Jan Thomas Studio

Jan Thomas Studio is a Norwegian beauty brand built around the Oslo hairdresser and television personality Jan Thomas, born Jan Bertin Østervold in Skien in 1966. It began as a hair salon that opened at Parkveien 31 in Oslo, near the Royal Palace, in 2008, and later grew into a product business spanning two lines: Jan Thomas Studio Haircare and Jan Thomas Studio Cosmetics. The brand is owned by Jan Thomas himself and remains active, with a live online shop, four salon locations and wide retail distribution across the Nordic market.

The founder is a well-known media figure in Norway, and the brand's reach is closely tied to his public profile. Its products are positioned as accessible salon quality, and the haircare side is notable for the Pure line, which the company developed with Norway's Asthma and Allergy Association.

Jan Thomas spent 17 years in Hollywood, working first as an actor and model and later as a head stylist on productions for Dreamworks and Universal [5]. He returned to Norway in 2001 and established his Oslo salon, an opening that the TV2 Zebra documentary series Fra Hollywood til Parkveien (From Hollywood to Parkveien) followed. Vogue Scandinavia, which later listed the salon among the best in Oslo, described it as "an Oslo institution" since 2008 [9].

The dates attached to the brand depend on which part of it is meant. The studio salon opened in 2008, and the Haircare product line launched on the Norwegian market in 2014. The brand's distributor page records 2014 as the brand's founding year, referring to that product-line launch [1]; the salon, the originating business, dates to 2008 [9]. Both dates are accurate for different aspects of the brand.

The Haircare line debuted in 2014, developed so that customers could maintain salon-quality hair at home. Its Pure line was created with Norway's Asthma and Allergy Association (NAAF) and described in editorial coverage as "the first professional health-friendly haircare series in Norway" [6]. The salon side expanded over the same period, with a Frogner branch in 2017 and further locations in Mo i Rana and Bodø in 2023 [9].

In around 2022 the brand added a makeup line, Jan Thomas Studio Cosmetics, sold exclusively through the Norwegian beauty chain Vita and comprising 44 products. The company frames the partnership as a long-standing one, describing Vita as a collaborator of nearly 20 years. A later collaboration produced a hand-and-body range with Sommerro, the Oslo hotel that reopened in 2022.

Much of the brand's visibility runs parallel to the founder's television and publishing work. Jan Thomas competed in Skal vi danse in 2009, co-founded the podcast Jan Thomas og Einar blir venner in 2018, and fronted the dating show Jan Thomas søker Drømmeprinsen in 2020. He has also authored several books, including the autobiography Jeg har levd! (2020) [8].

The brand is founder-owned and has no corporate parent; Jan Thomas owns it directly. Its distribution is handled by Scandinavian Cosmetics Group, formerly known in Norway as Engelschiøn Marwell Hauge AS (EMH), which carries the Haircare line across Scandinavia [1]. Scandinavian Cosmetics Group was itself acquired by the Storskogen Group in 2022 [14]. That ownership applies to the distributor, not to the Jan Thomas brand, which remains independent of it.

The brand's stated aim is to bring out the best in each individual, summed up in the Norwegian tagline "Den beste utgaven av deg selv" (The best version of yourself). The company's premise is that everyone should feel as polished at home as they do leaving a salon, and that ready-made packages tailored to specific hair types remove the need to mix products from several brands. On its retail pages the line is presented as one made for Scandinavian hair: the company says "Scandinavian women are unique and therefore deserve uniquely tailored hair care products" [13].

Accessibility is a recurring theme in how the brand describes itself. According to one retailer account, it was important to Jan Thomas that the range be of high quality "but at the same time be an accessible product for everyone, not just for the elite" [12], a positioning that places it in a mid-prestige rather than luxury tier.

The Haircare range is organised by hair type and concern, with collections including Pure (fragrance-free), Volume, Soft & Shine, and a Blonde and silver-hair line of colour-enhancing formulas. Frequently listed products include the Extreme Sculpting Wax, the Texturizing Beach Salt Water spray and the Magical Argan Oil treatment. A product review noted hero ingredients across the line such as aloe vera, pro-vitamin B5, keratin, and macadamia and jojoba oils, with herbal extracts intended to soothe the scalp.

The Pure line is the brand's most distinctive product story. Developed with NAAF, four of its products — the Pure Shampoo, Pure Conditioner, Pure Hair Repair and Pure Sculpting Wax — carry Asthma Allergy Nordic certification and are sold through retailers including Apotek1, Vita and Blush [7].

The Cosmetics line, developed with Vita, covers face, eyes, lips, setting sprays and tools, with named products such as the Unreal Mascara, the Perfecting Serum Foundation and the Glow Me Up Setting Spray.

The brand and its founder have drawn both press and awards. Vogue Scandinavia's 2024 feature on Oslo salons singled out Jan Thomas Studio, and a Norwegian editorial review of the Pure line tested its fragrance-free formulas and confirmed the NAAF collaboration. A Nordic Media Days speaker bio states that the cosmetics line has won "multiple awards through Norwegian Cosmetics Awards," though the specific categories and years are not enumerated in available sources [8]. Beyond the products, Jan Thomas won a Gullruten award for best reality in 2020 and a Vixen Award in 2019 for his podcast [5].

Jan Thomas Studio is active. As of 2026 it maintains a live homepage and full online shop at janthomasstudio.no, with around 21 Haircare products carried at retailers including Vita, Apotek1, Blush, Lyko and BliVakker, and 44 Cosmetics products sold exclusively through Vita [4]. It operates four salons — at Parkveien and Frogner in Oslo and in Mo i Rana and Bodø — and its most recent visible activity includes the Sommerro collaboration. Distribution across Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland is handled by Scandinavian Cosmetics Group.