Vidal Sassoon, the legendary hair stylist and trendsetter, has passed away. He reportedly died from a long and courageous battle with leukemia. He was 84 years old.
Sassoon transformed the way women cared for their hair, changing the beauty industry entirely from the moment he opened his first salon in 1954. He will forever be remembered not only creating the modern bob haircut, but for turning a trade into the profound profession hairstyling is today.
“He changed the way everyone looked at hair,” Grace Coddington, the creative director of American Vogue, said in an interview on Wednesday. “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!”
“Hairdressers are a wonderful breed,” Sassoon had said. “You work one-on-one with another human being and the object is to make them feel so much better and to look at themselves with a twinkle in their eye.”
Sassoon is survived by his wife of 20 years and three children from a previous marriage.
photo courtesy Phase 4 Films
