“My last name never looked good in neon,” says Peter G’, who dropped his surname, Loef, and founded the Peter G’ Hair Studio at Sola Chandler in 2016. But the story of how Peter G. became a stylist is even more interesting. From GI to Barber Peter grew up in Philadelphia, where he immortalized the industry. “Every time I went to the barbershop with my dad, everyone was always hanging out and having a good time,” he says. The same was true at his mom’s beauty salons. “Everyone was always happy there, too,” Peter remembers. From a very young age, Peter associated the hair industry with happy people. But Peter didn’t get into hair right away. After high school, he enlisted in the military, and served for four years during the Vietnam era, never being deployed into combat. Post-military, Peter took a job as a fire fighter in Tampa, Florida. Eight years in, he met a girl — and he finally told her his dream of doing hair. “She encouraged me to use my G.I. Bill benefits to go to college,” says Peter, adding, “I’d enjoyed the adrenaline high while fighting fires, but once I started beauty school I knew I’d found my calling.” As it turned out, the industry was every bit as happy and wonderful as Peter had thought it was when he was a kid! It’s been 34 years since Peter got behind the chair, and the 60-year-old stylist says he’s still just as passionate about his job today as when he started out. Learning from the Pros After graduating cosmetology school, Peter and his wife ended up in Arizona, where Peter cut his teeth working in commission salons — several of them, actually, during the early stages of his career. When he came into the industry, Peter says he was lucky to have some notable stylists take him under their wings. Getting top-notch training daily from his colleagues and mentors is what took Peter from a run-of-the-mill stylist to a shear artist, as he calls it. “I consider myself to be an artist with my scissors,” Peter explains, adding, “I love to create the individual cut for the individual person.” “Back in those days, we didn’t have studios like Sola,” Peter points out. “If you decided to leave commission, you went to chair rental,” he adds. And that’s exactly what Peter did in the 1990s, before custom boutique salons were available to stylists. Leaving the Chair While renting booths, Peter fell into education, starting out as a part-time educator for the Wella Corporation — at first just to supplement his salon paychecks. “It was awesome,” says Peter. There can be good money in education, plus Peter loved teaching. “It’s in my blood,” he adds. When his part-time Wella gig turned into a full-time opportunity, Peter didn’t hesitate to move to Atlanta to work as a speaker for the hair care company. “There’s a 16-year gap in my career, from behind-the-chair to the corporate world and back,” Peter notes. With Wella, Peter traveled extensively, and he often rented chairs nationwide. “I’d do hair on the weekends when I had the time off, and I’d be right back with Wella during the weeks,” he clarifies. “I had a blast,” Peter says. But eventually he got tired of being on the road forty weeks out of the year. “I knew I wanted to go back behind the chair,” Peter says. The Barber’s Career Comes Full Circle Most of his friends thought he was crazy when he told them about his plan to return to a salon. At the time, Peter was 56 years old, and he didn’t have any clients! Peter spent the next few years working at a commission salon in Arizona. “But I knew it was time for me to be on my own,” he says, adding, “When it’s time, you just know. It’s in your gut.” Last