Vidal Sassoon is still the world's most well-known and influential hairdresser, after bursting into the fashion scene in 1963 with his horizontal, geometric bobs and low maintenance styles.

Sassoon inherited the fashion world at a time when the public wanted hairstyles that reflected the philosophy of artists like Jay Sebring, who advocated hairstyles free of lacquer and backcombing and promoted shapes that formed to the face.

Vidal's work was sympathetic to the clothes of designers like Mary Quant, who became famous designing mini-skirts and short A-line dresses with prim white collars and bows or ties at the neckline.

His works from the sixties and later include not only the geometric bob, but the wash-and-wear perm, the concept of graduated cuts and the Nancy Kwan.

Sassoon quickly presented a series of photographs of his work shown in every fashion and news magazine, which trumpeted dark natural colors on shiny dead-straight hair, hair with a close fall to the head engineered by gravity, and hair which revealed sensual and organic shapes.

Vidal gained even more celebrity status when he cut movie star Mia Farrow's long hair off at Heathrow airport, before Mia filmed Rosemary's Baby, and revealed a slender waif in a shattered cropped style that became an instant classic look.

Vidal cut a shape the public did not readily identify as his signature work, but, as he explained later, he worked in an absolute madhouse of press and noise and cut away until he revealed the young actress's remarkable features.

Vidal opened a chain of salons in the late sixties through the eighties which bears his name.

He popularized the open salon concept, where stylists would work in view if each other and, often in sight of the waiting areas.

This created an environment where stylists would share skills by observation and where the activity of the cutting floor became the show. It is a salon atmosphere which we take for granted today and which is used by virtually every single successful salon in the world.

Vidal Sassoon is the father of modernist style and has also been active in transforming the hair styling industry from a model based upon historical sales projections into one which emphasized innovation and turned products into functional cosmetics that defined the consumer's self image. From Vidal Sassoon on, all clients of salons had the ability to wear hair branded through technique and use products they would be proud to identify by name.

Sassoon has, in past years, sold his product line and, most recently, his salons and name, but he remains the standard by which all other ambitions are me4asured. Along with his contribution to the hair industry, Vidal Sassoon has dedicated a great portion of his wealth and goodwill to the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, or SICSA, a research center devoted to the non-political, interdisciplinary gathering of information about anti-Semitism.

Hair is nature's biggest compliment and the treatment of this compliment is in our hands. As in couture, the cut is the most important element ... haircutting simply means design and this feeling for design must come from within.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidal_Sassoon

Vidal Sassoon was one of the most influential hair stylists of the mid 60s.. They were all low maintenance and incredibly modern.

The hairstyles created by In 1963 Sassoon created a short, angular hairstyle cut on a horizontal plane that was known as 'the bob.'

His geometric haircuts were seemingly severely cut, but were entirely lacquer-free, relying on the natural shine of the hair for effect.

'Hair is nature's biggest compliment and the treatment of this compliment is in our hands. As in couture, the cut is the most important element... haircutting simply means design and this feeling for design must come from within.' - Vidal Sassoon.

http://www.geocities.com/FashionAvenue/Catwalk/1038/sassoon.html

Official Website: http://www.sassoon.com

Edward Paul©2007