Dr. Julius Few: Founder of Dr. Few Skincare

Episode 660

On this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, I’m joined by Dr. Julius Few, one of the country’s top plastic surgeons and the founder of The Few Institute For Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Known as The Holistic Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Few has revolutionized the field with his Stackable Treatments™ approach, which mimics a facelift without surgery. He’s also a trusted expert to celebrities and VIPs, including Gwyneth Paltrow, with whom he collaborated on goop’s Youth-Boost Peptide Serum.
In our conversation, Dr. Few shares his journey from medicine to entrepreneurship, how he built his renowned plastic surgery practice, and why he launched Dr. Few Skincare, now available at Neiman Marcus, goop, and Bergdorf Goodman. We discuss the latest trends in aesthetics, how Ozempic is changing facial aging, and the future of skincare and minimally invasive treatments. If you’re curious about the intersection of beauty, science, and innovation, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. Tune in now on The Kara Goldin Show!

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. I am so, so excited to have my next super, super, power guest with us here today. So Dr Julius few is the founder of an incredible line of products company called Dr. Few Skincare. He’s also a renowned plastic surgeon, beauty esthetics. Skincare is his thing. He is one of the top US plastic surgeons known globally, but he’s known for his holistic approach that blends surgical and non surgical and topical skincare techniques to achieve the most natural looking results. You may have seen him on Gwyneth Paltrow goop site, some of the activations and collaborations that they’ve done together, and he’s also known worldwide with his stackable treatments approach. So I cannot even wait to get in to hear a lot more about that. He is currently practicing in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Little busy, right? Plus launching an incredible skincare line that you can get in his offices, but also online as well as in stores, incredible stores, and goop too. So I cannot wait to dig into this journey that he’s created and and that he’s on. And welcome Dr Julius view, thank you so much for joining us. Thank

Dr. Julius Few 2:17
you so much, Kara, and it’s such an honor. You have built truly a world class podcast platform. Congrats on being in the top 1% it’s rare air, and from everything I’ve heard and seen, you really deserve it. So thank you for including me. Thank

Kara Goldin 2:35
you so much. So let’s kick off first, for those who don’t already know about Dr. Few Skincare, can you give us, like the 32nd elevator speech of what it is and why you decided to do this?

Dr. Julius Few 2:48
So the really, the elevator pitch is, ultimately, I’m never really satisfied when it comes to really professional, my professional, really pursuits. And so I especially for the the nature of the patients I take care of, I take care of anything from really teachers to, you know, Academy Award winning actors. And really, for me, it is a space where I want the absolute best in terms of really skin care, and so that’s why I really formed the doctor few skincare line. It really represents the first of kind. It’s clean, clinically tested, we’ve published our mechanisms, and the number one plastic surgery journal in the world. I personally have developed the formulations, they’re one of a kind, and they’re unique. And so at the end of the day, I really I wanted to have something that addressed an unmet need, and that’s really what Dr fuskin care represents. I

Kara Goldin 3:52
love it. So let’s backtrack a bit. You, there’s a lot of products that are developed to be sold in incredible stores, or maybe sold online, but you actually were and are a plastic surgeon who has probably a number of people coming into your office are asking you for advice on products over the years, but backtracking even more. What? How did you start this journey, like, how did you decide plastic surgery? Is it for me?

Dr. Julius Few 4:24
Well, that’s it. That is. That’s a deep question. So I really did not know what plastic surgery was. And to be honest, even in early medical school, it was not something that was talked about. This obviously predated social media. And so to me, plastic surgery was something that was kind of almost unimaginable. It’s like, Oh, if you’re a movie star, maybe you did plastic surgery. But you have to remember Kara, I kind of, I finished medical school over 30 years ago, and at the end of the day, it was really something that, as. As I finished my medical school training, then I did general surgery and critical care training, and then ultimately backed into plastic surgery, really, because I am an artist of sorts. I do photography, I draw. I’ve done illustrations for a number of publications that I’ve done over the years, and it just kind of was the natural fit. It was where science meets art, and I love the creative expression of it. And so really, what happened that led to this stackable treatment approach and kind of developing that, to be quite honest, was by accident, I was asked by somebody I really, really respect and admire, a guy by the name of Michael Caine, who’s a plastic surgeon in New York. At the time he was well established a senior member of the plastic surgery community, to really get involved in the very first commercially available filler. And so there was a meeting. And actually in Toronto, this goes back to the late 90s, and I happened to be at this meeting as a young plastic surgeon, and ultimately a point came up as really a point of distinction for the very first filler that would be approved by the FDA. And the idea, and I won’t go into all the detail of the wise, but ultimately, the manufacturer did not want the filler to be used in people with darker skin. The concern was filler would cause scarring or like unwanted side effects. And I was the one dissenter. I said, you know, that doesn’t really make sense for obvious reasons. But beyond the obvious reasons, you know, I, I was thinking of, you know, the millions of people worldwide who ultimately would not be able to have filler for a theoretic risk. So ultimately, I was able to convince the manufacturer to let me do the research. I did the research improved. Indeed, that risk or theoretical concern of keloiding or scarring was not really anything that had to be worried about. Looking at hundreds of patients. And so that really changed my life in a dramatic way, because then I became, you know, really, circa the early 2000s foremost expert in not only scar and wound healing, but actually fillers. And so I my paper was actually used by the FBA as a kind of a standalone reference for really how the industry would look at the subject. And so really that is what led, ultimately to my curiosity in creating stackable treatments, which we can talk about later, and really a lot of the other innovations I feel very fortunate to have been a part of. So

