By
Carol Lee,
a beauty writer at The Cut
who wrote for Elle, Food Network Magazine, and The Pioneer Woman Magazine.
Without Dr. Julie Chung, there would be no T3 — not only because the Korean American ophthalmologist is the luxury hair-tool brand’s co-founder but also because over 20 years ago, she was its first muse. At the time she was a medical student, and Kent Yu, her future husband and co-founder, observed that she struggled with drying and styling her thick, coarse hair. “He was like, Why is this woman who can spend 100-and-something dollars on a jar of La Mer using a $20 blow-dryer and struggling so much?” Dr. Chung says Yu, who had grown up watching hairdressers in his parents’ salon, decided to design a beautiful, functional, lightweight hair dryer for the woman he had fallen in love with.
