The Daily Face

I was so sad to hear of the passing of Vidal Sassoon this evening.
At 84 years of age, he died peacefully at home in LA, with his wife Ronnie by his side. I think that Vidal had been unwell for a long time, but this was always something he and his wife were very private about and from what I can gather, Vidal wasn’t the sort of person to want unnessacary fuss.

An iconic Vidal Sassoon haircut

Vidal Sassoon was born in 1928 to Jewish parents. He spent most of his childhood growing up in an orphanage where his mother had been forced to put him and his brother when she was left by their father, and struggled to afford to keep the family going.

During World War Two he was evacuated to Wiltshire and upon his return to London, he left school at 14 and started a hairdressing apprenticeship.
Vidal trained under the watchful eyes of Raymond Bessone, who’s salon was based in Mayfair. He then went on to open his first salon in 1954.
Vidal was really the man who made hairdressing not a necessity but something women chose to do to keep up with fashion.
Gone were hairstyles that were ‘set’ and meant to last for a week. He was the creator of the ‘wash and wear’ hairstyle, the geometric perm, the Nancy Kwan hairstyles and most famously the ‘bob’.
Vidal made hairdressing ‘celebrity’ and one of his most famous jobs was being rushed onto the set of Roman Polanski’s film – Rosemary’s Baby, and cutting Mia Farrow’s hair into her iconic crop.
He didn’t like to use product in the hair and relied purely on the health of his clients hair to get the best from his cuts.
Vidal was also the first hairdresser to create his own line of products, which are still sold today, although he sold the company out to Proctor and Gamble – the iconic slogan “if you don’t look good- we don’t look good” blazoned across the bottles.
One of the best things I watched last year was the film documentary about his life, Sassoon the movie. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to watch it- Vidal was such a determined, hard working man, stubborn and possibly difficult to work with at times, but he knew what he wanted and how he was going to get it.

Vidal cutting MIa Farrows' hair on the set of Rosemary's baby. An iconic cut.

I’m sure hairdressers across the globe will be mourning his death as someone that would have been a massive influence in their lives. Rest in peace to the man that shaped an industry with a pair of scissors…

Vidal Sassoon – 1928-2012.

The Man who changed hairdressing