Vidal Sassoon, 1928–2012

With one high-profile haircut, Vidal Sassoon became an international sensation. In 1967, director Roman Polanski paid the London-based hairdresser $5,000 to fly to Hollywood and trim Mia Farrow’s tresses for the movie Rosemary’s Baby. Reporters and photographers were invited to watch as the actress sat on a chair in a boxing ring while a scissor-wielding Sassoon danced around her and sculpted his masterpiece. The short pixie cut became Farrow’s signature, and the movie served as a fine advertisement for the hairdresser’s sharp style. “It’s Vidal Sassoon!” Farrow tells a shocked character in the film. “It’s very in.”

Sassoon didn’t set out to be a hairdresser, said The Wall Street Journal, but his choices were limited. Born to a Jewish immigrant family in London, he spent six years in an orphanage after his father walked out on the family. When he was 12, his newly remarried mother reclaimed him and insisted he apprentice at a hair salon, despite his dreams of being a professional soccer player. While still in his teens, “Sassoon joined a Jewish patrol that battled homegrown British fascists—followers of Oswald Mosley—in the streets.” At 20, he volunteered to serve in Israel’s army and fought in the new nation’s war of independence. His unit suffered heavy casualties, but the experience gave Sassoon a new sense of confidence. “I came home after a year, and although my profession was only hairdressing, I knew I could change it,” he said.

After a decade working as a stylist in London, Sassoon grabbed the fashion world’s attention in 1963, when he crafted an architectural haircut for Mary Quant, the fashion designer who popularized the miniskirt. In contrast to the reigning pouf of the day, held in place with stiff perms and lacquers, he cut a face-framing bob that angled down toward her chin. “Sassoon’s creative cuts, which required little styling and fell into place perfectly every time, fit right in with the fledgling women’s liberation movement,” said The Daily Mail (U.K.). His client list soon included most of the leading models, musicians, and film stars of the ’60s, including Twiggy, Jane Fonda, and the Beatles. Sassoon enjoyed the trappings of fame, especially the attention of women. “In those days,” said the four-times-married stylist, “having sex was the same as having dinner.”

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Sassoon’s trans-Atlantic chain of salons, along with sales of his eponymous hair-care products, made him a multimillionaire, said The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Procter & Gamble bought his $100 million-a-year business in 1985, and Sassoon remained a consultant and spokesman for the firm until 2004. Although he’d given up hairdressing decades earlier, Sassoon continued to trim the locks of a few select clients and friends—including his beloved dogs. “They are the only shih tzus around with geometrical haircuts,” he said.