Vidal Sassoon, celebrity hairstylist, dies at 84

Celebrity hairdresser Vidal Sassoon has died at his home in Los Angeles, aged 84.

A police spokesman said officers went to the stylist’s home on Wednesday morning to confirm the death. He said Vidal Sassoon had died of natural causes.

Vidal Sassoon is regarded as one of the best-known hairdressers of his generation.

He is credited with revolutionizing haircuts in the 1960s, and developed a popular line of hair products under his name.

The creator of the “bob” hairstyle, he is best known for his short, geometric cuts, ending the bouffant styles trendy in the 1950s.

One of his best-known clients was Mary Quant, the famous British fashion designer who popularized the mini-skirt. Mary Quant called Vidal Sassoon the “Chanel of hair”.

In a tribute, fellow British coiffeur and friend Nicky Clarke said he was “hugely significant – the most iconic of hairdressers”.

Before Vidal Sassoon’s arrival on the scene, he said: “People were in rollers, backcombing their hair. What he bought was a different kind of hairdressing.

“It was all about modernism – in some ways he defined the 60s. He helped to put Britain on the map.”

Nicky Clarke said Vidal Sassoon was a “humble person” who “loved his craft”, and would be greatly missed.

Vidal Sassoon was born to Jewish parents in West London in 1928.

His father left when he was five, and his mother had to put him and his brother into a Jewish orphanage because she could not afford to keep them.

In 1948, at the age of 20, Vidal Sassoon travelled to Israel to fight in the Arab-Israeli War.

On his return to Britain, Vidal Sassoon began working for the famous hairstylist Teasy Weasy Raymond, in Mayfair, before opening his own salon in 1954.

“My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous,” Vidal Sassoon said in 1993 in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

“Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power. They didn’t have time to sit under the dryer anymore.”

Vidal Sassoon also campaigned against anti-Semitism, establishing the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the 1980s.

Vidal Sassoon’s private life attracted as much publicity as his business success. He divorced three times and married his fourth wife in 1992.