Vidal Sassoon, Hairdresser and Trendsetter, Dies at 84 - The New York Times The New York Times Fashion & Style |Vidal Sassoon, Hairdresser and Trendsetter, Dies at 84 Search Continue reading the main story Photo Vidal Sassoon in a scene from the documentary film “Vidal Sassoon The Movie.” He is shown on the Millennium Bridge in London. Credit Phase 4 Films Vidal Sassoon, whose mother had a premonition that he would become a hairdresser and steered him to an apprenticeship in a London shop when he was 14, setting him on the path that led to his changing the way women wore and cared for their hair, died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84. A spokesman for the Los Angeles police, who were called to the home, on Mulholland Drive, confirmed the death, attributing it to natural causes. Mr. Sassoon was known to have leukemia. Mr.

Sassoon brought a kind of architectural design to the haircut in the late 1950s and early 1960s, developing a look that eschewed the tradition of stiff, sprayed styles with the hair piled high and that dispensed with the need for women to wear hair curlers to bed and make weekly trips to the salon. For Mr. Sassoon, the cut was the thing — just about the only thing — and he fashioned his clients’ hair into geometric shapes and sharp angles to complement their facial bone structure. His short, often striking styles helped define a new kind of sexy. They were also easy to care for and maintain — the wash-and-wear look, it was sometimes called — and they helped propel the youthful revolution in fashion (and just about everything else) that gripped London and then America and the rest of the world in the 1960s. One of his early clients was the mod fashion designer Mary Quant, who created the miniskirt.

Referring to it in a 2010 documentary film about him, she said to him, “You put the top on it.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story “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!” Ms. Coddington, who was a model for Mr. Sassoon in the 1960s, wore the original version of the quintessential Sassoon style known as the five-point cut, a snug, sleek helmet with a W cut at the nape of the neck and a pointed spike in front of each ear. “He didn’t create it for me; he created it on me,” Ms. Coddington said. “It was an extraordinary cut; no one has bettered it since. And it liberated everyone. You could just sort of drip-dry it and shake it.” Mr.

Sassoon’s salon on Bond Street in London became a hive of beautiful people, as did the ones he opened on Madison Avenue in New York in 1965 and, afterward, in Beverly Hills. Eventually he operated more than 20. Roman Polanski used the London salon for his film “Repulsion,” starring Catherine Deneuve, and he later created a sensation when he paid Mr. Sassoon $5,000 to cut Mia Farrow ’s hair for “Rosemary’s Baby” and invited the news media to see it. The very short cut became Ms. Farrow’s signature, and the film proved to be a fine advertisement for him. “It’s Vidal Sassoon!” Ms. Farrow says to a shocked character in the film. “It’s very in.” Mr. Sassoon became a business pioneer as well, creating a line of hair products under his name. The shampoos, conditioners and other products were famously sold in television commercials featuring a woman with a lustrous head of hair and the handsome, debonair Mr.

Sassoon at her side, declaring, “If you don’t look good, we don’t look good.” Sales reached more than $100 million annually before he sold the company in 1983. “He was the creator of sensual hair,” John Barrett, founder of the John Barrett Salon at Bergdorf Goodman, said Wednesday. “This was somebody who changed our industry entirely, not just from the point of view of cutting hair but actually turning it into a business. He was one of the first who had a product line bought out by a major corporation.” Born in London in 1928, Mr. Sassoon was the child of poor parents. After his father left the family, he was raised partly in a Jewish orphanage until his mother remarried and reunited with Vidal when he was 11. He was an avid soccer player as a boy — and a lifelong fitness devotee — but he turned to hairdressing after his mother claimed she had had a vision of his future. She took him to a local shop where the proprietor decided the boy would do as an apprentice because he had good manners.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story The shop was in a working-class neighborhood, and young Vidal, dreaming of better things, took elocution lessons to rid himself of his cockney diction. Meanwhile, he joined a Jewish organization that battled in the streets with the Mosley-ites, anti-Semitic British fascists who were followers of Oswald Mosley. In 1948, he traveled to Israel and fought in the war for its independence. Mr. Sassoon opened his first salon in 1954. “I made up my mind then that if I was going to be in hairdressing long term, I wanted to change things,” he recalled in the documentary “Vidal Sassoon: The Movie.” “I didn’t have a picture of what hair should be, but I had a definite picture of what hair shouldn’t be.” Over nine years — inspired, he said, by Bauhaus architecture — he evolved his geometric style. “When I looked at the architecture, the structure of buildings that were going up worldwide, you saw a whole different look, in shape,” he said. “My sense was hairdressing definitely needed to be changing.” He added: “To me hair meant geometry, angles.

