Building a Legacy – Exclusive interview with Dr Harold Lancer, founder of Lancer Skincare

WORDS: OLIVIA MORRIS

Building a Legacy

Dr Harold Lancer discusses building an effective and beloved skincare brand that’s been patient-focused for over 37 years

IMAGE: SUPPLIED Talk us through your career. At the age of seven, I accidentally fell into a basin of nearboiling water, burning over 10 per cent of my body. It was an incredibly painful and unfortunate experience, but it also changed my life forever. My mother would take me daily to the general medical doctor in my small town who would gently remove all dead and melted flesh from the various parts of my body, putting on oils and superficial “dressings”, as that was all my doctor had. Slowly, day by day, week by week, month by month, my very significant burns healed. This is where I became very impressed at the meticulous nature of the practice of medicine and surgery, and the fact that the skin can heal when it’s nurtured. Essentially, I became fascinated with the fact that skin is an organ that can do miraculous things and heal itself when it’s given the right tools. This led me into wanting to pursue medicine and dermatology from a very young age. In 1983, I began to practice medicine, surgery, and cosmetics treatments of the diseases of the skin, hair, and nails. I saw the incredible importance of home skincare regimens, and that the global population should be educated on the importance of daily skin self-care in order to perpetuate normal restoration of naturally aged skin and environmentally prematurely aged skin – and the rest is history! How did you first enter the beauty space? Well, I trained in medical and surgical dermatology and was aware of the fact that even when you’re dealing with skin cancer removal, the end cosmetic results is as important to the patient as the fact that the tumour has been removed. When a patient has a problem that must be treated, the elective cosmetic component is just as important and plays a factor from the beginning. What inspired you to start your own brand? From my professional experience, I saw the need for developing a very specific new approach to skin home care. I aimed to reinvent the concept of a normal “wash, tone and moisturize”, into a new method of skincare by introducing the original Polish, Cleanse, Nourish for three different skin types, Normal-Combination Skin, Sensitive-Dehydrated Skin and Oily-Congested skin. You launched Lancer in 1985 – 37 years ago – how have things evolved since then? Things have evolved immensely. The brand is now globally recognized and it’s a national brand in the US using high-grade ingredients, thoroughly studied chemistry “cookbook” formulations as it’s called. How has Lancer changed the skincare game? Lancer Skincare is guided by consumer patient needs. Patients are the ones who feeds the brand the nourishing information of what niche needs to be filled, hence our “From Practice to Product” and “Achieving Believable Beauty” statements. You’ve become the go-to for many high-profile names. What’s it been like to know your brand and your skills have achieved this level of success? It’s extremely gratifying that the effort you’ve put out there is recognized and appreciated. It makes me feel humble and blessed that you have actually done something useful that has done some value to other individuals that have been recognized. Throughout your career, what have been the challenges you’ve had to overcome? There is a big differentiation between the education of an ingredient or product from a specially trained, board-certified dermatologist and other studies that may be out there. In order to properly educate the consumer, having the knowledge of an expert, board-certified dermatologist who has had many years of experience, medical school residency and fellowship should be the true education for the consumer. What have been the key milestones? The global marketing of the brand has been very successful. The growth of the brand as a physician solo-owned brand has been a huge accomplishment for Lancer Skincare. This is The Clarity Issue – what does this mean to you in a beauty sense, but also as a life mantra? There is an evolution of a legacy. I grew up on a farm and suffered from an injury. I benefited from this injury by learning and observing the skin’s healing process. Decade after decade, there is a persistent evolution of success. It’s a slow, gradual, progressive, honest, evolution. Not only is this the moral of the story, but also the moral of the story in life. Now, that’s a success story.