Kara Goldin 7:56
when you talk about the term holistic plastic surgeon, it was coined because of your work. What does that really mean to people? Yeah,

Dr. Julius Few 8:07
I think it really I have to blame Gwyneth for this. She’s probably one at Gwyneth Paltrow is probably one of the first people who used that term, and it’s because I have been open minded when it comes to science and the really the world of esthetic medicine, I think most physicians, and especially Western physicians, are rooted in there’s only one way forward. It’s either it’s very black and white. For example, there was a time you’re probably you’re too young to know this, but there was a time where the idea of vitamins or omega oils or what have you weren’t thought to be irrelevant in health. And then in my time, that became really, you know, something that, through some innovative science, scientists that thought outside the box, that, yeah, a tablet of Omega three oil can actually really help do some beneficial things for cardiovascular health. The same is true for esthetic medicine. Ultimately, I was one of the first to talk about the integration of peptides, both on the topical delivery, but also taken, you know, systemically or through the mouth or IV, and ultimately, the benefit of synergy between this, it’s one of the secrets that movie stars you have used for more than a decade. And so this is something that I really have researched, I’ve actually helped develop. And ultimately, if, if I were to tell you, you know, the adding of multiple things is better than just one thing alone. You know, that makes sense, I think, to everybody, intuitively. But believe it or not, when it comes to cosmetics, there was a time where people thought, well, you could only do surgery, and doing something non surgical was considered hair. See. Well, the same is true. When you look at something like even a non surgical treatment or a surgical treatment, it doesn’t make sense not to treat the largest organ in the body, which is skin, with something healthy that is going to allow the skin to actually repair and optimize itself. And so that’s really how all of this kind of came together, and why I’m considered by many more of a holistic practitioner, is that I’m not just because I’m trained and board certified as a plastic surgeon, it doesn’t mean that’s all that I’m going to do. So

Kara Goldin 10:34
you’ve revolutionized the field with your stackable treatments. You touched on this just a couple of minutes ago, but that mimics a face lift without the surgery. Can you talk about the process? Walk us through how this works, and why has it been so impactful?

Dr. Julius Few 10:54
Well, I think really the idea of the stackable approach, which is basically treating multiple components of the face and neck anatomy, including the skin, the lining of the muscle under the skin, and the fat of the skin and neck, really, that has revolutionized non surgically how you can get near surgical results as compared to a facelift. But I that all began to be quite honest with having done a lot of face lifts. And so what I started to do is look at, okay, what component of the face lift is really replaced by a non surgical treatment? So that’s where lasers and you know the use of internal energy delivery devices like althera or soft wave, which is micro focused ultrasound, and then ultimately the thread technique, or a thread lift technique, that I get credit for developing about 10 years ago, when you start to bring these, these kind of components together, you can get a very thoughtful, but at the same time not overdone look or lift that many have thought or confused with surgery. And

Kara Goldin 12:16
how long do these last then as well, well.

Dr. Julius Few 12:20
And this is where I’m always careful to not over promise. The really, the disadvantage of a non surgical option is it probably will only give you two and a half to three years, and then, if you’re lucky, I tell people, plan for two years, but then you can do it again, or, you know, kind of select into thinking about surgery. The truth is, really Kara that anybody who tells you that you can have everything and there’s no downtime, there’s no risk, there’s nothing that that’s, it’s it’s not possible, and it’s not believable. But the the big advantage of this stackable approach that I that I developed now it’s hard to believe it’s 13 years ago. Really is time just has managed to evaporate. I don’t know where it went, but really the the reality is, the big advantage of this stackable, non surgical approach is that there’s very little to no downtime.