Cutting uneven shapes, as long as it suited that face and that bone structure.” A breakthrough came in 1963 when he cut the long hair of the Hong Kong-born actress Nancy Kwan into a bob with sharp face-framing points; photos of what became known as the Kwan bob or the Kwan cut or simply the Kwan appeared in British and American Vogue and on fashion pages around the world. Mr. Sassoon is survived by his fourth wife, Rhonda, and three children. A daughter, Catya, died of a drug overdose in 2002. Especially in the early days, Mr. Sassoon was a disciplinarian as a salon keeper, known to send employees home if their shoes were not shined or to admonish a client touching her hair in mid-cut with a slap of the comb. As he developed his ideas, he did not always have patience with clients who wanted things their way rather than his. Once in frustration, he confessed, he threw a pair of scissors in the air and they stuck in the ceiling. Rebecca R. Ruiz contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on May 10, 2012, on Page B14 of the New York edition with the headline: Vidal Sassoon, Hairdresser And Trendsetter, Dies at 84. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Vidal Sassoon's Most Famous Haircuts - Grace Coddington, Peggy Moffitt Hair Styles by Vidal Sassoon 1 Of 10 Vidal Sassoon (1928–2012) Vidal Sassoon, the legendary hairstylist whose "wash-and-wear" cuts revolutionized women's hair care and fashion in the 1960s, died Wednesday at 84. With his geometric creations—most notably the "five-point cut"—the British-born Sassoon liberated women from the tyranny of bedtime rollers and towering beehives piled high with spray. "My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous," Sassoon told the Los Angeles Times in 1993. "Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power.

They didn't have time to sit under the dryer anymore." He eventually expanded his empire to include salons and an eponymous product line in the United States with the famous slogan, "If you don't look good, we don't look good." Getty Images 2 Of 10 Vidal Sassoon Then and Now In 1954, Sassoon opened his first salon at the Dorchester Hotel in London's posh Mayfair district. "I gave myself five years," he said. "If I couldn't change anything, I was out of there." As Sassoon explained in the 2010 documentary Vidal Sassoon: The Movie , he was inspired by the clean lines of Bauhaus architecture. "When I looked at the architecture, the structure of buildings that were going up worldwide, you saw a whole different look, in shape," he said. "My sense was hairdressing definitely needed to be changing. To me hair meant geometry, angles. Cutting uneven shapes, as long as it suited that face and that bone structure." Among his more popular cuts was the "swinging bob"—shown here on model-turned-designer Emmanuelle Khanh in 1963.

Getty Images 3 Of 10 Vidal Sassoon Then and Now Although angular bobs were his signature in the early 1960s, Sassoon went even shorter in 1965 with the five-point cut on model Grace Coddington. A cropped helmet with a spike of hair at each ear and a w at the nape of the neck, the look could be styled with a simple shake of the head. "He didn't create it for me; he created it on me," Coddington, now the creative director of Vogue, told the New York Times . "It was an extraordinary cut; no one has bettered it since. And it liberated everyone." Getty Images 4 Of 10 Vidal Sassoon Then and Now The mod muse for designer Rudi Gernreich in the 1960s, Peggy Moffitt made Sassoon's asymmetrical five-point cut her signature look. Now in her early seventies, Moffitt still wears her hair in that style. "Sassoon is to hair care what Picasso is to painting," she famously noted.

courtesy of the Everett Collection Advertisement - Continue Reading Below 5 Of 10 Vidal Sassoon Then and Now One of Sassoon's best-known clients in the 1960s was British designer Mary Quant, who popularized the miniskirt. "You put the top on it," she said to him in the 2010 Sassoon documentary. Dubbing him "the Chanel of hair," Quant told BBC News that "Vidal was an inspiration to everybody and always got at the vital point and was so explicit. You only had to think about his haircuts and shapes—he revolutionized the look and way of life for everyone." Getty Images 6 Of 10 Vidal Sassoon Then and Now Sassoon achieved international fame thanks to director Roman Polanski. Polanski featured the coiffeur's London salon in his 1965 film, Repulsion, and three years later, he paid Sassoon $5,000 to cut off Mia Farrow's long hair in front of reporters for Rosemary's Baby. Farrow's soft pixie cut became a sensation. "It's Vidal Sassoon!" her character gushes in the film.

