DR. WORLDWIDE GETS SOCIAL
DR. WORLDWIDE GET TO KNOW HIM
Frank Agullo, MD, FACS — known globally as Dr. WorldWide — is a double board-certified plastic surgeon in El Paso, Texas. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Affiliate Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. Specializing in preservation-based aesthetic surgery and the Deep Plane Facelift, he has been named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor for thirteen consecutive years and has a global social following of over 3.5 million across Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. He is the founder of Southwest Plastic Surgery and Plastic Surgery Studios.
Meet Dr.WWDR. WORLDWIDE GET TO KNOW HIM
Frank Agullo, MD, FACS is the plastic surgeon the world watches. Known globally as Dr. WorldWide, he has built one of the largest followings of any surgeon on the planet (over 3.5 million on Instagram @RealDrWorldWide) by pulling back the curtain on plastic surgery and showing what extraordinary results actually look like. Celebrities, influencers, and patients from across the United States and around the world make the trip to El Paso, Texas, because when you have seen the work up close, there is nowhere else to go. More than 80% of his patients travel from outside El Paso. The practice handles every detail of their journey.
Dr. Agullo is double board-certified, Mayo Clinic fellowship-trained, and a Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. But credentials only tell part of the story. What sets him apart is a philosophy built on preservation: enhancing, restoring, and elevating what is already there rather than changing who you are. Not cookie cutter. Every plan is molded around the individual patient's desires, their anatomy, their life.
That philosophy drives every decision in the operating room. His Motiva Preserve breast augmentations deliver results that feel as natural as they look. His deep plane and endoscopic deep plane facelifts turn back time without announcing themselves. His Supercharged BBL has been refined, published, and presented on international stages. And his ability to combine face and body procedures in a single operative session is a capability few surgeons in the world can offer safely at his level.
The same philosophy applies outside the OR. Forget synthetic fillers. Dr. Agullo restores volume with regenerative grafts including Alloclae, Lipoderma, exosomes, and platelet-derived growth factors. Recovery is treated as part of the result: lymphatic massages, scar management, and Elixir MD LED light therapy ensure that what happens after surgery is as intentional as what happens during it.
Castle Connolly Top Doctor for eleven consecutive years. Texas Super Doctors Hall of Fame. Best Plastic Surgeon in El Paso for thirteen consecutive years. Aesthetic Everything Top Plastic Surgeon 2026. Founding Vice President and President of the World Association of Gluteal Surgeons, where he helped write the global safety standards for gluteal surgery.
The results are daily. The standard is uncompromising. The philosophy is simple: #MakeItHappen. #HappyIsBeautiful. #StayBeautiful.
#PlasticSurgeryIsMyPassion
GLAMOUR SHOTS
Plastic Surgery is a very personal choice and a unique experience for every individual who chooses to undergo a change, be it a discreet or major surgery. The one thing in common for my patients though is that they experience an inner transformation which ultimately shines through as confidence in themselves. Confident is Beautiful!
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- Posted on: November 2nd 2026
- Category: Commentary, Face, Facelift
A former Bachelor Australia contestant, 39, flew to Istanbul for a deep plane facelift booked through a medical tourism agency and was photographed shopping in bandages two days later. No diagnosis of her. Just the two questions the photos raise: what a deep plane is for at 39, and what the first two weeks are for when your surgeon is on another continent.
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- Posted on: November 2nd 2026
- Category: Commentary, Face, Facelift
- Istanbul. Shopping two days after a deep plane facelift, head still wrapped.
I won’t name names (nor diagnose from afar using a photo taken with a long-lens camera). But two of the questions that occurred to me after seeing that photo, day two after a deep plane facelift procured through a medical tourism agency, are ones I get asked all the time here in El Paso.
The story ran in Fashion Times UK and the Daily Mail last week (I’m sure there were others): 39 y/o Bachelor Australia personality flies to Istanbul for a deep plane facelift and is then photographed out and about (apparently shopping) on day two with her head wrapped. No surgeon named.
