Vidal Sassoon

Vidal Sassoon
Sassoon in Barcelona, Spain, in 2006
Born	17 January 1928(1928-01-17) Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom
Died	9 May 2012 (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, United States
Cause of death	Leukaemia
Nationality	British
Occupation	Hairdresser, businessman
Title	CBE
Spouse(s)	Elaine Wood (m. 1956-?, divorced) Beverly Adams (m. 1967-1980, divorced) Jeanette Hartford-Davis (divorced) Rhonda (m. 1992-2012, his death)
Children	Catya (1968–2002) Eden (b. 1973) Elan (b. 1970) David
Parents	Nathan Sassoon Betty Sassoon
Website sassoon.com

Vidal Sassoon, CBE (17 January 1928 – 9 May 2012) was a British hairdresser, credited with creating a simple geometric, "Bauhaus-inspired" hair style, also called the wedge bob. Due to the popularity of his styles, he was described as "a rock star, an artist, [and] a craftsman who 'changed the world with a pair of scissors.'"

His "wash and wear" philosophy liberated women from the "tyranny of the salon" and "revolutionised the art of hairstyling." Sassoon's styles became "emblematic of freedom and good health" and their popularity allowed him to open the first chain of worldwide hair styling salons, complemented by his hair-treatment products. He is also remembered for his television commercials in the 1980s. Vidal Sassoon: The Movie, a documentary film about his life, was released in 2010.

Life

Sassoon was born in Hammersmith, London, and lived in Shepherd's Bush. His parents were Sephardi Jews. His mother, Betty (Bellin), came from a family of immigrants from Spain, and his father, Jack Sassoon, was from Thessaloniki, Greece. Sassoon had a younger brother, Ivor, who died from a heart attack at the age of 46.

His father left his family when Vidal was three years old.

Due to poverty as a single parent, his mother placed Sassoon and his younger brother in a Jewish orphanage, where they stayed for seven years until he was 11 when his mother remarried. His mother was only allowed to visit them once a month and was never allowed to take them out. He attended Essendine Road Primary School, a Christian school, before being evacuated due to WWII to Holt, Wiltshire. After his return to London he left school at the age of 14^{[citation needed]} and worked as a messenger before starting a hairdressing apprenticeship. In his youth, he was also a football player.

At the age of 17, although having been too young to serve in World War II, he became the youngest member of the 43 Group, a Jewish veterans' underground organisation. It broke up what it considered Fascist meetings in East London. The Daily Telegraph calls him an "anti-fascist warrior-hairdresser" whose aim was to prevent Sir Oswald Mosley's movement from spreading "messages of hatred" in the period following World War II.

In 1948, at the age of 20, he joined the Haganah (which shortly afterwards became the Israeli Defence Forces) and fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, which began after Israel declared statehood. During an interview, he described the year he spent training with the Israelis as "the best year of my life," and recalled how he felt:

When you think of 2,000 years of being put down and suddenly you are a nation rising, it was a wonderful feeling. There were only 600,000 people defending the country against five armies, so everyone had something to do.

Sassoon married his first wife, Elaine Wood, in 1956; the marriage ended in 1958 when she left Sassoon for British water-skiing champion David Nations. In 1967, he married his second wife, actress Beverly Adams. They had four children: two daughters, Catya (1968–2002), an actress who died from a drug-induced heart attack, Eden (born 1973), and two sons, Elan (born 1970) and David. Sassoon and Adams divorced in 1980. His third wife was Jeanette Hartford-Davis, a dressage champion and former fashion model; they married in 1983 and divorced soon after. In 1992 he married Ronnie.

Sassoon was a lifelong fan of Premier League club Chelsea and was close friends with many of the players in the 1960s and 1970s.Template:Better source

In June 2011 it was reported that Sassoon had been diagnosed with leukaemia two years earlier, and was receiving treatment in Beverly Hills, Californa, U.S.A., and London, U.K. He died on 9 May 2012 at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles. His death was originally reported to be a result of natural causes, and later reported to have been a result of his leukemia. He died in the presence of his family. Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Kevin Maiberger said that when the police went to his residence at Mulholland Drive he was found already deceased.

Work

Sassoon trained under Raymond Bessone, in his salon in Mayfair. In 2010, Sassoon stated that "he really taught me how to cut hair...I'd never have achieved what I have without him." Sassoon opened his first salon in 1954 in London.

Sassoon stated his intentions in designing new, more efficient, hair styles: "If I was going to be in hairdressing, I wanted to change things. I wanted to eliminate the superfluous and get down to the basic angles of cut and shape."

Sassoon's works include the geometric perm and the "Nancy Kwan" hairstyles. They were all modern and low-maintenance. The hairstyles created by Sassoon relied on dark, straight, and shiny hair cut into geometric yet organic shapes. In 1963, Sassoon created a short, angular hairstyle cut on a horizontal plane that was the recreation of the classic "bob cut." His geometric haircuts seemed to be severely cut, but were entirely lacquer-free, relying on the natural shine of the hair for effect. Sassoon was a key force in the commercial direction of hair styling.^{[citation needed]} His Vidal Sassoon brand was applied to shampoos and conditioners sold worldwide, with a commercial campaign featuring the iconic slogan "If you don't look good, we don't look good." Former salon colleagues also bought Sassoon's salons and acquired the right to use his name, extending the brand in salons into the United Kingdom and the United States.^{[citation needed]}

After moving to the United States, Sassoon sold his US$113 million-a-year company in 1983 to Richardson-Vicks. The company was bought over by Procter & Gamble in 1985, whom he sued in 2003 for breach of contract and fraud in federal court for apparently neglecting the marketing of his brand name in favour of the company's other hair product lines such as Pantene. The two parties settled the matter the following year.

