Chia Chi Kao, MD

Chia Chi Kao, MD, is the surgeon and founder of Kao Plastic Surgery and the creator of the Ponytail Lift and Ponytail Facelift. He also founded Kao Aesthetics and Kao Regenerative Therapies, and is the owner and founder of Randox Health Los Angeles, all at the Wilshire Boulevard address. He is a staff surgeon at the 20th Street Surgery Center in Santa Monica. He is board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, and is licensed as a physician and surgeon in California and New York. He has more than 20 years of experience.

His training started with a bachelor's degree in microbiology with honors from the University of Washington, followed by his medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine. He completed general surgery residency there from 1991 to 1996, serving as chief resident in the final year, and then trained in video endoscopic surgery as a United States Surgical Fellow. He later completed a craniofacial surgery fellowship at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taipei and plastic surgery training at the University of Southern California. From 1996 to 1997 he was a clinical professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington, teaching endoscopic surgery to residents and fellow surgeons. He served as faculty at the Endoscopic Plastic Surgery Educational Seminars in Los Angeles from 2000 to 2003 and was an Associate Fellow of the American College of Surgeons from 1997 to 2000.

His work centers on facial rejuvenation with endoscopic procedures, and the Ponytail Lift is his signature operation. He has published a peer-reviewed study of 600 Ponytail Lift cases in Aesthetic Surgery Journal and case studies that include revision cases, and he has written numerous journal articles and lectured at national and regional meetings. His work also includes regenerative cell isolation, fat transfer and grafting, scar revision, breast augmentation, and full, mini and endoscopic tummy tucks. He has been featured on the Discovery Learning Channel for his endoscopic facial work and in Vogue articles from 2013 to 2015, and he appeared on Oprah Prime, Episode 103, to discuss aging. He belongs to the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the International Federation of Adipose Therapeutics and Science, the California Society of Plastic Surgeons and the Los Angeles Society of Plastic Surgery.