"It's very in." Getty Images 7 Of 10 Vidal Sassoon Then and Now As Sassoon expanded his brand in the 1970s, he opened salons in the United States and started a line of products, inspiring a generation of hairdressers that includes John Barrett, Frédéric Fekkai, and Tabatha Coffey (seen here with a Sassoon-esque pixie at the Los Angeles premiere of the documentary). "My great day turned into a devastating day," Coffey tweeted on Wednesday. "RIP Vidal Sassoon...thank you for all you have done for our industry and for me." Getty Images 8 Of 10 Vidal Sassoon Then and Now In fall 2004, Keira Knightley cut her long hair into a shaggy bob reminiscent of Sassoon's '60s cuts. Six years later, at the Chanel spring 2011 runway show, Knightley debuted a sleeker variation of the look. "I had my hair bobbed about a month ago," she told InStyle UK . "Then I had it freshly trimmed again this morning." And it wasn't for a role: "I did it for myself," she said.

Getty Images 9 Of 10 The Rihanna Bob During her early career, Rihanna was known for her luxuriously long hair. But in 2007, without her record label's permission, the Bajan singer opted for a drastic image change for her Good Girl Gone Bad album with the help of hairstylist Ursula Stephen. While the severe cut was evocative of Sassoon's swinging-bob, the dyed-black look was actually inspired by Charlize Theron's hair from the 2005 movie Aeon Flux . Getty Images 10 Of 10 Vidal Sassoon Then and Now Just as Peggy Moffitt was Rudi Gernreich's muse, model Tao Okamato inspired Phillip Lim with her signature mushroom cut. At a 3.1 Phillip Lim show in 2009, Odile Gilbert styled all the runway models' wigs to match Okamoto's Sassoon-like bob. "My hair was really long, but I wanted to cut it because all Asian girls have the same hairstyle—long, black, straight hair," Okamoto told ELLE.com about her look, which was created by Miho Matsuura of the Twiggy salon in London.

"I wanted something to change, so I did it." Getty Images Five ways Vidal Sassoon changed people's hair - BBC News BBC News Five ways Vidal Sassoon changed people's hair By Deirdre Finnerty BBC News 10 May 2012 Image caption Vidal Sassoon's celebrity clients included designer Mary Quant... Image caption ... actress Mia Farrow, pictured here on the set of Rosemary's Baby in 1968 ... Image caption ... and Chelsea and England footballer Peter Osgood. 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.

He never ever changed his philosophy, it was all about beautiful hair cutting Lee Stafford, Celebrity hairdresser Hairstylist Vidal Sassoon dies Obituary: Vidal Sassoon In pictures: Vidal Sassoon 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. Media captionVidal Sassoon talking to BBC Breakfast in September 2010 about his life and work 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." Image caption 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 Image caption 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. The hair essentials Vidal Sassoon spoke to Kirsty Young on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in 2011 - revealing that his castaway luxury would be a dozen bottles of Vidal Sassoon hair shampoo. Listen to the interview on BBC iPlayer 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." Robin Barker Robin Barker No Comments Is there magic to having or styling a makeover? I don’t think so. The results might be “magical” but to reach that point there are many layers of creativity: skin tone; hair colour; make-up; clothes; type and shape of hair; face shape; lifestyle. For thirty years I got to do many makeovers on CityTV. I earned an excellent reputation for accomplishing fantastic results. When it was a solo appearance, the stylist got to choose the “model”. One of my secrets was to find a subject that looked tired and was not a “pretty, young thing”. A pretty girl’s before shot would look too good – not the best contrast on television. I would also see if this lady had warm or cool skin. I would then have a discussion with the make-up artist not to do a “natural” look.

