Gad Cohen was born in Montreal, Canada. The son of a barber, Gad was one of nine children, six of whom are now in the hair business. At fifteen, Gad got his first job assisting a top Montreal stylist after school, on weekends and Summers. By twenty, Gad was creative director of La Coupe and one of the most popular stylists in Montreal. At twenty-two, he began commuting between La Coupe's Montreal and New York City salons. While at La Coupe, he developed a line of products for the salon. BY the time Gad moved to New York full-time in 1985, he had worked for every major fashion magazine. He did Paris fashion shows for Kenzo, Yohji Yamamoto, Azzedine Alaia and Christian Dior. In New York, Gad did fashion shows for Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Katayone Adeli and Angel Sanchez, among others.

1986 saw the opening of Gad Studio on Fifty Seventh Street in Manhattan, a salon of twenty stylists trained and supervised by Gad. He continued to work for all of the top fashion magazines, including American Vogue, French Vogue, Italian Vogue, Allure, Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle, GQ, Details, L'Uomo Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Elle and Cosmopolitan. He worked with virtually all of the top fashion photographers, including Irving Penn, Steven Meisel, Patrick Demarchelier, Michel Comte, Walter Chin, Herb Ritts, Wayne Maser, Titziano Magni, Guy Aroch, Michael Thompson, Steven Klein, Sheila Metzner, Deborah Turbeville, Bill King and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Gad's advertising campaigns and television commercials included Clairol, Revlon, Cover Girl, Estee Lauder, Prescriptives and leading fashion designers. Gad has consulted on numerous salon/spa openings and special projects for companies including Avon and Barneys New York.

Gad continues to concentrate on his advertising and editorial work, as well as his private clientele. His private customers include many top fashion and beauty professionals including Allure's Linda Wells, Polly Mellen, Vogue's Amy Taran Astley, Ralph Lauren's Bonnie Pressman, Mademoiselle's Felicia Milewicz and former editor-in-chief Elizabeth Crow. Gad's celebrity clients include Paula Zahn, Ashley Judd, Cindy Crawford, Jacqueline Bisset, Heather Locklear, Peggy Lipton, Melanie Griffith, Cybil Sheppard, Kelly Lynch, Claudia Schiffer, Rene Russo, Barbra Streisand, Jaclyn Smith, Glenn Close, Christy Turlington, Emme, Carly Simon, Julia Stiles and Jennifer Grey.

Gad's beauty philosophy is based on a unified approach to each individual. The stylist creates the entire look: haircut, color, treatments and eyebrow shape. "I'm happy when people say "you have beautiful hair’ not "you have a beautiful cut’ or you have beautiful color’. Everything should work together", says Gad. He believes that women appreciate this total coordination approach, not to mention the savings in time and the personal ease of one-on-one communication. Gad has recently been profiled as one of the nation's leading hairstylists in separate articles in American Vogue, French Vogue, Allure and Mademoiselle, as well as on television segments that have appeared on E!'s "Fashion Emergency" and "Main Floor".