Famous Hairdressers | List of the Top Hairdressers List of Famous Hairdressers 59k views 242 items tags f t p @ List of famous hairdressers, with photos, bios, and other information when available. Who are the top hairdressers in the world? This includes the most prominent hairdressers, living and dead, both in America and abroad. This list of notable hairdressers is ordered by their level of prominence, and can be sorted for various bits of information, such as where these historic hairdressers were born and what their nationality is. The people on this list are from different countries, but what they all have in common is that they're all renowned hairdressers. Examples include Jheri Redding and Vidal Sassoon. From reputable, prominent, and well known hairdressers to the lesser known hairdressers of today, these are some of the best professionals in the hairdresser field. If you want to answer the questions, "Who are the most famous hairdressers ever?" and "What are the names of famous hairdressers?" then you're in the right place.

(242 items) List Photo: user uploaded image Z G Options B Comments & Embed 1 Vidal Sassoon obituary | Fashion | The Guardian Vidal Sassoon obituary His imaginative, practical approach changed hairstyling for ever Vidal Sassoon cutting the hair of fashion designer Mary Quant. Photograph: Ronald Dumont/Getty Images Wednesday 9 May 2012 16.49 EDT First published on Wednesday 9 May 2012 16.49 EDT Share on Messenger Close Vidal Sassoon , who has died aged 84 after suffering from leukaemia, became the most famous hairdresser of the 1960s, creating styles that caught and then boosted women's new feelings of personal freedom. In doing so, he changed the craft of hairstyling for ever. Before Sassoon and his three-storey, glass-fronted Bond Street salon arrived, women were piling their hair up in beehives that were back-combed and lacquered into a consistency of candy floss: the fashionable stylist of the day was Raymond Bessone, "Mr Teasy-Weasy".

Sassoon transformed women's hair with his geometric "wash-and-wear" cuts, so carefully shaped that a woman could shake her head and the style would fall back into place. And she needed a cut only once every six weeks, instead of the tortuous weekly visits that had been de rigueur until then. Sassoon's client list soon included most of the young models and film stars of the day – including Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton, Terence Stamp and Mia Farrow, notably for her look in Rosemary's Baby (1968) – as well as most of London's fashionistas. Although hairdressing was the trade that took Sassoon from a tenement block in the city's East End to a house in Beverly Hills and a considerable fortune, he was much more than a clever crimper. He was also a militant Zionist – though not a religious Jew – who at 17 joined the Jewish ex-servicemen of the 43 Group movement in street battles against Sir Oswald Mosley's fascists in London. In 1948 he went to Israel , worked on a kibbutz and joined the army there, fighting in the new nation's independence war.

Both experiences gave him a lifelong passion for human rights, and he later financed the Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Sassoon was born in Whitechapel, but his carpet-salesman father left the family when Vidal was five. With his younger brother, Ivor, he lived in an orphanage for six years until his mother, Betty, remarried. She could not afford to keep him in school, and he left at 14 to become a shampoo boy at Cohen's Beauty and Barber shop, where he stayed for two years. The idea had been Betty's: "Her feeling was that I didn't have the intelligence to pick a trade myself." In Israel he had wanted to attend college and become an architect, but his still-impoverished family called him home to London, and he returned to hairdressing, now with a greater sense of discipline. While learning the trade with Teasy-Weasy, he went to West End theatres and took elocution lessons to moderate his cockney accent. At the age of 26 he opened his first Bond Street salon, but it was so small that customers had to sit on the stairs while waiting.

"Sassoon's", as it was soon known, prospered and became fashionable, and in 1958 he moved to bigger premises. That year he also created the "shape", which became his signature cut – influenced by the Bauhaus designs he had studied – and in 1963 he devised the classic "bob" for fashion designer Mary Quant, who was doing for clothes what Sassoon was achieving in hairstyles. The 1960s and swinging London, as Time magazine called it, had begun to jump. Carnaby Street, a previously nondescript thoroughfare near Liberty's department store, became the hub of fashion and a destination for visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of its pop star customers. Sassoon's salon was another element of this explosion of culture and style, but by 1964 he was already thinking bigger: he went international, opening his first salon in New York. Within five years he had established salons in Toronto and in Beverly Hills, and his first hairdressing school, in London.

