The Beginning

Wella is Germany's largest and the world's second largest producer of hairdressing products for home and professional use. Its beginnings date back to 1880 when, at the age of 26, Franz Ströher, the grand and great grandfather of today's generations of owners, founded a company, Franz Ströher-Rothenkirchen, for the production and distribution of artificial hair, then very much in vogue.

Ströher's years spent as an apprentice hairdresser in Germany, Holland, Switzerland and, above all, France, proved invaluable in his new business. After initial difficulties with the development of new production methods he found a material in England that could be used to make wigs, with the aid of a waterproofing technique that he developed himself. By the turn of the century this product, known as 'Tüllemoid waterproof', had become a considerable success and in 1904 a larger manufacturing plant was built in Rothenkirchen.