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When I first sit down with Julie Chung in the lobby bar of the Four Seasons in Toronto, I can’t help but comment on her pristine outfit and hair: a cropped Chanel tweed jacket, crisp straight-leg denim, sleek Khaite ankle boots and a bob so glossy it could double as a mirror. She exudes the kind of polished glamour more often seen on a press tour than at a PR meeting. “Fashion was always my first love,” she says, smiling. “Even in med school, I’d be stitching sutures in my Prada shoes.” It’s the kind of statement that captures Chung perfectly: her clinical precision, creative force and appreciation for the finer things in life. She is the woman behind one of the most beloved hair-tool brands and is only now stepping into the spotlight, two decades after quietly changing the game. Her path wasn’t exactly linear. Raised in Orange County, Calif., Chung describes her mother as a Korean tiger mom. Medicine wasn’t a choice; it was a mandate. She followed through, earning Ivy League credentials and building a career as an ophthalmologist. “I still practise one day a week,” says the Los Angeles-based surgeon, smiling. “But this,” she says, gesturing to the gleaming T3 hair dryer beside her, “is my true calling.” We’ll get to that shiny new device in a moment. T3 began with frizz, a bespoke gift and a love story. Her then-boyfriend, Kent Yu (now her husband and T3 co-founder), grew up in a family of hairstylists and watched as she wrestled with outdated tools and endless drying time. While some suitors might make mix tapes, Yu (a “physics and tech nerd”) built Chung a prototype blow-dryer that cut her styling time in half—and sparked the idea that would become T3. [instagram-oembed url=”https://www.instagram.com/p/DF5hBK-v7R6/?hl=en” /] Launched in 2004, their first tool was the Featherweight—a sleek salon-grade dryer that promised faster drying without the damage. From the beginning, the duo set out to reimagine the hair-tool category. “I wanted my blow-dryer to be beautiful—something that belonged next to my skincare, not hidden beside the toaster,” she says, noting that at the time, hair tools were still lumped in with small appliances, not showcased alongside beauty products. In the early years, T3’s hair dryers, curling irons and straighteners gained traction backstage at fashion weeks, where hair pros raved about the products’ dual voltage, travel-ready design and game-changing airflow technology. Word of mouth among editorial stylists gave the tools street cred, and they soon became insider go-tos. Full disclosure: I’ve had a years-long love affair with the brand’s curling irons—ever since I was a baby editor with a deep side part and an obsession with beachy waves. [instagram-oembed url=”https://www.instagram.com/p/DF4NwBiJVLz/?hl=en&img_index=1″ /] Twenty years later, T3 remains a rare breed: It’s a family-owned brand with no outside investors—an anomaly in today’s venture-capital-fuelled beauty boom. “We are definitely an ‘if you know, you know’ brand,” says Chung. “Our company has been around longer than most of our competitors; our careful and thoughtful development of the brand has lent itself more to loyal, discerning customers who know our heritage than to any virality.” Once content to stay behind the scenes, the glaucoma and cataract surgeon is now stepping into the spotlight. “I’m like the Wizard of Oz coming out from behind the curtain,” she says. “There was a time when female-founder stories were not part of the narrative. But now, people want to know who’s behind the product: What’s the mission? What’s the humanity?” As a longtime T3 customer, I’ll admit that I never realized there was a real person behind the brand, let alone a badass Ivy League-trained doctor, mother of three and fashion sleuth who reinvented the modern blow-dryer in her spare time. Her reveal taps into what today’s consumers crave: authenticity, storytelling and a brand with heart. [instagram-oembed url=”https://www.instagram.com/p/DMnWCu4RE-u/?img_index=1″ /] This brings me to the reason for my afternoon chat with Chung: the launch of the Aire IQ Intelligent Hair Dryer. Two decades after redefining the blowout, Chung is showing off T3’s smartest tool yet. “It’s 20 percent lighter than our competitors’ dryers, with a built-in memory for your hair texture and attachment,” she explains, noting that the settings automatically adjust for a faster, safer finish. “Women don’t want to think about it—they just want to set it and forget it and feel confident that they’re not frying their hair.” Designed with an interactive digital display and smart-sensing technology, the Aire IQ is, as Chung puts it, a “full-circle moment” and a reminder that when it comes to beauty, ease and innovation can (and should) go hand in hand. Importantly, Chung isn’t interested in churning out launches just for the sake of shelf space. “If I can’t sincerely speak to a product and be excited about it, we won’t make it,” she says. “I won’t come out with something unless it will solve a real problem.” One such solution, the new T3 Straight & Curl Duo, is launching this September. The versatile tool has ceramic plates on both the inside and the outside, and it straightens, curls and waves hair with precision. Chung’s mission is clear: to help people feel confident and in control—especially when it comes to the everyday battleground that is their hair. “When you feel beautiful, you focus on the more important things,” she says. “And to me, that’s meaningful. That’s the work. [content_module id=”1″] This article first appeared in FASHION’s September 2025 issue. Find out more here. Continue Reading
