Motivated by the improvement of the cost and resource efficiency of the manufacturing process of age-hardening aluminum components, the influence of an initial heat-treatment, prior to plastic deformation, on the artificial aging behavior and the hardness is investigated. Systematic work is done by comparing three initial heat-treatment conditions of the age-hardening aluminum alloy 6056 prior to low-temperature plastic deformation: a solid-solution heat-treated, a naturally aged and a stabilized one. Two plastic deformation processes, linear extrusion and compression, each with two different strains, respectively, were performed and followed by artificial aging. The hardness was measured prior to plastic deformation as a function of the natural aging time, and after plastic deformation as a function of the artificial aging time. Stabilization annealing of the aluminum alloy inhibited natural aging. After plastic deformation and artificial aging, the stabilized conditions showed an increased hardness, as compared to the solid-solution heat-treated, respectively naturally aged, condition. The artificial aging behavior of all tested conditions was only slightly influenced by the respective plastic deformation process. However, the hardness was similar for the extruded, respectively compressed, conditions in their respective initial heat-treatment conditions.