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If you’re only 39, why on earth would you get a deep plane facelift?
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Who’s taking care of you in those first two weeks after a facelift if your surgeon is on another continent?
Thirty-Nine Is Not Too Young. It Is the Whole Point
Why first. Back when I finished my fellowship, a 39-year-old asking for a facelift got tretinoin and a kind smile. Not now. A young patient saw me this fall about her eyelids and we ended up talking about the lift. I told her this, give or take a word.
“As for the lift, the one that’s most natural and lasts the longest would be the ponytail. It’s like a mini, but I don’t like to say mini, because mini is like mini results. It is a deep plane, but with minimal scars.”
“I mention it because, obviously, you’re young, but with this surgery you’re going to look 10, 15 years younger. The good thing is that at this age we can go back to the late twenties, late thirties, and start over. Then ten years after the surgery, we can do it again and go back to the thirties when you’re in your fifties. The sooner we do it, we kind of lock in a younger age. If we do nothing, it ages a little faster. That’s just for you to consider, not something you have to do.”
I want to underline that last line, because it gets lost. At 39 this is an option on the table, not a sentence. Nobody has to.
So why am I having this conversation with people in their thirties at all? “The reason we’re seeing this increase exponentially is that patients are noticing signs of facial aging earlier, or they’ve been on GLP-1s and have had accelerated aging from fat loss in the face and skin sagging.”
And then there is the arithmetic, which is the part people seem to like best. “If you get it at forty, you’re probably going to look like you’re in your early thirties, or even late twenties. But time keeps moving forward, so if we repeat the procedure ten years later, we take you back to that earlier stage of yourself.”
Which Deep Plane, Though
“Deep plane” tells you the layer the surgeon worked in. It does not tell you where the scars are. “The differentiator is how much excess skin there is. If there’s substantial excess skin, then we do a deep plane open facelift with an incision in front of the ear. If there’s not a lot of excess skin, we can get away with doing everything through the incisions behind the hairline.”
A ponytail lift, also called an endoscopic deep plane facelift, leaves its scars inside the hair. It is my go-to conversation with most patients under 45 because there’s typically not a lot of extra skin at that age. Will it look pulled? That’s the question I can set my watch to. A patient asked me exactly that in September.
“I think the deep plane lift and the endoscopic deep plane lift are great procedures, which create very natural and long-lasting results, and we’re seeing patients completely avoid the noninvasive procedures and go straight to the surgical procedures early on.”
What Day Two Looks Like, Anywhere
Shopping in Istanbul on day two after a deep plane facelift? Not shocking to me, honestly. Facelift recovery is physically easy and mentally hard, and I say so before every one of them. “The surgery itself takes about six hours. It’s general anesthesia, and you go home the same day. The good thing about this face surgery is there’s no pain, so the physical recovery is easy. The hard part is you’re going to be swollen, there’ll be some bruising, you’ll look in the mirror and get a little impatient. So it does take about two weeks to start looking good and feel comfortable with other people seeing you. If you have a social event, I’d say six weeks is when you start looking your best. You’ll have a drain that comes out back here. It usually comes out at five days. We remove it, not you.”
Our pre-op nurse says the same thing to every facelift patient before surgery: “So the majority of our patients, around week 3 to 4, they’re regretting what they did. I like to let you know, because once you remember what I tell you when you’re healing, you’re like, okay, she did tell me.”
So the picture of her out with bandages on day two makes sense to me. Day two was never the part I worry about.
The Problem Is Day Five Through Fourteen, and Who Is There
Most of the patients I operate on live out of town, so I have a spiel for this, and here it is. “To be here in El Paso, I recommend staying one week so we can remove the stitches, check that everything is fine, and do the treatments. We have a light treatment called Elixir MD that speeds the recovery almost by double, so that helps you get back to work faster.”
“After seven days here you can go home, and all the follow-ups can be virtual.”