Sassoon Salon, Leeds

In 2002, the chain of Vidal Sassoon salons was sold to Regis Corporation. By 2004, it was reported that Sassoon was no longer associated with the brand that bears his name.^{[citation needed]} He also had a short-lived television series called Your New Day with Vidal Sassoon, which aired in 1980.^{[citation needed]}

Sassoon was twice a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, on 27 June 1970 and 9 October 2011, when he was also Resident Thinker on the Nowhereisland art project.

Sassoon was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.

Philanthropy

In 1982, Sassoon started the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, or SICSA, a research centre devoted to the non-political, interdisciplinary gathering of information about antisemitism. Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA) is a research center affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It was named for Vidal Sassoon, who financed its establishment in 1983.

After selling his company, Sassoon worked towards philanthropic causes such as the Boys Clubs of America and the Performing Arts Council of the Music Center of Los Angeles via his Vidal Sassoon Foundation. He was also active in supporting relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. It also funded educational pursuits on a need-basis in Israel and elsewhere. At the time of his death he had academies in England, the United States and Canada, while initiating plans to open new ones in Germany and China.

Legacy

Vidal Sassoon died on May 9, 2012, at his home in Los Angeles. His family issued a statement that read:

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Vidal Sassoon CBE, who died this morning at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by loved ones. The 84-year-old hairdresser was born in 1928 and sadly lost his battle with leukaemia today. He became the most celebrated hairdresser in the world having begun his career as an apprentice during the Second World War, going on to revolutionise an industry through his iconic haircuts, salons, schools and product lines. He will be greatly missed by his wife of 20 years Ronnie, his children, grandchildren, family and friends.

Reactions to his death included Neil Cornelius, the incumbent owner of Sassoon's first solo venture, who said that his death was the loss of a "hairdressing legend. It is very, very sad because I grew up in the East End like Vidal and from the age of 11 I wanted to be a hairdresser like Vidal. I remember the first time I met him. I have washed the hair of Princess Diana, I have met Nelson Mandela, but meeting Vidal Sassoon topped all of those. I know it sounds crazy but I could not sleep [before] the first time I met him. He was a hairdressing legend." Other celebrity hairstylists also commented on his death. Lee Stafford said that "Sassoon revolutionised the way everybody wears their hair today, he also made British hairdressing the best in the world, he was my hero." While Oscar Blandi credited Sassoon for showing him the "true art of styling. He truly changed the world of hair and beauty. He was definitely the most innovative person ever to enter the industry. He led the way for the celebrity stylists of today" and Tabatha Coffey wrote on Twitter that "my great day turned into a devastating day. RIP Vidal Sassoon thank you for all you have done for our industry and for me."

Grace Coddington, Sassoon's former model and creative director of American Vogue, said that "he changed the way everyone looked at hair. Before Sassoon, it was all back-combing and lacquer; the whole thing was to make it high and artificial. Suddenly you could put your fingers through your hair! He didn’t create [Sassoon's five-point cut] for me; he created it on me. It was an extraordinary cut; no one has bettered it since. And it liberated everyone. You could just sort of drip-dry it and shake it." John Barrett of the John Barrett Salon at Bergdorf Goodman said that Sassoon "was the creator of sensual hair. This was somebody who changed our industry entirely, not just from the point of view of cutting hair but actually turning it into a business. He was one of the first who had a product line bought out by a major corporation".

The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism continues as an interdisciplinary research center devoted to the independent, non-political accumulation and dissemination of materials related to anti-Semitism. Over 120 studies have been conducted under the auspices of the center, covering a wide range of disciplines—history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature and art. The center awards Felix Posen Fellowships to doctoral candidates whose dissertation focuses on some aspect of anti-Semitism.

Major Works

• Sassoon, Vidal. Sorry I kept you Waiting, Madam. Cassell, 1968. ISBN 978-0304925384
• Sassoon, Vidal, and Beverly Sassoon. A Year of Beauty and Health. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1975. ISBN 978-0671221232
• Sassoon, Vidal. Cutting Hair the Vidal Sassoon Way. Elsevier, 1984 (original 1978). ISBN 978-0750603249
• Sassoon, Vidal. Vidal: The Autobiography. London: Macmillan, 2010. ISBN 978-0330521291
• Sassoon, Vidal, and Michael Gordon. Vidal Sassoon: How One Man Changed the World with a Pair of Scissors. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 2012.

• Sassoon, Vidal, and Grace Coddington. Craig Teper (Director). Vidal Sassoon: The Movie. 2010. ASIN B00555ZTGA

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Fishman, Diane, and Marcia Powell. Vidal Sassoon: Fifty Years Ahead. New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications, 1993. ISBN 978-0847817061
• Gordon, Michael. Hair Heroes. Bumble & Bumble, 2002. ISBN 978-0972147507
• Pendergast, Tom, and Sara Pendergast. St James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Gale, 2000. ISBN 978-1558624054
• Willett, Julie (Ed.). The American Beauty Industry Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0313359491

External links

• Vidal Sassoon: The Movie - official trailer
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Vidal Sassoon from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
• The secret life of Vidal Sassoon

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