Iconic hairstylist Vidal Sassoon dies aged 84

CELEBRITY hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, who invented the “bob” hairstyle that epitomised the Swinging Sixties, has died at the age of 84.

Police in Los Angeles said the man described as the “Chanel of hair” by fashion designer Mary Quant was found dead at his home in the city, apparently from natural causes.

The four-times married stylist, who was appointed a CBE in 2009, revolutionised hairdressing with his free and easy creations, such as the bob, and his network of academies, turning his craft into a multi- million-dollar industry.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Among his most famous clients in the Sixties were Quant, the model Jean Shrimpton and film star Terence Stamp.

Born to Jewish parents in London in 1928, Sassoon fought with the Israeli army in Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 and founded the Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of Anti-semitism in 1982.

Celebrity hairdresser Lee Stafford paid tribute to him last night: “Vidal Sassoon revolutionised the way everybody wears their hair today. He also made British hairdressing the best in the world; he was my hero.”

When Sassoon picked up his scissors in the 1950s, styled hair that was typically curled, teased, piled high and sprayed into place.

With the advent of the 1960s and a looser approach to fashion, Sassoon’s creative cuts, which required little styling and fell into place perfectly every time, fit right in with the fledgling women’s liberation movement.

“My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous,” Sassoon said in 1993. “Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power. They didn’t have time to sit under the dryer any more.”

His wash-and-wear styles included the Five-Point cut and the “Greek Goddess,” a short perm – inspired by the “Afro marvellous-looking women” he saw in New York’s Harlem.

Sassoon opened his first salon in London in 1954, but did not perfect his cut-is-everything approach until the mid-Sixties. Once the wash-and-wear concept hit, though, it hit big and many women abandoned their curlers for good.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

His shaped cuts were an integral part of the “look” of Quant, but he also often worked in the 1960s with American designer Rudi Gernreich, who became a household name in 1964 with his topless bathing suit.

Sassoon opened more salons in the UK and expanded to the United States, before also developing a line of shampoos and styling products bearing his name.

His advertising slogan was “If you don’t look good, we don’t look good.”

The hairdresser also established Vidal Sassoon Academies to teach aspiring stylists how to envision haircuts based on a client’s bone structure. In 2006 there were academies in the UK, the US and Canada, with others planned in Germany and China.

Related topics: