Vidal Sassoon by Diane Fishman and Marcia Po...

'She cut clothes with a brilliant flair,' Sassoon later wrote, 'and I tried to match her style with hair.' For the next several seasons, he styled Quant's hair and that of her models. The salon featured an open floor plan with shampoo and cutting stations in plain view, rather than the traditional layout of individual stylists working in cubicles.Īlso in 1954 Sassoon befriended couturier Mary Quant. By 1954 Sassoon had opened another salon in a renovated, first-floor space he had designed himself. He returned to London and to hair styling and opened his first salon in a small, third-floor room on Bond Street. In 1948 he joined the Palmach army group and fought in Israel's War of Independence. At night he attended meetings of antifascist and Zionist groups. Realizing his thick Cockney accent prevented any advancement, Sassoon frequented London's West End theaters to learn better English he also began taking elocution lessons.

During the 1940s and 1950s, hairstyling was elaborate and labor-intensive, often featuring a permanent wave done with intricate wiring, with thin, aluminum curlers used in the process. In another shop he shampooed and dressed the hair of war-prosperous prostitutes of London's Soho area. For two years he cleaned the shop, shampooed hair, and practiced barbering. Inspired by a dream of her son styling her hair, his mother apprenticed Sassoon to a hairdresser, Adolf Cohen. Poor at schoolwork, Sassoon dropped out when he was fourteen. When she remarried eight years later, her sons rejoined her and began attending public school.

When Sassoon was five years old, his father abandoned the family for another woman, and his now-impoverished mother placed her sons in an orphanage.

The family lived in London's working-class East End. Sassoon was the second son of Nathan Sassoon, a carpet salesman, and Betty (Bellin) Sassoon, a homemaker. 17 January 1928 in London, England), trend-setting hairstylist and entrepreneur who promoted the wash-and-go, easy-to-manage, 'Sassoon bob' hair-style of the 1960s and whose hair-care products are used worldwide.

Vidal Sassoon by Diane Fishman and Marcia Po...