SASSOON, VIDAL 1928-

Hairstylist

Something Different

At his mother's suggestion, Vidal Sassoon secured his first job at the age of fourteen in a London beauty salon. After fighting for a year with the Palm ach Israeli army, Sassoon re-turned to London, and in the early 1950s opened his own shop on Bond Street. Resolving that, if he was to be a hairstylist, he should "do something different," Sassoon introduced a new method of blunt-cutting hair and then blow-drying it rather than using rollers, resulting in geometric cuts that were unlike popular styles of the time.

International Fame

His experiments paid off, and important models and actresses began visiting Sassoon's salon. In the early 1960s the Beatles began to sport Sassoon hairstyles, and the hairdresser was soon internationally famous. Sassoon became the major influence on hair-styles in the 1960s as he introduced both very short and very long styles and initiated the natural look, as opposed to the sculpted or slick looks of earlier decades.

Beauty Business

Complaining that the financial re-wards of hairstyling were not commensurate with the fame it had brought him, Sassoon founded Vidal Sassoon in the mid 1960s and began to market hair-care and beauty products. He also opened a chain of salons and hairdressing schools. His company, based in Los Angeles, California, would grow into a $100 million-a-year business by the mid 1980s.