In 1973, he launched his hair-care products for the trade market and by the mid-1970s had 14 salons and three schools in the US, Canada, Britain and Germany. In the early New York days, Sassoon had battled the licensing process for hairdressers, who were forced to undergo examinations in technology, such as curling tongs, that Sassoon himself had rendered out-of-date. By 1975 he had more or less stopped cutting hair, although he appeared regularly in television advertisments for his hair-care products - boyish-looking and with a mid-Atlantic accent. His slogan, "If you don't look good, we don't look good," became a catchphrase. His first marriage, in 1956 to Elaine Wood, his salon receptionist, ended in divorce in 1963. Four years later he married the Canadian actor Beverly Adams , and they had two sons and two daughters. Having moved to Los Angeles, the couple took up healthcare and published a bestselling book, A Year of Beauty and Health (1975).

He even – briefly – had his own American television talk show, Your New Day (1980), with a characteristically upbeat emphasis on self-improvement. In 1983 Sassoon embarked on a shortlived third marriage with Jeanette Hartford-Davis and sold his business to a company that was acquired two years later by Proctor & Gamble, but continued to promote the products bearing his name. Losing control of his firm later came to be his greatest regret . In 1992 he married Ronnie (Rhonda) Holbrook, a designer, and they restored a classic 1960s modernist house in Beverly Hills with glass walls and a polished onyx floor. The dormant architect in Sassoon now had the time and money to indulge his fantasies. The couple and Quant looked back at his story for Craig Teper's documentary Vidal Sassoon: The Movie (2010) . Sassoon retained a great loyalty to London, where he loved to see Chelsea playing football. He claimed that "everything about morality and obligations" he knew had come from following the sport. In 2009 he was appointed CBE. He is survived by Ronnie and three of his children.

His daughter Catya , a model and actor, died in 2002. • Vidal Sassoon, hairstylist and businessman, born 17 January 1928; died 9 May 2012 In this interview recorded in May 2011, Vidal Sassoon talks to Andrew Pulver about his life and career and his connection with cinema. Here it is for the first time Published: 11 May 2012 To understand the impact Vidal Sassoon had on women's lives, you have to had lived through the era of setting lotions and huge rows of hairdryers Published: 10 May 2012 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 Hairdressers are a wonderful breed. You work one-on-one with another human being and the object is to make them feel so ... Died: May 9, 2012 (aged 84) Nationality: British Occupation: Businessman, hairdresser Bio: Vidal Sassoon was a British hairdresser, credited with creating a simple geometric, Bauhaus-inspired hair style, also called the wedge bob.

Due to the popularity of his styles, he was described as a rock star, an artist, a craftsman who 'changed the world with a pair of scissors.' Hairdresser Vidal Sassoon Remembered With a New Book (PHOTOS) - The Daily Beast Hairdresser Vidal Sassoon Remembered With a New Book (PHOTOS) Striking Photos Hairdresser Vidal Sassoon Remembered With a New Book (PHOTOS) The hairdressing legend, who died in May, is the subject of a glossy new monograph. From his groundbreaking architectural bob to his championing of Grace Coddington, see the highlights of Sassoon’s career. 10.10.12 8:45 AM ET Courtesy Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. Legendary hairdresser Vidal Sassoon died in May at age 84—but he won’t be forgotten any time soon. He shepherded the architectural bob into the mainstream in the 1950s and became famous for redefining femininity at the time. There were geometric cuts with clean lines, which were both daring and strikingly simple.

His was a kind of hairdressing that dovetailed equally with innovation; his styles were sexy and envelope-pushing. But his artistry wasn’t just about shocking and creating the new: it was also, as he saw it, about progression. “I see people as shapes, bone structures, as animated subjects for the scissors,” Sassoon writes in a new monograph, Vidal Sassoon: How One Man Changed the World With a Pair of Scissors , out by Rizzoli this month. “How lucky to be able to touch a human being, to be exhilarated by a craft that is constantly changing, to have that substance which grows from the human form that you can mold to create spontaneous fashion, and yet bring out the individuality. How lucky I have been to be involved in the poetry of change.” Sassoon was an early champion of several models, among them mod icon Mary Quant and Grace Coddington , who is now the creative director of Vogue. “I think it’s a style, a cut, an approach to hair that truly revolutionized not just hair but fashion and so many things. You could be upside-down and your hair still looked perfect. It was fun,” she wrote in the film’s introduction.