It’s so important to understand that the television lights blank out colours, so it’s always been my point to add colour not only to the eyes and lips but also the foundation. Coyly, I have always felt that on television the make-up is most important in a “before & after”. If the women has grey hairs, this is not a problem if she has cool skin, but if her skin is warm, the client looks drained. I used to carry an edge, some copper and golden mousse to counteract. As far as hair shaping is concerned, the first thing I do is to ask the lady the following questions: What is she afraid of? What does she not like? What is she capable of when she looks after her hair at home? All these questions are far more important than the latest trend. Trend is nice to include in the after look, but far more important is suitability. Point of interest: Right from the moment I went to hairdressing school in London, UK we were taught that the most ideal face shape was oval. Our job was to create a cut or hairstyle to shape a square or round face into an oval. 25 years later I was working on this first time client from Malaysia.

To my eye she was a stunning beauty, flawless skin and hair, full lips, almond eyes and an oval face. I told her she was a perfect beauty. What she said next blew me away: “not in my country, my face is too long, my face is not round enough!.” I was shocked, but that night as I reflected, I realized, for example that in China where there are a billion people, most had round faces. Obviously the majority of the population would look at the round face as ideal. I want to thank CityLine producer Chrissie Rejman and her team for all the wonderful shows over my 30 years. Chrissie named my associate, make-up artist Jean MacDonald and myself “The King and Queen of Makeovers”. When I participated in the multiple “Mega Makeovers”, which I loved doing because we prepared them “in-salon” and had total control, our own colourist and make-up artist. It was revealed to me that when the CityLine staff were looking at the “before” photos of the volunteers, they would choose those they thought were the most difficult for any stylist to do, as “this is a Robin Barker”.

I was flattered but also loved the challenge, as I mentioned earlier, the more contrast between the before and after, the better, both for the client and the look. As a hairstylist, one of the joys of everyday work is that you cannot get bored that easily. Everybody has a different personality, their tastes are different. Some will love avant garde, or trend, but many are conservative and others favour wash n’ wear. No Comments I had just finished my Hairdressing Course in London UK in ’61 Vidal Sassoon was modernizing hairstyles & hair cutting with his brilliant geometrics, first the blunt “guillotine” then the graduated bob. Creative hairstylists have revealed many almost endless variations of the bob. In the Canadian Competitions, “The Mirror Awards” and “The Contessa’s” I have have found that many of the entrants seem stuck in hard edged bobs, probably because it’s early in their career. I wonder how many young stylists today know that the first bob in North America is credited to Irene Castle, a dancer who decided in 1912 to rid herself of the Style de Jour “The Gibson Girl”.

She turned out to be quite the trend setter after bobbing (like a horse’s tail) off her long hair. See here a photo of the “Gibson Girl” and the first “Castle Bob”. A little later came the late ’20’s The Flapper flounced, sometimes using the Marcel waving iron, finger waves with or without pin curls.Many Hollywood Stars bobbed their hair, one of the big looks was Louise Brook’s cut. This is a photo of my Mother in the late 20’s, she had worn this graduated bob since a teenager. At this time she had dated the Prince of Wales (The Future Duke Of Windsor), note the mini bangs, how “to-day” is that? She had this look in England prior to Louise, her name: Elise. Here are a selection of some of the BOBS that I have created & photographed since 1965, please see “hair gallery. I counted over 45 variations of this length. Some blunt, some layered, some edgy, some spiky, some softly curled, some coloured and/or hi-lighted. My first influence as a student hairdresser in 1961 were the Coiffeur Parisians.

Somehow they made any length of hair seem feminine. Then came Vidal, say goodbye to the BeeHive !! Can you imagine what our dollar bill would have looked like if Vidal had gotten hold of the Queen in the ’60’s. However I consider myself very fortunate to have my training before Sassoon, because in my opinion, I see so many stylists caught in a time warp and not knowing how to shape sexy long layered haircuts or even softly shape bobs. There is so much more to hairstyling than the Classic “Bob”. As a Yorkville, Toronto, hairstylist I have never lost my attraction to beautiful women with lovely long hair. Please see my earlier blog “The Perfect Haircut” to explain why so many hair-do’s are dependent on the stylist and client working together as a team. To arrive at the best suitability for the clients face shape, personality and hair type . Is the hair thin, limp, thick, curly, frizzy, straight or just hard to handle perhaps because the client does not have the ability to manage her hair.It’s the answer to K.I.S.S, Keep it simple stylist. The following is the latest bob cut from a shag on my lovely wife Megan.

