VIDAL Sassoon, one of the world's first celebrity hairdressers, has died at his home in Hollywood.
The 84-year-old coiffeur passed away at his mansion yesterday surrounded by family members, just months after it emerged he was fighting leukaemia
The pioneering hair stylist, who created the bob, which shot to fame thanks to Mary Quant in the swinging sixties, and his paired down, "wash and wear" philosophy – was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1928.
Four times married, he got his first taste of hair salons aged 14 when he went to work as a "shampoo boy", responsible for mixing dyes using bleach powder, peroxide and ammonia.
He later said of the task: "The ammonia jar was kept locked up because if you spilled it, it would clean out the sinuses of the block, not just the salon."
Sassoon was in his twenties when he opened his first salon in London, in 1954, setting himself a five-year make-or-break timetable, after which – if the business was not successful – he planned to abandon hairdressing altogether.
However, his talent and innovation in creating modern, low-maintenance styles resulting in business for the salon booming.
He went on to open a branch in New York in the 1960s, cutting film star Mia Farrow's hair into a distinctive crop for her role in Rosemary's Baby, and became arguably the most famous hairdresser in the world.
His clients ranged from the Duchess of Bedford to Jean Shrimpton and Terence Stamp.
Sassoon, an avid Chelsea fan, said: "When I first came into hair, women were coming in and you would place a hat on their hair and you would dress their hair around it.
"We learned to put discipline in the haircuts by using actual geometry, actual architectural shapes and bone structure.
"The cut had to be perfect and layered beautifully, so that, when a woman shook it, it just fell back in."
His hair products debuted in 1973, and by the 1990s, were known for a new wave of two-in-one shampoo and conditioners – Wash & Go.
He is survived by his current wife, Ronnie, and three children from his first marriage.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article