This is an episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the beauty and wellness industries. More from the series →
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Few beauty executives currently compete in a category they created, but that’s the case for Dr. Julie Chung and Kent Yu, the married co-founders behind T3 hair tools.
The duo created the luxury hair tool category back in 2004 when they launched T3 with the first lightweight, sleek and quiet blowdryer that delivered smoother, faster results. T3’s Featherweight model was the first luxury dryer on the market and the most expensive at the time, priced at $200. Dr. Chung and Yu quickly found a consumer, and before long, T3 was the first hair tool sold in stores like Sephora.
Fast forward 21 years, and they still own and operate 100% of their Los Angeles-based business. The success of T3 created a runway for a category now filled with brands like Dyson and Shark Beauty.
So what is it like to compete in a category you created? Host Lexy Lebsack sat down with Dr. Chung and Yu to learn about their journey to becoming beauty founders, including making time for Dr. Chung’s first career as an eye doctor. They also discuss how they’re navigating their biggest challenges, balancing retail and DTC, maintaining NPD standards in a faster-is-better world, and competing within the category.
But first, Lebsack is joined by co-host Emily Jensen to break down the news of the week. This includes the controversial launch of Rini, a line of skin-care products made for kids aged 2-12 and sold DTC. The line was launched earlier this month by actress Shay Mitchell, boyfriend Matte Babel and Esther Song, and received immediate backlash.
Lebsack and Jensen also discuss the launch of Dua by AB, a diffusion line from skin-care founder Augustinus Bader and fronted by singer Dua Lipa. Unfortunately, diffusion lines — defined as secondary, lower-priced product lines from a higher-end brand — rarely find success in the beauty industry. Finally, the duo discusses L’Oréal Group’s new investment in Chinese mass clean beauty brand Lan and Estée Lauder Companies’ investment in Mexican niche fragrance brand Xinú.
On creating the first luxury hair dryer
Chung: “So, 20 years ago, I was a medical student in San Francisco, and I met a guy, and this guy is, of course, now my husband. But the one thing he noticed in our first year of dating is that I was this med student who was, interestingly, very obsessed with fashion and beauty, and he was confused as to why I was spending so much time and money on those things but still struggling with my hair. [He] noticed that I was really not using tools that were healthy for my hair or giving me the results that I needed. And having grown up in the hairdresser world — his parents are hairdressers — he looked into the category and realized that there was a huge white space at the time. Dryers were either $20 at a drugstore or at a big box retailer, or you got a heavy Italian dryer, which was a pro dryer from a salon distributor. He saw that I would spend $100 on a one-ounce jar of cream, so why was no one innovating in this space? And why weren’t they creating tools that were beautiful and, sort of, speaking more to women like myself? So, he then went ahead and created the very first SKU, our hero product for T3, which is the Featherweight dryer. He put this in my bathroom. I was a busy med student. He’s always [sharing] prototypes and things he’s created — he just sort of loves figuring out solutions and tinkering. So he puts this thing in my bathroom, which he had been working on, and I use the dryer. It’s super lightweight. I use it really quickly, run out the door — and I realized throughout the day that my hair wasn’t frizzing the way it normally does. I normally have to slather it with Bio Silk [oil hair serum]. I didn’t have time to use that, so I just dried it, and it stayed very, very calm. And also, interestingly, it dried my hair very quickly. And that was sort of the beginning of T3.”
On competing with new home appliance brands in the hair tool category T3 created
Yu: “I actually think it’s a good thing for two reasons. One is I think competition is good. Whether you’re an athlete, or whatever it is, when you’re out there on your own, you’re not at your best. When you’re fighting against other people, it sharpens your game, and I think that’s definitely been true for T3. You can’t afford to be sloppy when you have these massive global brands, each one doing literally billions of dollars in turnover a year, [competing with you] — so I think it’s good. I would say we are better at what we do because of Dyson, Shark and everyone else, of course, but most obviously them. So, in that sense, it elevates your game, and I’m up for that. Because, yes, you want to be successful, and, yes, you want to make money, but [success] is about [whether or not you] can be excellent at this thing you’re putting your time into, which is your own internal measure. For me, [it is] very much a big motivator, and so, having stiff competition forces you to up your game. I like that. The other thing is this idea of spending more on your hair, on hair tools, or investing in your hair, is still a relatively new thing. … To a certain extent, even though we’ve been doing this for 20 years and have sold millions of products, … it’s still a new trend, believe it or not. …It’s a bit of a rising tide lifts all ships. We definitely benefit from the awareness that these much larger brands have in getting consumers to think, ‘Oh, yeah, why shouldn’t I spend more [on my hair]?’.”