Long live lovely Ladies, long sexy hair and long live the magic of “The Bob” No Comments Twenty years ago I remember that Vogue forecast that short haircuts were “in” for Spring. Then that Winter they acclaimed that long hair was “it”. This was before hair extensions, this meant that fashion followers had a serious problem because the average hair growth is half an inch per month. It takes at least two years to grow hair long from short. I will soon be writing about the evolution of fashion and hairstyles. The top photograph of my lovely wife Megan was shot in February 2014. She wanted her hair very short and very blond (too pale for her, I felt). I said, “we are now going to grow your hair”. Twelve months later, February 2015, the rebirth of the shag. Shag: Hair grown in from a short haircut Shaggy: Messy hair at any length Beach Hair: Messy, unkept; looking like two-days old. There are two ways to grow in one’s hair. Let the whole head of the hair grow in and it will naturally grow into a shag.

Or as Megan demanded as we grew it in, “I want short bangs and the back cut off”, the bob. If you have a round or square face, cutting a short bob or having full bangs might not be the best choice. If you let the back grow in a couple of inches longer than the jawline, keep tucking the sides behind the ear until they become as long as the back… voila! Your hair is longer than your jawline. No bangs or side bangs would be favourable. Have your hair cut with gravity and natural flow. NEVER allow a hairstylist to pull the hair forward if you wish your hair to grow longer at the front. Megan loves her new cut, I love both, especially the colour: L’Oreal non-ammonia INOA in light copper-blonde. Having been a hairstylist since 1960, you can imagine how many bobs I have cut and photographed! This year is only the third time that I recall that the shag has been forecast. In fashion, there has always been a type of bob in style, there is always long hair and always will be. Vive la différence!

No Comments Update There are a number of videos and a few slide shows to come. One of them is a collection of hair shots of my lovely wife Megan. After so many years of Hairstyling I’m still amazed at the variation and shapes one can achieve, hair is fun.One day Megan all of a sudden decided she wanted to try blonde. The one thing I can honestly say is that we have both enjoyed every look we have done. Anytime one goes blonde from deep colours, it’s what we call “a big job”. Thank goodness she likes the finished result. Always seek advice on the right products. In our case we use L’Oreal Professionnel, not available in Drug Stores. L’Oreal even has bleaches that contain no ammonia, plus the best non-ammonia demi Richesse and permanent non-ammonia colour INOA. Please note, when a true, honest professional hairstylist recommends a product, they are choosing,for example, a luxury shampoo and treatment for colour-treated hair. Plumping shampoo and styling products for fine limp hair. Anti-humectants, hydrating and moisturizing shampoos, treatments and styling products for overly curly and frizzy hair.

As you will notice, products fill the shelves in the drug stores. They must keep their prices low in order to compete. BUYER BEWARE: To have low prices, all these drug store products contain a much higher percentage of water, therefore diluting and sometimes excluding the expensive and effective ingredients. No Comments Besides being a Hairdresser, I also write songs, I created, with the help of several great musicians and wonderful singers, a CD at Rogue Studio for my 50th Anniversary Show at The Revival. One of the songs on that CD was brilliantly sung by the great local Jazz singer, Julie Michels, “Reciprocation”. For 4 years I was searching for someone to translate the lyrics into Spanish, it’s a very sexy slow salsa. Through my friend Jaymz Bee of JazzFm, I was introduced to the talented painter, composer, singer DJ & performer Laura Fernandez. See her glamour shot that we did for a video we are putting together and listen to Laura sing her Spanish lyrics to “Deseo” at the bottom of the photo. Also, catch “Save Humanity” song and video we did.

Recorded at Kenny Munshaw’s studio in Kitchener (a super friend), the video by another great friend, Simon Bell. “Save Humanity” was inspired by the “Arab Spring”. It took a year to complete. By that time, I was nervous that democracy would have taken hold and my songs would have been redundant. Today, we know there are still problems in Egypt, Libya, and of course Syria. As a “war baby” and Zoomer, I’m sad to say that I believe there will never be peace in this world of ours. Through the centuries there has been conflict, whether because of avarice, power or religion. Enjoy the music. I always feel the responsibility when I’m asked to give a client or personality a “new look”. No more so when it is a performer. Chloe Charles is an amazing Indie Talent, songwriter, guitarist and lovely singer, check her out on . Like a lot of Toronto women, she is of mixed ethnicity . Her hair is naturally super curly, with a little relaxer, the right haircut, etc. and Chloe has a new promo shot.