“He created a revolution, a whole new freedom for women.” Courtesy Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. Courtesy Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. Courtesy Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. Courtesy Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. Courtesy Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. Courtesy Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. Courtesy Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. Courtesy Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. READ THIS LIST Vidal Sassoon death: Legendary hair stylist dies aged 84 | Daily Mail Online comments Legendary hair stylist Vidal Sassoon has died at the age of 84 after battling leukaemia since 2009. The British-born hairdresser’s name has been among the most recognised in the fashion world for the past 50 years. His clients included Hollywood stars such as Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth and Elizabeth Taylor as well as the model Jean Shrimpton and fashion designer Mary Quant who called him the ‘Chanel of hair’.

Scroll down for video Passing: Legendary hairdresser Vidal Sassoon has died at his Los Angeles home aged 84 following a long battle with leukaemia, seen here with his wife of 20 years Ronnie As well as inventing the ‘wedge’ style haircut in the 1960s he was the first stylist to allow his name to be used on products and salons. He is credited for creating several wash-and-go hairstyles including the bob, the five-point cut and the ‘Greek Goddess’, a short, tousled perm. His death was confirmed last night by Los Angeles Police who attended his home in the Hollywood Hills. His family were by his bedside. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Sassoon was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2009 but chose to keep the news private. He revealed last year that he had the illness and was treated in Beverly Hills and at the Cromwell Hospital in London. His fourth wife Ronnie was said to have been a ‘tower of strength’ during his illness.

Swinging: Vidal Sassoon in action, creating the iconic bob cut for designer Mary Quant Sassoon, who was awarded a CBE in 2009, was also successfully treated for skin cancer in 2004. He has lived in America since the late 1970s, when he opened his first salon there. Such was his fame he went on to have his own chat show as he became ‘hairdresser to the stars’. Fellow hairdresser Lee Stafford told the BBC: 'Sassoon revolutionized the way everybody wears their hair today, he also made British hairdressing the best in the world, he was my hero.' Celebrity stylist and New York salon owner Oscar Blandi said Sassoon made him fall in love with the hair business and showed him the 'true art of styling'. 'He truly changed the world of hair and beauty,' Blandi wrote. 'He was definitely the most innovative person ever to enter the industry. He led the way for the celebrity stylists of today.' Celebrity friends: Vidal Sassoon with designer Mary Quant (left) and model Jerry Hall (right) Celebrity stylist Tabatha Coffey wrote on Twitter: 'My great day turned into a devastating day.

RIP Vidal Sassoon thank you for all you have done for our industry and for me.' Sassoon's creative, geometric cuts were an integral part of the Sixties look as championed by the likes of Mary Quant, the fashion designer who popularized the miniskirt, and actress Mia Farrow. When Sassoon picked up his shears in the 1950s, styled hair was typically curled, teased, piled high and shellacked into place. Then came the 1960s, and 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. Illustrious career: The veteran stylist in his Sixties heyday (left) and looking frail earlier this year in Los Angeles 'My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous,' Sassoon said. 'Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power.

They didn't have time to sit under the dryer anymore.' His wash-and-wear styles included the bob, the Five-Point cut and the 'Greek Goddess,' a short, tousled perm – inspired by the 'Afro-marvelous-looking women' he saw in New York's Harlem. To sculpt a head of hair with scissors is an art form. It's in pursuit of art. -Vidal Sassoon's mantra Sassoon opened his first salon in his native London in 1954 but said he didn't perfect his cut-is-everything approach until the mid-'60s. Once the wash-and-wear concept hit, though, it hit big and many women retired their curlers for good. His shaped cuts were an integral part of the 'look' of Mary Quant, the superstar British fashion designer who popularized the miniskirt. He also often worked in the 1960s with American designer Rudi Gernreich, who became a household name in 1964 with his much-publicized (but seldom-worn) topless bathing suit. 'While Mr.