Kara Goldin 13:21
Yeah, it’s great. And then also, if somebody’s considering getting a face lift, I would imagine that it actually gives you the opportunity to see kind of what you would be getting, and the difference correct

Dr. Julius Few 13:35
you’re now, you’re thinking, just like a plastic surgeon, this is exactly what it does. It’s a beautiful template. It’s a great way. Because, I mean, think about everybody is naturally afraid of surgery. I mean, no matter what it is. I mean, it’s just human nature. And so this is a way to get comfortable with the idea it’s comfortable with the idea of, I mean, and again, a lot of people don’t even know what they want to look like. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a hard to describe term. So really being able to do something that is almost like a trial one, really a trial run, or like, if you will, trainer wheels on a bicycle, you’re, we’re basically doing something that allows somebody to really get an idea and get comfortable with a transformation.

Kara Goldin 14:22
And who is the ideal candidate for this? So

Dr. Julius Few 14:26
the ideal candidate is really when things start to kind of change, they start to age. I would say the most common thing that I hear is someone says, You know what I looked in the mirror this morning. I didn’t recognize who I was looking at. And that usually is the trigger if somebody has waited a long time, and, you know, like I have patients who will come to me in their 70s and have, you know, maybe done nothing, and then they say, you know, I’m ready for that stackable treatment. That’s going to be pushing it. That’s a. Little too far, really, then surgery is likely their only option, because I think it’s like anything. If you try to push a technique or technology too hard, you’re not going to get either the result, or you’re going to get a result that you don’t want.

Kara Goldin 15:15
That’s awesome. So can if you’ve had fillers, like light fillers and light Botox over the years, you you don’t have to have that wear off before you’re to do something like this. Absolutely,

Dr. Julius Few 15:28
it’s, actually, there’s a synergy in that. And what I would tell anybody is, you know, fillers lately have gotten a really bad rap. The reason being, it’s, it’s like saying cars are bad because they’re accidents, and it’s actually one of the leading causes of death in this country. But the truth is, it’s not that the cars are the issue, it’s more obviously the technician behind them or the person driving. And so with fillers, the thing that I remind patients all the time is that fillers have been around for 25 years, and only in the last five years, four years, have we heard kind of the negatives of fillers. So if you look at that history, the big what’s the big change? Or the common theme. The common theme is you have a lot more people doing it, and there’s no regulation on who can do it. So, you know, I think that’s the that’s, unfortunately, the deal, and it’s one of the reasons why I talk so much about, and I get credit for, kind of coming up with the term undetectable cosmetic surgery. It’s really the idea that the best work is work you can’t see.

Kara Goldin 16:38
Yeah, definitely. So I read an article that you had published about the effects of of ozempic and some other weight loss drugs that are dramatically changing facial structure. Can you talk a bit about this and educate all of us about this? Well,

Dr. Julius Few 17:01
I the osempic, wagovi, the GLP one or glucagon like proteins are here, I think, to stay, no matter how you look at and they’re, they’re literally every week, there’s some medicinal benefit that is being shown to be connected with with things like ossempic, the big issue that I have encountered, and I first described this, I guess to your point, I was the first to really describe this term. It was, was really because of one main thing, this phenomenon that changes the way the skin looks and behaves. It does not appear to be just purely weight loss. It actually, through some research that I’ve been doing over the last two years, very actively, we actually have found what we believe to be a mechanism for why the skin itself changes so the medication actually as an injection, or even now, they’re developing forms of both pill and inhalational ultimately, do seem to thin the skin or affect some of the elements in the skin itself, in a way that, even if somebody I and the reason why I kind of tripped or discovered this was I had a patient who had only lost 10 pounds being on a sempic. But ultimately, when I was doing their face lift, they actually their skin was almost like a worn out rubber band. And this person was not that old. They were in their early 50s, and their skin behaved like somebody who was 75 and so I started looking at it. I looked at this in a at a microscopic level, and ultimately that is what we’ve we found. And so, you know, I I’ve actively been looking at ways to help make that situation better. Because obviously the benefits of the osempic or GLP ones is significant. There are tons of benefit. People are talking about using it as a way to prevent alcoholism. They’re looking at ways to help curb really habitual activity. So it has a neurologic effect. It has obviously a dietary effect. I have a family member who’s on it, who’s been a life changer for them, who was a diabetic and high blood pressure and just could not get it get, you know, into a healthier place, and now it’s transformed their life. So I’m not against it. It’s just there’s the trade off. So,

Kara Goldin 19:32
so, so interesting. So let’s jump into Dr. Few Skincare line that you created. So when did you actually create it? And you talked a bit about what it is, but it the how many SKUs Did you launch with? You know? Why did you decide Today’s the day I’m going to go and create this today? Well,

