When asked to introduce herself, Dr. Julie Chung, Co-founder of T3 Micro, doesn’t lead with what she does; she leads with who she is and what she believes. “I am the child of immigrants who really is living the American dream, given opportunities here that probably wouldn’t have been afforded to me if I were in Korea or if my parents had never left. I’m blessed. I’m a woman of faith. I am mission-driven.”
Her identity, faith, and mission run through her roles as a mother, wife, founder, and surgeon. With immense success, Chung has been mindful of how she shows up.
For me, [the question] is how ‘am I doing each one of those [roles] with integrity, and how am I doing each one of those where I’m adding value and really showing caring concern for the people that I’m with?’,” she shared.
As a multi-hyphenated businesswoman, she admits that she has had to grow into the spotlight as a founder. “20 years ago, founder’s story wasn’t really much of a thing, let alone two Asian kids, you know, Korean girl, Chinese guy,” said Chung.
She describes herself not as a neatly packaged founder, but as someone who evolved into the role.
“When I was 27, that woman and female founder face would have been vastly different (and maybe even wrong) for the brand now — which is a woman with lived experiences, a woman who wears many hats, who understands the struggles of everyday women who are juggling many things. There’s a wisdom that came with the slow burn of a brand that allowed me to blossom as a founder,” she said with great conviction.
That story now feels especially important, and Chung shares it with reverence for her legacy and family.
“The face behind the brand, in terms of tools, is not many, and they’re usually not women, or women of color, women of science, a privately held, family-owned business. It turns out these things are quite unique, but this was not planned 20 years ago.”
20-Plus Years And Making A Mark
That slow burn, shaped by her lived experiences, now informs how she protects the business.
For over 20 years, Chung, along with her husband, has been strategically innovating and building T3 Micro into one of the most trusted haircare lines. As a category-defining force in the haircare industry, T3 Micro is known for its design, technology, and performance.
Like many businesses, T3’s story began with a problem: Chung’s thick hair. “I just couldn’t dry my hair fast enough. I have thicker, coarser hair. It would take me an hour,” she shared.
At the time, Chung was a medical student, and her then-boyfriend, who grew up in close proximity to salons (now her husband and co-founder, Kent Yu), decided to design a blow-dryer after realizing that spending hundreds of dollars regularly was a problem.
Chung wanted the blow dryer to be “better, faster, healthier, and prettier.” Now, with decades of product development experience, her approach to T3’s tools, including innovations like the air 360, is about hair health and addressing pain points for customers.
“As a scientist and physician, I look for problems, and I find ways to solve them, and I’m equally as passionate about medicine as I am about fashion and beauty, and all the things that make me feel and look fabulous,” said Chung.
Quality Over Imitation
That is why, in an industry riddled with dupes of her tools and other high-end products, she is not concerned. She insists that T3 Micro’s focus is on being trustworthy and effective, not trendy.
We engineer and design, always guided by benefits and what our consumers will experience. We don’t engineer to block other people because we know we’re so skilled at what we do, and we know so much about hair and heat technology that, fortunately for us, the barrier to entry is high,” she said. “In hair tools, if the product is bad, you will know, so it’s hard to dupe it, or you will know over time. And electrical devices are scarier, so for people to just come in and dupe it is extremely difficult.”
T3’s influence in industry is unambiguous, and that was intentional. Chung shared that early design and packaging decisions were inspired by a tech giant. “We were inspired by Apple. What we did was just put an image of the tool with very minimal copy.”
That differentiation is key in the multi-billion-dollar industry, especially in branding and design.
“We differentiate T3 from home appliance companies. Hair tools are different when made by people who are really focused on the benefits for hair health and how everyday women live. I know one size doesn’t fit all. It’s true in medicine, and it’s true in consumer goods,” said Chung.
She went on to explain, “It’s not just about the texture of your hair, it’s how a woman wants to style her hair, what climate she lives in, and how much time she has in the morning. There are so many things that you have to really think about in order to deliver on a promise.”
T3 Is Future Proofing The Business
Another differentiator is leadership. Earlier this month, T3 Micro announced Anne-Cécile Brilland (AC) as the new CEO. Chung describes this executive move as part of a 20-plus-year strategy to keep T3 at the helm of innovation.
“Anne Cécile was a long time coming. She has a track record of scaling. She is our first female CEO, which is not a minor thing. We needed a CEO who could really understand and have the vision that we do for the brand in terms of community and emotional storytelling,” said Chung.
Noting Brilland’s hard work, Chung is excited to partner with another woman in leadership.
“I have worked with two male CEOs previously. I work with male surgeons in the operating room. They, of course, have their benefits, and you can’t make a blanket statement about male CEOs, but having a female CEO who is helping us build a brand world for women is going to take us to the next level. She understands exactly what my vision is with regards to the brand, and we will be more lockstep. I have found that with male CEOs, maybe it’s just a gender difference, a little bit of keeping me at arm’s length. I see that in the operating room, too. That barrier is not going to be there with AC,” said Chung.
In her words, “The sky’s the limit,” as T3 Micro remains a leader in the hair care industry, and they build tools that customers and stylists alike look to for excellence.