Gernreich has dressed his mannequins to look like little girls,' The New York Times wrote after viewing Gernreich's collection for fall 1965, 'Vidal Sassoon has cut their hair to look like little boys with eye-level bangs in front, short crop in back. 'For really big evenings, a pin-on curl is added at the cheek.' Fringe benefits: Hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, surrounded by models, showing off his new cuts for 1976 in London British: Sassoon stayed true to his roots and was in awe of the Queen when he was made a CBE in 2009 Fashionable beginnings: Sassoon opened his Bond Street salon at age 26 in 1954 (shown here in 1968) In 1966, he did a curly look inspired by 1920s film star Clara Bow for the designer Ungaro. He got more headlines when he was flown to Hollywood from London, at a reputed cost of $5,000, to create Mia Farrow's pixie cut for the 1968 film Rosemary's Baby.

Sassoon opened more salons in England and expanded to the United States before also developing a line of shampoos and styling products bearing his name. His advertising slogan was 'If you don't look good, we don't look good.' Though he died a legendary fashion icon and innovator in the world of haircare, his upbringing would not have suggested that he was bound for glamour. Sassoon was born to Jewish parents in London on January 17, 1928. His father abandoned the family, who then moved to the East End of London with his aunts. Dashing: Vidal Sassoon was married four times. He had four children with his second wife Beverly (pictured left) and later married Rhonda, his fourth wife (pictured right in LA this year) But he was soon sent to an orphanage in Maida Vale where he spent six years, before being evacuated during the war to Trowbridge, in Wiltshire. On his return, aged 17, his mother had him apprenticed to a hairdresser. ‘In those days, you couldn’t get hired in the more fashionable West End with an Artful Dodger accent like mine.

I went to the theatre week after week to hear English the way it was meant to be spoken.’ 'THE ROCK STAR WITH A PAIR OF SCISSORS' In the same way Yves Saint Laurent gave women the pant, legendary British hairstylist Vidal Sassoon gave women the bob. Sassoon's constant innovation saw him invent the famous geometric five point bob cut, before creating Mia Farrow’s pixie for Rosemary’s Baby, pictured below, a look which in turn spawned copycat after copycat. Due to the popularity of his styles, he has been described as 'a rock star, an artist, [and] a craftsman who "changed the world with a pair of scissors'''. Sassoon trained under Raymond Bessone in his salon in Mayfair, who Sassoon credits with teaching him how to cut hair. 'I'd never have achieved what I have without him,' he said in 2010. A self-made man, his passion and perseverance took him from a Jewish orphanage in London to the hair empire he created. By the early 80s, after moving to the U.S., Sassoon had sold his name to manufacturers of hair care products.

Procter & Gamble began applying his name to shampoos and conditioners sold worldwide, with a commercial campaign featuring the iconic slogan 'If you don't look good, we don't look good. Former salon colleagues also bought Sassoon's salons and acquired the right to use his name, extending the brand in salons throughout the U.K. and U.S. Growing up poor in London, Sassoon said that when he was 14, his mother declared he was to become a hairdresser. 'I thought I'd be a soccer player but my mother said I should be a hairdresser, and, as often happens, the mother got her way,' he had said. Later in his life, he told the Chicago Tribune that he was proud to have entered the field. 'Hairdressers are a wonderful breed,' he 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. 'Work on their bone structure, the color, the cut, whatever, but when you've finished, you have an enormous sense of satisfaction.' Back in his youth, the decision came after traveling to Palestine and serving in the Israeli war.

He returned home to fulfil her dream, and not long after, he was a legend in his own right. He wrote three books - the first was an autobiography, Sorry I Kept You Waiting, Madam, published in 1968. A Year of Beauty and Health, which he wrote with his second wife, Beverly, was published in 1979. In 1984 he released Cutting Hair the Vidal Sassoon Way. The hairdresser also established Vidal Sassoon Academies to teach aspiring stylists how to envision haircuts based on a client's bone structure. In 2006 there were academies in England, the United States and Canada, with additional locations planned in Germany and China. 'Whether long or short, hair should be carved to a woman's bone structure,' he told the Los Angeles Times in 1967. 'Actually short hair is a state of mind ... not a state of age.' Sassoon's haircare mantra was: 'To sculpt a head of hair with scissors is an art form. It's in pursuit of art.' He sold his business interests in the early 1980s to devote himself to philanthropy.

