Five Ways Vidal Sassoon Changed People's Hair
Celebrity hairdresser
Vidal Sassoon, who has died at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 84,
is credited with revolutionising hair-styling for women. Here are five
ways in which he changed the world of hair.
HAIR FOR WORK
In the 1950s, hair was about height, curls and hairspray. Women
often visited the hairdressers two or three times a week to have their
hair elaborately teased and "set". Hats added even more drama on top of
dressed styles.
Vidal Sassoon's "wash and wear" cuts of the 1960s changed all that, allowing women to spend less time on their appearance.
According to fashion commentator Caryn Franklin, Sassoon
created a "visual aesthetic for modern women wanting to distance
themselves from the modern housewife".
As more and more women entered the workforce, they needed
cuts that would reflect authority and efficiency in a male-dominated
world.
Speaking to the Los Angeles times in 1993, Sassoon explained:
"Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power.
They didn't have time to sit under the dryer anymore."
"Clients came into his salon every day who were at the
forefront of the feminist expansion into the workplace," Franklin says.
Sassoon cuts were futuristic, illustrating where "women wanted to go"
rather than where they currently were.
Celebrity hairdressing
Hailed as one of the world's first celebrity hairdressers,
Sassoon's client list included Twiggy, Jane Fonda and Mia Farrow.
Although he opened his first London salon in 1954, his first New York
branch opened its doors in 1965 and became one of a string of
international salons.
Not only was he stylist to the stars, he became a celebrity
himself, moving to Los Angeles in the 1970s. He paved the way for other
"name" hairdressers like Trevor Sorbie, Nicky Clarke and John Frieda
A regular face on television, he appeared in his Sassoon commercials
in the 80s alongside famous supermodels. He recently judged the final of
reality TV show Shear Genius and a documentary about his life was made
in 2010.
For a hairdresser to become a Hollywood sensation in
Sassoon's time "was a mega-mega achievement", says celebrity hairdresser
Errol Douglas.
Until then, hairdressers were not typically viewed as
stylists, but Sassoon brought a designer image to the industry. At the
same time he appealed to ordinary people.
For Guardian columnist Sali Hughes, Sassoon's mass popularity
stemmed from the fact that he was a "working class boy who started out
as a barber and lived and breathed hair from when he was a child".
SHORT HAIR FOR WOMEN
Sassoon once explained to the Los Angeles Times that he viewed hair like fabric which needed to be shaped.
"My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous."
Vidal Sassoon's signature cuts are still fashionable today
Sassoon didn't invent the idea of short hair for women, but he brought a range of short styles into the mainstream.
He is perhaps best remembered for his "Mary Quant" cut, a
geometric five-point bob worn by the fashion designer which contrasted
sharply with the romantic, curly looks of the 1950s. Sassoon cuts "swept
away classic femininity and added design into hair", says Franklin.
Another look, the "Greek Goddess", a short tousled perm, was inspired by the women of Harlem in New York.
And his looks got even shorter, such as the "pixie crop" worn
by Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby. This was shocking to some in an era
where androgynous style was only beginning to take off.
Today Sassoon-esque short hair on women is a standard look. "He made short hair sexy," says hair stylist Lee Stafford.
HAIR PRODUCTS
Sassoon's signature bobbed hair was a staple 1960s trend
As the years passed, the hairdresser devoted more and more time
to developing the growing Sassoon brand. Although he steered hair
styling away from lacquered beehives, he was one of the first stylists
to create a popular line of products under his name.
Sassoon products catered for both the mass and high-end
market, with luxurious product lines stocking salons while affordable
hair-care items lined supermarket shelves.
Fashion historian Laura Kitty says that people ended up
having "more of a connection" with the Sasoon brand because his products
became so widespread, something other hairstylists didn't have.
"He really managed to tap into the idea of aspiration mass
market products for hair. It was like you were buying a haircut in his
salon."
Sassoon also branched into a range of hairdryers and styling tools for women to attempt to "create a Sassoon look" at home.
His two-in-one combined shampoo and conditioner Wash and Go "was the biggest selling hair product of the 80s", says Hughes.
HAIR ACADEMIES
Sassoon was the hairdresser's hairdresser, notes Hughes,
pointing out that his geometric cuts needed cutting every six weeks,
keeping stylists in business.
His training academies taught would-be
hairdressers to create haircuts based on a client's bone structure, a
practice known as "precision cutting".
And they produced alumni notable in the world of
hairdressing, such as Lee Stafford, who says that hairdressers all over
the world still come to London to train.
According to Kitty, a large number of up-and-coming stylists in the 80s and 90s had trained at one of his academies.
And although Sassoon began as an apprentice barber and
learned the "old methods", he devised new techniques to teach to younger
stylists as his career progressed.
"His ideas have been disseminated at a much larger scale than any other stylist in modern memory."
But while his methods may have changed over the years, Stafford says the essence of Sassoon styling remained the same.
"He never ever changed his philosophy, it was all about beautiful hair cutting."
Did you have a Vidal Sassoon-inspired cut in the 1960s. Send us your memories using the form below.
LINK:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18017636
Lice eggs in hair 
A single louse egg
Adult louse