November 10, 2026 | Face, Facelift
Kathy Griffin told a podcast last fall that her third facelift cost $218,000, and E! led its celebrity procedures by the numbers roundup with it this month. She also said, by her account, that some Beverly Hills surgeons charge up to a million, which made hers sound reasonable.
I’m not her doctor, I have not examined her, and I am not naming her surgeon. I wrote the celebrity read on drworldwide.com. This post is for the patient sitting in my El Paso consult room with a quote from somewhere else in her hand, asking me what she would actually be paying for.
What the Fee Covers
Here is how I answer that question every week.
“The fee covers the surgeon’s fee, the anesthesia, the accredited surgical facility, your medical tests, your garments, and your recovery products. Prescription medications from the pharmacy are the one thing you pay separately.”
Read every quote against that list. A number missing the anesthesia or the facility is not lower. It is incomplete.
Why Two Surgeons Can Be $150,000 Apart
“Cost varies with the doctor’s experience. Surgeons in high demand consistently deliver good results in a safe environment with top-quality products, and that increases cost. I allow sufficient operating room time to work in a paced fashion, for safety. Low-cost surgeries get compressed to cut anesthesia and operating room fees.”
“Pricing can also vary depending on how long the procedure is estimated to take and the complexity of the combination of procedures.”
| What moves a facelift quote | Direction |
|---|---|
| Surgeon demand and experience | Up |
| Hours booked in the operating room | Up with each hour |
| The city and the facility | Up in a coastal market |
| Procedures combined in the same anesthetic | Up in total, down per procedure |
| Open deep plane versus the endoscopic ponytail lift | Each has its own tier on my fees page |
Open or endoscopic is decided by the skin, not by preference, mine or the patient’s.
“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.”
Why Combining Usually Works in Your Favor
Most six-figure bills are not one operation. Lift, eyes, lips, fat, resurfacing, one anesthetic. Often the best way, and cheaper than pieces.
“Combining does change the total, but usually in your favor compared to doing things separately. The first hour of operating room and anesthesia time is the most expensive, because of the equipment and the setup, and you only incur that once instead of two or three times.”
“With most facelift procedures we also do fat grafting. We usually recommend Morpheus8 with Iriescence PDGF, or the Sciton MicroLaserPeel with Profractional, depending on your skin type. We can also use exosomes or nanofat. We recommend ELIXIR MD, which is LED light therapy, for almost double the speed of recovery. And a lot of patients will require an upper blepharoplasty, a lower blepharoplasty, a lip lift, or an earlobe reduction. Those all do increase the cost.”
What the Price Does Not Buy
A natural result. Longevity. A face that still looks like you.
“I think patients are becoming a lot more willing to undergo facial procedures, including facelifts, because the results now are actually natural and do not change their overall appearance. So they still have a self identity after these procedures and they’re recognizable; they’re just looking ten to fifteen years younger.”
Plane and hands, not invoice. Read a face without a price tag in mother or daughter, ten years later.
My El Paso Tiers
My tiers are on the fees page and itemized in facelift cost in El Paso. A full deep plane facelift here is a fraction of this number. Not less surgery. El Paso, not Beverly Hills.
“Our patients get direct nurse access 24 hours a day, and all surgeries are done in an accredited surgical center.”
Financing runs through PatientFi, AlphaEon, Cherry or CareCredit, or directly through the practice, with payments made to us ahead of surgery.
The Cheap Quote Is the One to Worry About
“I always feel like when things are too good to be true, they usually are. If a price seems far below what everyone else is charging, you have to ask what’s being cut, the surgeon’s experience, the accreditation of the facility, the type of anesthesia, or the follow-up care.”
Four questions for any quote, high or low: what is included, how many hours, who gives the anesthesia, who do I call at 2 a.m.
Why Choose Dr. Agullo
Dr. Agullo is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, completed his plastic surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, and serves as Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He trained in the endoscopic deep plane lift at the Ponytail Academy in Pittsburgh (intermediate) and Santa Monica (advanced). He has been a Castle Connolly Top Doctor for thirteen consecutive years, 2014 through 2026. More than eighty percent of his patients travel to El Paso from across the country.
Ready to Talk?
Bring the quote you already have. I will tell you what each line covers, what is missing, and what mine would be.
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online at agulloplasticsurgery.com. #StayBeautiful
Find me at @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
