How we beacame awesome

Born in Austria, Gerd Hoher represents the fifth generation of hairdressers in his family. After being educated in Austria, Germany and Switzerland he received his Masters Degree in Hairdressing in Austria, 1972. In 1973 he immigrated to South Africa, met his soon to be partners of Carlton Hair International, and continued his adventure in the United States, where they opened 31 salons in California.

Throughout his career with Carlton Hair, Hoher worked as platform artist for major product lines, touring much of the US, South Africa, as well as most of Europe, including Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden.

While fueled by his passion for educating, Hoher still had dreams of having his own salon. In September of 2001 he opened his own boutique salon, “The Spot on Montana”, in Santa Monica, California. There he continued to educate, and tour, as well as run a profitable business. Soon after the opening of The Spot, Schwarzkopf Professional named him the National Director of Education, leading their education team from September 2002 to March 2006.

After leaving Schwarzkopf in 2006, Hoher spent the next two years developing his own professional hair color line. Drawing upon his knowledge as an educator and master colorist, Hoher was able to create the kind of line he had always dreamed of. Finally, in March of 2008 Hoher launched, artease®colors in the USA. Hoher’s philosophy has always been based on strong education in all aspects: hairdressing, hair cutting, coloring, customer service and retailing. By developing artease®colors, he has been able to fulfill his goal of giving the salon professional the opportunity to become a better colorist through education and training with a superior color line. artease®colors will grow guided by the same principals that have proven so successful in this prior career adventures.