Then there’s the practical stuff. My rule for out-of-town patients is a week near me. I pull the drain myself on day five, take out the sutures, and feel for any fluid under the skin, then you go home and spend two weeks being patient. A medical tourism package has to answer for all of that. Sure, the surgeon may do a beautiful facelift (check that too), but who’s going to remove the drain? Who examines you when there’s a question about swelling on day six? Who reassures you when one side is a little more swollen than the other on day nine and you’re sure the surgery must have gone terribly wrong? And what about the added risk of blood clots and swelling that comes with a long flight in the first week? No help from the booking agent for that, either.
When They Come Home to Us
Every so often one of those patients ends up in my office, which is why I wrote about aftercare for people who had surgery elsewhere last month. The short version of how that goes: “After their surgery, they still need aftercare. Whether it is routine or not, they find themselves in a bind because they cannot easily travel back to see their surgeons.”
“Most surgeons do not accept patients from other surgeons, which makes it difficult for these patients to obtain optimal treatment. We are here for patients, and we are available if we can help.”
What I need from them: “Documentation of the operative report and drain output, as well as any implant cards, is beneficial, but oftentimes not available immediately.”
And what I will not touch early, no matter how much someone wants me to: “In the early stages, we really cannot revise any of the surgery itself.” For the ones who are already unhappy, “patients are usually told to wait until healing has been achieved, which can vary depending on the procedure from three months to a year.”
One more thing, because people flying home tend to forget it. The go-to-the-ER list is the same in every country. “In terms of when to go to the ER, this is very clear, and the patient should already have these instructions from their original surgeon. This includes any changes in vital signs, such as low blood pressure, tachycardia, which is a high pulse rate, fever, lightheadedness, or fainting; redness, purulent discharge, changes in the color of the drain output, specifically if it becomes white, yellowish, or creamy; a fluid collection that keeps growing, shortness of breath or chest pain, swelling in the legs or tenderness in the calves, a breast that suddenly gets larger and painful, or uncontrolled bleeding.”
What I Would Say to Her, or to You
I hope her recovery goes smoothly. Most do, even at 39. The six-week mark will give you a good idea, but a year will show you the final result. I discussed what a settled facelift looks like in my post about Kris Jenner, and the ponytail lift in my facelift you can’t see post.
39 and thinking about it? Ask these questions first, before the price: Which deep plane? Can I hide the scars in my hair? Who takes out the drain, and when? Who do I talk to if, in the third week, I’m freaking out that my reflection looks totally messed up?
The surgical side of this (candidacy at 39, the two deep planes side by side) is on Agullo Plastic Surgery, and the recovery side (LED light, the aftercare package) is on Southwest Plastic Surgery.
I am a double board-certified plastic surgeon, a Mayo Clinic fellowship alum, and a Clinical Associate Professor of plastic surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. I trained in the ponytail lift at the Ponytail Academy (the intermediate course in Pittsburgh, the advanced one in Santa Monica), and I do these every week in El Paso.
Call the office at (915) 590-7900, text us at 1-866-814-0038, or book a consultation at drworldwide.com. Find me @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
#StayBeautiful
- Posted on: November 2nd 2026
- Category: Body, Commentary
One lost it with diet alone, one with a GLP-1, one over two years in the gym. All three had the same problem: the fat was gone and the skin was still there. What I told them, nearly as I said it.
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- Posted on: November 2nd 2026
- Category: Body, Commentary
Three men in one afternoon. One lost 70 pounds with diet and exercise and no medication. One lost 74 on a GLP-1 and has kept it off for four months since stopping. One lost 80 over two years and trains five or six days a week. Different roads, same exam: the fat is gone, the skin is still there. I am publishing the exchanges nearly as they happened, identifiers removed.
The first man: tummy and neck
Me: “Have you lost weight? How much have you lost?”
Him: Seventy.
Me: “Oh, great. Congratulations. Let me have you stand. So there’s a lot of excess skin there. To completely get rid of this loose skin, it would be a tummy tuck. The incision is low, so you can hide it with shorts or boxers or swimsuit. I do have to go past where this fold ends to get rid of it completely. I would actually pretty much be able to get rid of everything from here down, and then use this skin, and we just pull it down. I also take some of the fat off of the mons and lift it up, so that also helps make everything nice and smooth all the way down.”