The Boys Clubs of America and the Performing Arts Council of the Music Center of Los Angeles were among the causes he supported through his Vidal Sassoon Foundation. He later became active in post-Hurricane Katrina charities in New Orleans. He had moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s in search of a chemist to formulate his hair-care products and had decided to make the city his home. In spite of his shift stateside, he remained true to his British roots by supporting Chelsea football team throughout his life. He was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in 2009. Blurring gender lines: The pixie cut that he pioneered came as a stark contrast to earlier hair preferences Enlarge Life in cuts: The legendary hairdresser at his book launch in 2010 (left) and with his fourth wife Rhonda In 2010, a feature-length documentary was released about Sassoon's life, career, and influence on fashion and culture. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Married four times, Sassoon had four children with his second wife, Beverly, a sometime film and television actress, usually billed as Beverly Adams.

Last night, celebrity hairdresser Nicky Clarke paid tribute describing Sassoon as ‘truly one of the greatest icons of hairdressing’. He added: ‘He was part of the original Cool Britannia, he is synonymous with that time. He would be one of the top five Swinging Sixties icons along with the Beatles, Carnaby Street, Mary Quant and the Union Jack.’ Global brand: The Vidal Sassoon salon in LA. The stylist's name has become synonymous with haircare Final breath: Sassoon died in his Los Angeles home on famed Mulholland Drive surrounded by family Sassoon counted a long list of celebrities as both his clients and friends. Michael Caine was a lifelong friend, while the stylist also kept the company of Cary Grant while living in the US. In his memoirs he recalls spending a night in his one-bedroom London flat with Albert Finney, Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner, Alma Cogan, Christopher Plummer and Sean Connery. In a statement his family said Sassoon ‘sadly lost his battle with leukaemia today’.

The statement went on: ‘He became the most celebrated hairdresser in the world having begun his career as an apprentice during the Second World War, going on to revolutionise an industry through his iconic haircuts, salons, schools and product lines. ‘He will be greatly missed by his wife of 20 years Ronnie, his children, grandchildren, family and friends.’ Passing: Vidal Sassoon has died at his Los Angeles home aged 84 A complete history of the bob hairstyle | V is for Vintage V is for Vintage The Bob: history of a hairstyle Posted by Julie on Tuesday, April 3, 2012 · 17 Comments The 20th Century bob hairstyle symbolises the independent, progressive and spirited woman. Many have turned to vintage-style bobbed hair to encourage a more daring side of their personality. Think Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Think Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. Think Louise Brooks in… well…all of her silent movies. Millie even felt thoroughly modern when her locks were shorn. When Bernice bobbed her hair in 1920 it signified a change in her personality from mousey to sassy.

Many women have turned to the bob hairstyle looking for a dramatic change inside themselves and to abandon the past along with the hair. As is usual with the 20th Century, the movies and media play a big part in promoting and popularising the fashion of the day with many women copying the styles of their filmstar idols. Here is a complete history of the bob hairstyle in fashion. Strong female personas throughout history have been defined by their bob hairstyle. Cleopatra is often depicted wearing aspects of the bobbed style (actually, it’s a braided headpiece). Also Joan of Arc in the 15th Century. Pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart wore cropped hair. Richard the Third…well… for him, maybe not so much about the hairstyle. I think we all know what a bob looks like but the history of this much copied vintage hairstyle is just as exciting as the hairstyle itself. Let’s go back in time and explore… Joan of Arc 15th Century heroine Joan of Arc may have been a direct inspiration in the creation of the bob fashion at the beginning of the 20th Century. Celebrity hairdresser Antoine referenced the French heroine when creating his new bobbed hairstyle.

It is introduced into his Paris salon around 1909 and creates a new fashion fad. This is also the year that St Joan was beatified and the French become obsessed (WW1 allied soldiers later carry her image with them to help defend France). In France the bob is referred to as ‘coupe a la Jeanne D’Arc’. 1909 is also the year that milliners introduce the simpler style of cloche hat to fashionable Paris. At this time milliners still dominate over hairdressers – there had always been tension between the two competing professions. However, modernists such as Antoineare more willing to cooperate and cut styles that fit around the latest hat fashions. The new bobbed hair becomes the perfect style to complement the fashionable cloche hat. ‘Saint Joan’ by George Bernard Shaw Joan of Arc sported a short bob more for practical reasons back in the 15th Century and to disguise her gender during the 100 years war between France and England. Trial records of the time describe her as having hair cropped above the ears, similar to her male contemporaries’ pudding bowl haircut (not a stylish look by any means).

