural that her friends couldn’t even tell.

New York surgeon Dr Darren Smith. Picture: Tamara Beckwith/NY Post

“I didn’t want them to look fake or have people think weird of me,” Ms Mazzilli, who works in pharmaceutical marketing, told The Post.

New York plastic surgeon Dr Sophie Bartsich told The Post that the downsized breast trend is “very new”.

“A lot of patients want something that you can dress up or dress down,” she said. “They want something that’s a little more classic, a little more elegant.”

She recalled a time not too long ago when implant manufacturers didn’t have smaller samples or even implants readily available for her to show patients.

“There was a philosophy that [you should] go as big as you can with the implants, because the last thing you want is for the patient to say, ‘I wish, I wish I had gone bigger,’” Dr Bartsich said. “That was the teaching back then.”

‘I didn’t want them to look fake.’ Picture: Tamara Beckwith/NY Post

Now, societal preferences have changed and doctors have learned the “damage” too-big implants can cause — rib deformity, breast tissue atrophy, skin stretching — and “almost any manufacturer makes them way smaller than they used to”, she added.

The new, subtler look is achieved through one of three methods — implants, fat grafting or a hybrid of the two.

While modern implants are the traditional route, some surgeons will harvest fat cells from another area of the body for the modest half- or full-cup boost.

People have been reporting on the trend on TikTok. Picture: TikTok

Carmen N., who declined to disclose her last name for privacy, barely even wears makeup, so she didn’t want her breasts to look “done”.

“I was very hesitant, but I also just didn’t feel as confident, like I almost felt like I had the body of a teenage boy,” Carmen, 34, told The Post, describing herself as having a petite frame.

“I didn’t want anybody to look at me and be like, ‘Oh my God, Carmen got breast implants.’”

Now, the Brooklyn resident is a proud B-cup and is able to “fill out a bathing suit top” — and most of her friends don’t know she went under the knife.

“This really gave me such a confidence boost,” she said. “It’s so natural. They look like I’ve had this my entire life.”

This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as ‘Strong but petite’: New ‘yoga boob’ surgery on the rise