Me: “I suspect that because you were a lot heavier, there is maybe some separation in the muscles, so I actually repair that, so it makes everything tighter as well. And we combine that with liposuction, especially here on the waistline and here on the lower back, the upper back, and the sides. If we only did liposuction, I think we would get rid of the filling, but then everything would sag more.”
Him: And do you use a mesh?
Me: “We don’t really need to. I use it when there’s a hernia or like severe diastasis. If we can avoid putting something that we don’t need in the body, it’s better. Just with the sutures, we get great results.”
Me: “There’s still some visceral fat that, of course, is always pushing out a little bit. So that limits how much I can tighten everything, but I think you’re ready for the surgery, because there’s not that huge amount of fat anymore on the outside. It’s just mostly a lot of loose skin. I have a good handful, so it’s abundant. It’s enough that with liposuction, it’s not going to flatten out. We really need to cut it out.”
His neck
Me: “You have a combination of the fatty tissue that’s on the outside, which is not that much, but there is a fatty tissue that’s a little bit deeper inside, below the muscle itself. And of course, there’s a little bit of the gland here that actually fills that in as well. So to do this, I make an incision that goes right here, and then we do have to make one here on the back of the ear. I may have to go a little bit in front of the ear, because when I do that, it bunches up a little here, so I may have to just tuck a little bit here so that it doesn’t look funny. Once it heals, you really wouldn’t see it.”
Him: Do you recommend doing it at the same time, or doing it later?
Me: “The combination is something we could do together. The big advantage is just having that one recovery versus having to take time twice. The face part really doesn’t add anything to the recovery, because there’s really no pain in this surgery. It’s mostly just waiting for everything to heal and the swelling to go down. The tummy takes a couple of weeks to get back to normal, easy going activity, so by that time, your neck would be pretty much looking really good.”
Him: I work in a very public place, and everybody’s looking at me.
Me: “In two weeks, you would probably be pretty much healed. If you have something really important, I’d say six weeks is when it’s looking its best. But the same thing as in the tummy, if we just did lipo here, you’re not gonna see it because of the loose skin. The face and neck is the first thing. We’re seeing a lot more since Ozempic started. I’m almost doing three or four every week now.”
Him: As far as if you happen to find a hernia?
Me: “If I find it, I’ll fix it. I’m a board certified general surgeon too, so I have a lot of experience with hernias. If I find it beforehand, I’ll charge you a little bit. If I find it while I’m doing it, I just take care of it. There’s nothing additional.”
Him: The hard part is finding someone to help. I’d have to find somebody.
Me: “We do offer an overnight stay for people that don’t have anybody to transport them. We also have a transportation service. Eighty percent of my patients are from out of town, so we know how to deal with all these special situations. My nurse does do a visit at your house the day after, for the first shower and going over all the instructions. You can extend that, and we also have a service where somebody can actually be with you twenty-four hours a day for as long as you want.”
Him: Do you see a lot of male patients?
Me: “Yeah. And especially now with the weight loss, it’s becoming more and more common. You did it by yourself? That’s the hard way. If you did it the hard way, it means that you can really keep it off.”
The second man: tummy and arms
Me: “So you lost 80 pounds? That’s great. Over two years? And are you pretty stable now? Good. So for the abdomen, I do see that you have the loose skin here that kind of flaps over, and of course the fullness here. You don’t have a lot of fat on the outside, so a lot of the bulging here in the abdomen is some of the fat that’s on the inside pushing out, the visceral fat. Plus, when you were heavier, of course, you stretched out the muscles, so it kind of blows up a little bit easier.”
Me: “When you lay down, does it go pretty flat? Let’s take a look, because laying down gives us an idea of how flat we can get it. Yeah, so that looks a lot better. And sit up for me. You see the diastasis here, that’s the muscle separation. So when we put that together, your stomach will look like this when you’re standing.”