Dr. Julius Few 19:56
as you started in your very kind introduction. Introduction, I have been blessed to have a very, very, really productive professional career as a plastic surgeon. I get to enjoy being among the top in the world doing this lots of hard work, you know, but at the end of the day, I did see an opportunity to do something that is unique. I believe you firsthand know this. It’s not always just the the last thing you’ve done, but the curiosity and the excitement. I kind of hit a point in my professional, really, my professional career as a plastic surgeon, where I kind of plateaued. I had lectured all over the world, I published a textbook. I had an award winning fellowship where I train young minds, clinical professor at University of Chicago as well as at Northwestern University. I mean, kind of checked all the boxes, right? And I felt that ultimately, with skincare, there was an opportunity to do something different and better. And ultimately, what happened was Gwyneth Paltrow, who has been a dear friend of mine for over a decade, kind of came to me and it’s her fault. She pushed me, and she said, Well, let’s, let’s make something special. And so I took that challenge to heart. I threw everything I knew how to throw at it, and we made, probably, and a New Beauty magazine agrees the best serum you can buy. And this is it has been an award winning product. It has done extremely well. My mom hounds me to buy it for her, non stop. So I have to keep that glowing, because I get my little discount on it. And ultimately, this has become a project that then led to the Dr. Few Skincare line, which I had been a consultant for different companies in the past, like SkinCeuticals and so on, and helped on that side of things. And I had been in skin care formulation for the last almost 20 years. But what led it to saying, Okay, it’s time to do something, which is, it’s a good, hard question to make me think about it. Really was seeing what this kind of invention can do for so many people, just the feedback of doing the serum, which then led to us launching seven SKUs, all designed to be clean, clinically tested, but in the true sense, rigorous sense of clinical testing. And at the same time, everything is produced in Southern California, strictest definition of production, very proud of it being American made, and at the same time, really something that looks at skin care as the as an organ, no different than you would in terms of what you eat. You wouldn’t want to have something on your skin that will make you sick. And I always joke with people, and growing up, I had acne, one of the things I was prescribed by a doctor when I was a young teenager and I had cystic acne was Retin A. Why use Retin A? But the thing about it is, you the retina comes, still does, comes in an aluminum container that literally, after you’ve had it for less than a week. And you can ask anybody who’s used it or grown up this way, it will rust the metal, so the metal itself will turn into rust. It is a corrosive and it smells that the nature of it is caustic in and of itself. If you tried to put it just a touch on the tip of your tongue, you’re going to get sick. And so here we are. We’re putting that on our skin, and our skin is taking all that in. There are lots of esters or alcohols that are, you know, you could clean your floor with. And at the end of the day, I knew we could do something better. So we came up with the first rigorously tested, meaning real patients. We publish the results, which means you have you can’t buy your way into it. You have to have scientists who will look at what you’re doing, or your peers, and they will say, Yes, this is based on the science of having non biased parties looking at the results. This is publishable in a journal. Ultimately, that is what led to the first clinically tested clean retinal, meaning it does have paraben, waxes or alcohol, artificial scents or the like. And all of our products are complementary. And really it plays into this idea of stackable skin care, which, which really it. It’s a nice continuation of what I was doing, non surgically, when it came to facial cosmetic work. So that’s and it’s hard to believe we just celebrated our one year anniversary, but we’ve covered a lot of ground. We’ve, we’ve, we’ve been virally picked up. And the you know, Chloe and Kim Kardashian have been fans of what we’ve done. We have a cult like following. We’re in major the major luxury stores, because they’ve seen what we’ve done, from bergdorfs to demons internationally, we’ve been approached by Harrods, as well as a number of other international outlets. So it’s just, it’s I, honestly, I feel like I’ve been drinking from a fire hose or, like a hint, water water bottle. I love it all in all the right ways. And you know how to disrupt yourself because you came up with something that is inherently disruptive, and that’s really what we’re trying to do. I love

Kara Goldin 25:43
it. So the your clean retinol, which you were just talking about, is really a game changer, and it’s absolutely terrific. And your packaging is beautiful as well. Beautiful packaging not like the aluminum that creates rust on so many pharmaceutical products. It’s nice, it’s black, it’s, it’s, it’s, pretty much everything’s glass, right?

