The July issue of Women’s Journal landed at the front desk of Southwest Plastic Surgery before I had seen a copy myself. My team had it propped against the espresso machine by nine in the morning, and patients checking in for skin treatments kept doing the same double take.
That is me on the cover, arms crossed in a #StayBeautiful shirt. That is this practice’s facelift on a national Face Issue.
The cover story, by Adriana Sinclair, tells the story my team lives every week: the scar-free facelift, the training behind it, and why patients now fly into El Paso for it instead of flying out.
The Facelift Behind the Headline
The procedure Women’s Journal profiled is the ponytail lift, formally a total endoscopic deep plane facelift. I perform it through small openings hidden entirely inside the hairline, using an endoscope, a thin camera, to lift the deeper structures of the face: the brow, the midface, and the jawline.
Because the work happens in the deep layer, the skin is never stretched. Because the openings sit behind the hairline, nothing shows. Our patients can wear a high ponytail three months later and no one at the salon will find a line.
We wrote about the technique when I brought it home from training: A Facelift Nobody Should Be Able to Tell. The magazine version adds the part we do not usually say ourselves: this is the direction facial surgery is heading, and it is happening here.
Trained by the Surgeon Who Created It
The cover story traces the training honestly, and it matters. The ponytail lift was created by Dr. Chia Chi Kao. I took his intermediate course in Pittsburgh, then was accepted into the advanced Ponytail Academy, the invitation-only program at his own Santa Monica operating rooms. Cadaver lab, live endoscopic demonstrations, and a heavy emphasis on choosing the right patient.
That is on top of the credentials our patients already know: Mayo Clinic fellowship training, double board certification, a teaching appointment at Texas Tech, thirteen straight years as Best Plastic Surgeon in El Paso, and Castle Connolly Top Doctor recognition for thirteen consecutive years. Surgery at Southwest Plastic Surgery happens in our AAAASF-accredited surgical suite, with the same anesthesia standards a hospital would hold us to.
Not Every Face Needs the Same Lift
Something I appreciate about the article: it says plainly that this operation is not for everybody, because that is exactly how consultations run here.
Patients with early to moderate changes, who want the midface and brow lifted invisibly, are often ideal for the endoscopic approach. Patients with more significant loose skin or established jowls usually get a better answer from the traditional open deep plane facelift, which I also perform. The consultation decides, not the trend.
And for faces that are not ready for surgery at all, the practice around the surgery matters. Our med spa team supports facelift patients before and after the operating room: medical-grade skincare to build skin quality in the months before surgery, and gentle treatments during recovery once I clear them. Patients who are years away from a lift often start there instead, and some stay there happily for a long time.
What This Cover Means for El Paso
Here is the line from the story my team keeps repeating around the office: more than eighty percent of my patients travel to El Paso from across the country.
Ten years ago that sentence would have run in the other direction. People from our region assumed serious facial surgery required a flight to Dallas, Beverly Hills, or Miami. Watching that reverse, watching out-of-state area codes fill the schedule, has been the quiet pride of this practice. A national magazine cover simply says it out loud.
We serve this community in English and Spanish, on both sides of the border, and the whole team took this cover personally. It is a photograph of one surgeon, but it recognizes years of work by the nurses, coordinators, and aestheticians at Southwest Plastic Surgery who get every one of those patients through surgery and recovery.
What Recovery Looks Like Here
Patients always ask what the weeks after a facelift feel like, so here is the honest shape of it at our practice.
The first few days are about swelling and rest, with my team checking in and my cell number in the patient’s phone. Most patients are comfortable in public by the two week mark, often sooner with the endoscopic approach, because there is no long incision line to conceal. Exercise comes back in stages, usually by week four to six.
The med spa side of the practice earns its keep in this stretch. Once I clear a patient, gentle lymphatic treatments help swelling resolve, and a medical-grade skincare plan protects the result. The surgery repositions structure; the skin still needs maintenance, sun protection, and good habits. Patients who treat the facelift as the start of a skin routine, not the end of one, keep their results looking effortless for years.
Out-of-town patients get the same arc, planned around travel: pre-op work done remotely where possible, surgery and the first follow-ups here in El Paso, then a return visit timed to their healing. My coordinators have walked hundreds of patients through it, in English and Spanish.
Come See What the Story Is About
The magazine is on the front desk, and yes, patients keep picking it up. The better version of the story is a conversation about your own face.
Ready to Talk?
Call Southwest Plastic Surgery at (915) 590-7900, text the consult line at 1-866-814-0038, or visit us in El Paso. Find Dr. Agullo as @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook. #StayBeautiful
Companion reads: Dr. Agullo’s editorial on drworldwide.com and the patient-focused explainer on agulloplasticsurgery.com.