Me: “So the arms, you’ve lost the elasticity here. There is a little bit of fat, but nothing major. It’s mostly just loose skin. So we would have to do an incision that goes right here, and with that I can cut all that out and really make it tight so it’s uniform all the way and nothing’s dangling. It hides on the inner part of the arm.”
Me: “So this surgery takes right about five hours. It’s general anesthesia. The tummy takes about two weeks to get back to normal, easy going activity, driving, things like that. And then six weeks where you wouldn’t have any more limitations. The arms really don’t add much to the recovery. The tummy is the main thing. You would have a drain in the tummy area, and that one’s gonna stay between seven and fourteen days. Everybody’s a little different, but what we wanna do is for all that fluid to come out so it doesn’t pool behind your skin, because that can create irregularities or other problems.”
Him: So that two weeks, that’s like no work for two weeks, right?
Me: “You may be able to start doing some at home a little bit earlier, maybe like on day seven or nine. I think the first week’s a little tough, because more than anything, you’re going to feel fatigued, because your body’s working overtime trying to heal everything. It does take about two weeks to feel comfortable driving.”
Him: What about the drain? It’s two weeks with the drain in.
Me: “So the drain is a little tube, and it has a little bulb, and it’s just suctioning fluid into the bulb. Every day, at the beginning it’s gonna be more than once a day, you just empty it into a cup to read the measurement, write it down, flush it down the toilet, and then close the drain and you keep going. You can shower and everything. We’ll give you a lanyard where you can clip the drain to so it doesn’t get stuck on anything.”
The third man: tummy and chest
Him: I was at two ninety-eight. I’m at two twenty-four.
Me: “Did you do any of the GLPs?”
Him: Yes. I stopped it like four months ago already.
Me: “And you’ve been able to maintain? Good. Excellent. So you have a lot of skin here hanging. The incision’s gonna be below that fold, right here, and it’s gonna go to where the fold ends. With that, I can remove pretty much all the skin from here down. Then I use this skin, and that’s the one I’m gonna pull all the way down. And then we can also do liposuction on the mons, remove the fat pads and pick it up. That also helps to show the penis a little bit more, but also so that everything’s nice and flat all the way down.”
Him: And it was like this area too, like here.
Me: “Would you wanna do some on your chest too, or just the sides? So here, what I would do is just liposuction with the skin tightening to get it tight. When I do liposuction here, sometimes we still have this gland here. So through that little same incision, I put in an arthroscopic shaver. I actually take that gland off so that everything is nice and flat, and then we see your muscle instead of any fullness.”
Me: “We can do all that together. It takes about five hours. It’s general anesthesia. We’ll keep you overnight. You go home the next day. If we do the chest area, we also give you like a vest. You will have a drain in the chest and the tummy, and those usually come out in seven to fourteen days. Then with any liposuction, I really recommend doing the lymphatic drainage massages. It just helps get the swelling down faster, and also gets you up and going a lot faster as well.”
One question all three asked, in some form
Me: “If you continue to lose weight, you may see a little loose skin again. You might need like a touch-up. More often than not, no, because I’m really gonna pull on the skin. I’d like you to be pretty close to where you wanna be for the surgery. If you do that, then your results are pretty much permanent.”
My exam notes that afternoon, in order: exuberant pannus with diastasis and submandibular gland show; excess skin with a substantial amount of visceral fat, much flatter lying down, six to seven centimeters of rectus diastasis, no palpable hernias; pannus, rectus diastasis, excess tissue of the chest with fullness and ptosis.
A man who has lost 70 or 80 pounds has already done the hard part. What is left is a skin problem, and skin problems are surgical. Cut out what will not shrink, repair the muscle, lipo the edges, and get him back to the gym in six weeks.
I am a double board-certified plastic surgeon, a Mayo Clinic fellowship alum, and I teach plastic surgery as a Clinical Associate Professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
Call the office at (915) 590-7900, text us at 1-866-814-0038, or book a consultation at drworldwide.com.
#StayBeautiful