While there are a few of us that have a form for new clients to fill out, mostly for promotional records, I developed mine in the ’80s. I was doing a lot of new clients from all the TV makeovers I was performing. It was then I had developed my chart from my teaching classes. I did 2 clients, back to back,who didn’t know each other, and after having a free consultation, said “thanks, I’ll take this to my hairstylist.” That’s why today I charge $65.00 for a consultation, which if they have a haircut then or later, it is deducted from the first time hairshaping fee. What does the chart have, besides personal information and product recommendations? It has 10 points to a perfect haircut. Face shape No Comments I was so lucky to go to Hairdressing School in London, England in 1960. It was the grooviest time. Carnaby Street,the Music & Clubs. I was a huge fan of the Paris Designers and Hairstylists.

Those Parisians knew how to make every female look sexy, how to do back brushed bouffant updo’s, short gamine haircuts and of course the Bridget Bardot Look. Hairdressing got even more expressive in London as this fellow known as Vidal Sassoon was just starting to make his name heard. I feel most fortunate to have learned “old school” methods of hair shaping just before Sassoon. A few years later with an ability to think, a little bit of luck and insight I was able to develop some original techniques and approach to shaping hairstyles. I realized that while many stylists start their haircuts from the nape first, that wasn’t logical (unless it was a classic all one length blunt cut). Clients look at their face for their style suitability, so common sense told me to start shaping hair at the bangs or around the face. The other thing I realized, probably influenced by Vidal, is that if you wish for the shape your cut to go back to the same place that it was carved, then it has to be shaped with gravity and the natural flow. Unfortunately today, 85% of haircutters cut the perimeter of the haircut by pulling the hair forward.

When something is too easy in life, it’s probably incorrect. Some stylists even put their clients head down towards the floor to shape it, huge mistake. The other most important thing that happened for me was the day a model came into me with a mess. She had asked her stylist to cut layers which he wasn’t trained to do. He just grabbed the top third of her hair and chopped. She ended up having a bowl on top of another blunt bowl. In tears she pleaded with me to “ do something “. I thought about it for awhile and invented a new technique by inverting layers in a gravitational line. This blended out the hard line caused by the chop. The photos attached show the long layered haircut, notice how much hair is in the front (this hair is all lost if the cut is pulled forward), The second shot is from suggesting clients could wrap their hair up at night in rags, something that gals used to do during World War 2. The 3rd pic shows the sexy casual curls from rags. No Comments After being a hairdresser for 53 years and an owner for 43 years, last October I handed over my Salon to one of my Staff, Anthony Passero.

I get kind of irritated when people say, “ So, how do you like Retirement? “I am not retiring, creative people never stop creating. I love doing hair too much, in fact besides being as talented as ever I have an abundance of experience. I love the fact that I am able to create very edgy looks to more high fashion/sophisticated hair styles. One of the reasons that my clients come back year after year is that they love the fact my hair cuts last a very long time, grow-in beautifully and are easy to maintain. Call It the 'Dorothy Hamill,' the 'Wedge' or 'Wash 'n' Wear Hair,' It's the Coming Summer Look on Top Call It the 'Dorothy Hamill,' the 'Wedge' or 'Wash 'n' Wear Hair,' It's the Coming Summer Look on Top Email What’s it got that the Shag, Frizz or China Doll hairdos don’t have? All a body had to do was watch 19-year-old skater Dorothy Hamill twirl her way to a gold medal at the Winter Olympics to appreciate the value of the short bob she wore. The swingy, bouncing hair nearly stole the show.

“I love it,” says Dorothy. “I don’t have to worry about it before I skate. Afterward, if I have to go before the TV camera, it looks okay with just a quick brushing.” Not all women flocking to hairdressers for “the Dorothy Hamill cut” are athletes, although the style is visible on tennis courts and jogging paths everywhere. By summer it may be as ubiquitous as the bikini. Sometimes called “Wash ‘n’ Wear hair,” or the “Wedge,” it is basically a short cut that falls over the forehead, bares the earlobe and tapers to a triangle in the back. Its major benefit seems to be easy maintenance. After a 25-minute trim, the wearer need only keep her hair clean and well conditioned until the next cut five weeks later. “It’s a social statement,” says fashion designer Halston. “Women are no longer willing to fool around with the curlers, the hairspray. They just want to wash their hair.

