Entertainment / Celebrity
World famous celebrity hair stylist dies at 84
10 May 2012 at 03:16hrs | Views
The World famous celebrity hair stylist Vidal Sassoon has died at the aged 84.
The style icon had reportedly been fighting leukaemia for several years.
He died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles.
London-born Sassoon was the greatest and most innovative hairdresser of his generation.
The man who started life with what he described as "an Artful Dodger" accent cut and styled the hair of royalty, film stars and models during a career in which he revolutionised hairdressing.
He was also prominent in a campaign on behalf of Jewish ex-servicemen and in 1982 founded the Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of Anti-Semitism.
Sassoon was born to Jewish parents on January 17, 1928.
His father abandoned the family, who then moved to the east end of London with his aunts.
Sassoon was sent to an orphanage in Maida Vale, where he spent six years before being evacuated during the war to Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
On his return, aged 17, his mother had him apprenticed to a hairdresser.
In 1948, Sassoon left to fight in the Israeli War of Independence for the Palmach (Israeli army).
On his return, he began to work for Raymond "Mr Teasy-Weasy" Bessone and went to the theatre week after week to learn how to speak properly.
Sassoon opened his own Bond Street salon in 1958 and his trademark five-point bob revolutionised hairdressing.
He was the father of modernist style and a key force in the commercial direction of hair-styling, turning his craft into a multi-million-pound industry.
His clients included the Duchess of Bedford, model Jean Shrimpton, actor Terence Stamp and fashion designer Mary Quant.
The style icon had reportedly been fighting leukaemia for several years.
He died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles.
London-born Sassoon was the greatest and most innovative hairdresser of his generation.
The man who started life with what he described as "an Artful Dodger" accent cut and styled the hair of royalty, film stars and models during a career in which he revolutionised hairdressing.
He was also prominent in a campaign on behalf of Jewish ex-servicemen and in 1982 founded the Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of Anti-Semitism.
Sassoon was born to Jewish parents on January 17, 1928.
His father abandoned the family, who then moved to the east end of London with his aunts.
Sassoon was sent to an orphanage in Maida Vale, where he spent six years before being evacuated during the war to Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
On his return, aged 17, his mother had him apprenticed to a hairdresser.
In 1948, Sassoon left to fight in the Israeli War of Independence for the Palmach (Israeli army).
On his return, he began to work for Raymond "Mr Teasy-Weasy" Bessone and went to the theatre week after week to learn how to speak properly.
Sassoon opened his own Bond Street salon in 1958 and his trademark five-point bob revolutionised hairdressing.
He was the father of modernist style and a key force in the commercial direction of hair-styling, turning his craft into a multi-million-pound industry.
His clients included the Duchess of Bedford, model Jean Shrimpton, actor Terence Stamp and fashion designer Mary Quant.
Source - DR
