Londa

Londa is a German professional hair-care brand made for hairdressers, with ranges in hair colour, care, styling and permanent waving. It trades today as Londa Professional and belongs to Wella Company, the hair and nail group that also owns Wella Professionals, OPI, Sebastian Professional and Clairol. The brand dates its birth to 4 December 1956 [2], when the part of the post-war Wella business based in Rothenkirchen, then in East Germany, took on a new name [7].

Its history is unusual for a salon brand. For more than three decades Londa lived on the eastern side of a divided Germany, run as a state-owned enterprise, while the family behind Wella rebuilt their company in the West. The two were reunited after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The modern brand presents itself as a partner to small, independent salons, and it remains active.

Londa's roots are the same as Wella's. In 1880 Franz Ströher, a master hairdresser originally from Oberwiesenthal, set up a business in the village of Rothenkirchen in the Vogtland region to make and sell hair tulle for hairpieces and wigs [9]. That business grew into Wella; the Wella name itself was introduced in 1924, taken from the German word for waves.

The Second World War split the company. According to Wikipedia's account of Wella, the Ströher family re-established the business in West Germany in 1945–46, first in Hünfeld under the name Ondal GmbH and then, by 1950, as Wella AG in Darmstadt. The Rothenkirchen site, in what became East Germany, stayed behind.

In 1956 that eastern part of the company adopted the name Londa, while still using the Wella logo [7]. No individual founder is named for the brand; it was created from within the existing business rather than started by a single person. The company says the name was inspired by the French word l'onde, meaning "the wave". Its English-language site describes this as "oral tradition", a softer claim than the German version, which states the link directly. Either way, the choice echoes the wave theme of the Wella name.

The early years brought the brand its own legal identity. In 1959 Londa became a registered trade name, and Wella Company's history records that it now used "its own exclusive trademark" rather than borrowing Wella's. The brand's own sites word this milestone slightly differently in German and English, but they agree on the year.

In East Germany the Rothenkirchen site was expropriated and run under state ownership as VEB Londa [6].

The company also points to an early reach beyond Germany. From the 1960s, it says, Londa was sold abroad as well as at home, and while German customers saw it as a home-grown brand, buyers elsewhere associated it with German precision and dependability. This is the company's own description of its reputation.

Reunification in 1990 reopened the question of who would own the Rothenkirchen plant. A 2015 article in the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel, written for the 25th anniversary of German unity, recalled that Wella board member Peter Zühlsdorff wanted to buy VEB Londa that year [10]. After reunification the plant was brought back into Wella through a joint venture [6], and the brand describes 1990 as the year Londa was reintegrated into the Wella group.

A more recent milestone concerns training rather than products. In 2013 Londa Professional introduced an education programme for hairdressers under the title "Learn It, Live It, Share It".

In 2023 the regional newspaper Freie Presse returned to the story of Wella and Londa and their shared beginnings in Rothenkirchen [9]. The article noted that the local heritage museum in Steinberg, the municipality that now includes Rothenkirchen, keeps the memory of the hair-cosmetics company alive. The museum is housed in the Ströher-Haus, which bears the name of Wella's founding family.

Londa has always been part of the Wella group, apart from the East German years, and its ownership has followed Wella's. In 2003 Procter & Gamble acquired Wella AG and its subsidiaries [7].

The next change of ownership is dated differently depending on the source. Londa's own website places it in 2016, describing that year as the coming together of Coty and P&G Specialty Beauty, after which Wella became part of the Coty family [2]. Wella Company's corporate history also lists 2016, the year Coty acquired Procter & Gamble's beauty portfolio. Wikipedia, however, states that Coty acquired Wella in 2015 as part of a US$12.5 billion deal involving Procter & Gamble's specialty beauty business [6].

Londa's German website still describes Wella as part of Coty, but that timeline entry predates a later change. In 2020 Wella Company was established and divested from Coty [7]. According to Wikipedia, the company has since operated as an independent entity majority-owned by the private equity firm KKR, which holds 74.1 percent, with Coty keeping 22.3 percent and IGF Wealth Management 3.6 percent [6]. Wikipedia also places Wella's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and reports that as of 2025 it operated in more than 150 countries. The legal notice on Londa's German website names Wella Germany GmbH, based in Darmstadt, as the site's publisher.

Wella Company lists Londa Professional among eleven brands in its current portfolio [8]. Its sister brands include Wella Professionals, OPI, ghd, Briogeo, Nioxin, Sebastian Professional, Clairol, System Professional and Kadus Professional. Wella Company sums up Londa in one line: "Big ideas for small salons since 1956".

Londa Professional describes itself as a salon brand whose job is to help hairdressers succeed. On its international site the company states its purpose as "We exist to empower Independence" [3], and says it has served small independent salons and stylists for more than half a century. It adds that it knows how hard it is to become independent and run one's own business.

The brand sets out its outlook as a short list of beliefs. According to Londa, small is the future, the best business is one's own, freedom should not come at a price, creativity is born from simplicity, and fellow hairdressers are the best source of inspiration and education. The German site condenses these into three ideas: independence and freedom as the building blocks of success, creativity made simple, and the Londa community as a place for exchange and development.

The same themes run through the brand's slogans. Its German homepage opens with the line "Own your craft", followed by "Creativity without complexity". Taken together, the messaging aims the brand at owner-operated and smaller salons rather than at large chains or at consumers shopping for themselves.

Londa is a professional brand, sold to salons and hairdressers rather than positioned as a retail consumer line. The company groups its range into four areas: hair colour, hair care, styling, and permanent waving, better known as perms. Its German homepage describes the offer as a way to work smartly with its colours, care and styling products. No certifications, patents or proprietary technologies are documented for the brand.

Alongside the products, Londa presents itself as a source of know-how. Its websites carry education content, work-and-life tips for hairdressers and a salon finder, and the 2013 "Learn It, Live It, Share It" programme remains the brand's named training initiative.

Londa is active. Londa Professional appears on Wella Company's current brand list, and the brand's website is live with a product catalogue and country sites for Germany, Romania and Poland, plus an international English-language version. Links on the site for Spain and Italy lead instead to pages for the sister brand Kadus. The brand keeps social-media channels on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. The 4 December 1956 birth date places the brand's 70th anniversary on 4 December 2026.