It’s a terrific look, very modern, very chic and reflects the trend to easy-care clothes.” New York stylist Suga did Hamill’s hair, but the vogue seems traceable back to Vidal Sassoon’s London salon where it was named the Wedge in 1974. Actually, it is an update of the ’60s Sassoon cut, which was more geometric. Many stylists have been offering the Wedge for about a year, but the boom did not occur until Hamill’s Olympic triumph in February. There’s no end to the ways the cut can be worn—straight, waved, curled or even frizzed. The only requirement is healthy hair. “We had the twangy, mattress-stuffing look long enough,” says pop culture critic Albert Goldman.

“It was time for something different.” Show Full Article Vidal Sassoon - Telegraph Expat News Vidal Sassoon Vidal Sassoon, who has died aged 84, was at the cutting edge – literally and metaphorically – of hairdressing; his sharp, geometric, low-maintenance 1960s hairstyles revolutionised his craft, sounding the death knell for the stiff, set hairdos of the 1950s. An astute businessman, Sassoon made a fortune from his salons and products, and became a household name. Vidal Sassoon in 1988 Photo: REX Image 1 of 3 Hairdresser Vidal Sassoon is seen here with his wife Beverly Adams at Heathrow after their honeymoon in America.

Photo: REX FEATURES Image 1 of 3 Vidal Sassoon, aged 65, celebrates 50 years in the beauty business with some of his models Photo: REX 6:08PM BST 10 May 2012 “I wanted to eliminate the superfluous and get to the basic angles of cut and shape,” he reminisced in Craig Teper’s 2010 film, Vidal Sassoon, The Movie. Indeed, the word “hairdressing”, associated with formally-arranged “helmet” hairdos of the post-war years, held in place with stiff perms and lacquers, was anathema to Sassoon, who wanted his smooth, flat hairstyles to emphasise the face. In an interview with the Telegraph in 2011, Vidal Sassoon shed light on his lengthy career Beginning in the 1950s, he cut hair at razor-sharp angles to allow his clients’ cheekbones to become more prominent – to flattering effect. In 1963, he created his avant-garde five-point-cut, which, at the back, followed the hairline.

Originally modelled by Grace Coddington, it was the culmination of almost a decade of restless experimentation. Coaxed by his charm and confidence, Sassoon’s clients relinquished their backcombed coiffures for a more “progressive” look, created, he said, by his instinct for what he felt was right. Free of hair lacquer, cut simply using scissors, his low-maintenance, sleek, glossy styles swung effortlessly back into place, giving rise to the term “wash and wear”. The Sassoon cut came to epitomise the futuristic aesthetic of the Swinging Sixties as much as the miniskirts of Mary Quant (whose own characteristic bob sprung from Sassoon’s scissors) and the geometric simplicity of André Courrèges’s fashions. In fact Sassoon, who was born in London to Sephardic Jewish parents, was chiefly inspired by the starkly modernist aesthetic of the Bauhaus, specifically that of Mies van der Rohe’s architecture. He often said that had he not come from a grindingly poor background, he would have been an architect.

Related Articles Vidal Sassoon: The Movie, DVD review 21 Sep 2011 His love of modernism was reflected in his open-plan, unisex Bond Street salon, which he opened in the mid-1950s. Gargantuan windows, allowing passers-by to see what was happening, helped demystify what went on inside. “It” girls and actresses clamoured for Sassoon’s radically innovative haircuts. When he lopped off Nancy Kwan’s four-foot mane, the terrified actress, unable to watch, played chess with her manager. Yet the resulting reinterpretation of a Twenties bob – named after her – was photographed by Terence Donovan and featured in Vogue. Sassoon was also responsible for Mia Farrow’s ultra-gamine crop in the 1968 movie Rosemary’s Baby, directed by Roman Polanski (another client, as was Peter O’Toole). Her mention of it in the film – “It’s a Vidal Sassoon, it’s terribly in” – brought him to the attention of America. Sassoon moved across the Atlantic in the late Sixties with his second wife Beverly, first to New York, then to Los Angeles.