Dr. Julius Few 26:08
It is, yeah, it is. We wanted something unique. Jean Godfrey June, who is the the beauty director at goop, she said, when, because we, we again, went up and she were really instrumental in our launch. She said you need to own a color. And one of my favorite colors is, like the orange red that is made up the labeling on the on the package. And I love that color. And when I look at it, and when I walk into a store and I see that it’s almost like it stands out on its own and a sea of other products. And really, we believe the ingredients on the inside match. They stand out. No,

Kara Goldin 26:46
I love it. So top mistakes people are making in their skincare routines that you know how, or I should say, how can they fix them?

Dr. Julius Few 26:58
Yeah, there a lot of there are so many that are really easy, obvious mistakes like, and I’m not going to pimp you by asking what you do, but you can think in your own mind, the the worst thing that somebody can do is wash their face, especially if they tend to have dry skin at the end of their Shower. It’s the worst thing, because really what has happened, especially because most women, for example, will wash their hair after they wash their body, is ultimately the conditioner will get in, and they’re washing that into their face at the same time. So the very best time to actually cleanse is at the beginning, where you’re not going to strip away vital oils in the skin. Another big mistake is really, really, really hot washing, or water hot temperature washing, it opens pores, strips oil, the oil that is on the skin naturally, should be enhanced, not eliminated. And so that’s really where good skin care comes in. I think, over using product. This one of the reasons why we came up with a series of skews of product that is not overwhelming. One because it makes it easier to actually be consistent, because consistency and skin care is key. But the second is you don’t want to use things that that really conflict with one another. So for example, I’ve seen other manufacturers that advocate using 15 or 20 products. That is ludicrous to me. You don’t need that much. The skin has has survived evolutions and ultimately using, and this is again, my philosophy, skin care should work with the natural microbiome and the natural inherent protective factors that are already in the skin. And so I’m giving cofactors in my products that allow basically the skin to do what it already knows how to do, no different than when I take because I have high blood pressure, I take vitamin d3 that is because that’s a known co factor to help relax the blood vessel anatomy. So this is, you know, really, as as I look at look at skin care that is philosophically, a very unique view compared to most other doctor based brands that believe you have to destroy the skin first to then try to build it back up. And I think that’s the definition of arrogance. You can’t if the skin is such a naturally beautiful, effective organ, and to really look at destroying or weakening it so much that you’re hoping you can make it better in that point of weakness is silly. It’s no different than if I told you, okay, I want you to drink a solution a turpentine so you get really, really sick, and then when you recover from it, when you recover from it, you’re going to feel much better. Her. That is ludicrous. It’s not the way that really we should treat the body. And ultimately that is, philosophically, how I look at it, and the clean Retinol is a perfect example of

Kara Goldin 30:11
it. So which is tougher being a an entrepreneur, launching a skincare line, or being a plastic surgeon?

Dr. Julius Few 30:20
Oh, my God. I Well, right now I will tell you, because I’m the thing that happened that’s, again, another strong, great question. Being a plastic surgeon largely means you do get a lot of instant gratification. You do a surgery a few weeks later, it’s like, oh my gosh, I have, I just did surgery on somebody who literally, they were in fears of joy after there’s no there’s Kara, there’s no feeling like this. Whereas being an entrepreneur and you know this, you have to be patient. I have to remind myself to be patient all the time. I have to sit with an idea. I have the vision, but sometimes it’s like watching paint dry. And so it is. It is the hardest thing for me as a surgeon. So right now, if you ask me today, being an entrepreneur who has started a skincare brand is really, really tricky and hard at times, just because I know we have a great product. I know that the heart and soul went into it. I know people love it if they get it, and it’s just bringing that to reality. And we’ve grown dramatically. But still, it’s like, I want, I feel like everybody should want to do it and and it’s just, obviously, I’m ambitious, so then it’s just making that happen. And again, I’m preaching to the choir. But

Kara Goldin 31:45
well, your products are excellent. So Dr, few, thank you so much for creating them and getting them out there. And thank you so much for coming on and educating us as well. It’s everyone’s got to pick up the line you have now. How many products? Seven is it we

Dr. Julius Few 32:03
have? So we have seven, but I’m stay tuned. We will have two major releases, actually, just after this episode airs, that will be true, game changers and and I’m excited that you, you’ve kind of touched on one of them, whether you know it or not. So that’s I’m really, really excited for what the future holds in that regard.

Kara Goldin 32:25
That’s terrific. And you, I’ll make sure that everything is in the show notes too. But thank you again for joining us, and thanks everyone for listening. Definitely check out on Instagram. Dr, few has an incredible site, I guess it’s the few Institute, yeah, on there, and we’ll link to all of that. So thank you

Dr. Julius Few 32:48
again. Thank you. It’s an absolute pleasure. Kara, thanks again

Kara Goldin 32:52
for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast, just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms. At Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now. You.

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