Together they wrote the bestselling book, A Year of Beauty and Health. He also built up a multi-million dollar hair and skin products corporation whose slogan was: “If you don’t look good, we don’t look good.” In 1982, he sold all the rights to his name and image to Richardson-Vicks, which was bought by Procter & Gamble in 1985. Sassoon ended up suing the latter, alleging it had destroyed his brand by skimping on marketing in favour of the company’s other hair products. However, there was a silver lining to this episode: he met his fourth wife, Rhonda, at P&G’s headquarters, where she was a design consultant. They were happily married for 20 years. A Peter Pan-like figure, Sassoon kept forever youthful by practising Pilates and yoga. But besides an interest in aesthetics and physical wellbeing, he also had a deep-rooted sense of justice. He fought against anti-Semitic yobs rampaging around east London after the Second World War and set up a research centre for gathering information about anti-Semitism. He was also generous to charities, such as the Katrina Fund, which gives money to victims of the hurricane that devastated New Orleans.

Vidal Sassoon was born in Hammersmith on January 17 1928. His father Jack was a carpet-trader, his mother Betty, who came from a family of immigrants from Spain, worked in a sweatshop in Whitechapel. Sassoon had a younger brother, Ivor, who died aged 46. Jack, a womaniser, deserted the family when Vidal (who said his father spoke seven languages and made love in all of them) was three. Lacking money to pay the rent, his mother was evicted, and the family was taken in by her sister in her overcrowded home in a tenement block on Petticoat Lane. Sassoon’s mother then placed him in a Jewish orphanage for seven years. Although conditions there were harsh, he was delighted that, for the first time, he could enjoy a hot bath. His mother was allowed to visit once a month. During the Second World War, Sassoon briefly worked delivering messages by bike from the City to the docks.

When he was 14, his mother, who somehow seems to have had a premonition that he would be a hairdresser, whisked him off to the Whitechapel hair salon of Adolph Cohen, where he worked as a shampoo boy. After the war, outraged that Oswald Mosley’s followers were yelling “Yids out!” in London in the wake of the Holocaust, he joined the 43 group, a Jewish association established to campaign against anti-Semitism. In 1948, aged 20, Sassoon volunteered to fight in the Arab-Israeli war as part of the fledgling Israeli army. Fighting near Gaza, his unit suffered heavy casualties. Back home, he applied to train under the flamboyant hairdresser “Teasy-Weasy” Raymond, but had to take elocution lessons (with the voice coach Iris Warren) to lose his East End accent before being taken on. It was while working for Raymond that he rebelled against the backcombing orthodoxy of the day. Soon he opened his own salon.

Sassoon was as demanding a boss as Raymond, often re-cutting his colleagues’ haircuts, though his demeanour was modern, dynamic and informal: he would dance nimbly round his clients while trimming their locks. On the first occasion he snipped Mary Quant’s, in 1957, he cut her ear, causing blood to gush everywhere. Fortunately she just giggled. In 1965 he opened his first salon in New York. The press went wild, feting him as the crimping equivalent of the Beatles. His star rose even further in the early 1980s when he presented a television show called Your New Day, in which he interviewed stars on subjects other than those for which they were famous: Twiggy, for example, talked about her love of sewing. But the ever-youthful Sassoon, who swore by health drinks made of wheatgerm, soya and lecithin, and embraced plastic surgery, could not hold back the years forever. In 2009 he was diagnosed with leukaemia. Vidal Sassoon was married four times and freely admitted that his first three marriages were casualties of his workaholism and ambition.

He married his first wife, Elaine Wood, his salon receptionist, in 1956; his second, the actress Beverly Adams, in 1967. They had a son and two daughters of whom one, Catya, died of a drug overdose in 2002, a tragedy that haunted Sassoon for the last years of his life. They also adopted another son. He and Beverly divorced in 1980. His third wife was Jeanette Hartford-Davis, a dressage champion and former model. In 1992, he married Rhonda, who survives him with his three children. Vidal Sassoon, born January 17 1928, died May 9 2012

Question: Which hairdresser created the ‘wash n‘ wear bob’ in 1965?
Answer: Vidal Sassoon