The Hollywood silent movie Joan The Woman (1916) has Geraldine Farrar sporting a bob for the role of Joan of Arc who appears in a World War 1 soldier’s dream. Also, the cover of George Bernard Shaw‘s script of his play St Joan (1924) depicts Joan of Arc with a Cleopatra-esque bob haircut – very fashionable for the decade. Cleopatra and Egyptology Cleopatra must also have had some influence on the bobbed style and the later flapper look. Archaeology and antiquarianism had developed considerably in the late 19th Century and this was of great interest in the media. Epic silent movie Cleopatra is popular in 1917 – starring the vampish Theda Bara(below). The tomb of Tutankhamun and other mummified relics had been discovered by archaeologists by the 1920s. There was a fascination with these exotic styles and the controversial keepsakes that were brought back to Western Europe and America from aristocratic funders of the excavations.

The Marcel Iron and technology Technological advancements in ladies hair-styling devices, originally designed to help women speed up the lengthy styling process of long hair, are also becoming popular. The Marcel Iron is a curling iron that could produce controlled waves quickly. It becomes an important tool for creating the Marcel wave (later used to style bobs in the 1920s). Marcel Grateau began using his secret waving iron techniques in the 1880s on Parisian prostitutes – who competed to have the fanciest hair. It is only in 1885 (when he waves actress Jane Hading’s hair for a play) that his new method becomes an overnight sensation. He ends up making his fortune from this technique. Previous to the curling iron, women had to curl their hair by simply using rags and letting the hair dry naturally. Finger-waving also became popular in the 1920s as women mould their hair into amazing undulating shapes using just their fingers, curling lotion and a comb. In 1906 German hairdresser Charles Nestle introduces a machine in London that could produce a permanent wave which lasted for 6 months. Revolutionary!

The machine effectively used a boiled alkaline solution. Not so good for the hair. Media and popular culture Meanwhile, back in Paris, Eastern styles are becoming highly fashionable in 1910 following a run of Scheherazade by the Ballet Russe: pantaloons, turbans and looser shapes inspired by the Arabian Nights tales. The rising popularity of Art Nouveau design also has an influence on headwear, making shapes simpler and less fussy. Hairdressing magazines set up in the late 19th Century help to spread the word of new hair fashions to the style capitals of Paris, London and New York: Hairdressers’ Journal International in the UK; Paris-Coiffures in France; Ladies’ Home Journal in the USA. By the time World War 1 breaks out, the new bobbed style of hair has reached the avant-garde bohemians in London (such as the Bloomsbury Set ). The bob hairstyle becomes very much a European fashion amongst actresses, writers, bohemians and progressive women. French designer Coco Chanel has her hair bobbed in 1916. Some aristocratic women in the UK further popularise the bob haircut in the media.

For example Lady Diana Cooper always wore a bob just as she did as a child. USA embraces the bob The story of the bob as a liberating haircut for women takes off in the USA in 1915, almost by accident rather than design. Irene Castle (born 1893) is a famous American ballroom dancer and performer. She is dance partner to her husband Vernon. During the early 1910s, they popularise the new social dances in both America and Europe and open fashionable dance schools. Irene endorses fashion designs and becomes a style leader for fashionable young ladies. Hooray! Irene admits to being a very practical woman and had decided to cut her hair short prior to an appendectomy (to avoid needing to comb her hair while in hospital). She hides the short hair under a fashionable turban while it grows back. But a friend persuades her to wear the short style in public. Irene decides to go to dinner with her new short look uncovered and boom! a fashion trend is born. This new style of short cut hair with little curls at the bottom is soon named the Castle Bob as ladies start to copy the new look.

Irene Castle gives the short-haired look an air of respectability for American women. Previous wearers of a short haircut were not considered respectable, such as French actress Polaire. She started wearing her hair short in the 1890s and toured the USA with a nose piercing – ‘how vulgar!’ they must have cried. World War 1 effect Irene’s practical reasons for cutting her hair become even more appealing during World War 1 as it becomes more acceptable for women to cut their hair to take on military duties and Red Cross work. Women are also becoming more active and health conscious and taking part in more athletic pursuits. It is also considered more hygienic – a modern concern for the woman-about-town as access to hot water becomes easier and more affordable. A rising number of women in the 1910s are rejecting the politics of the day and campaigning for women’s rights to vote. This is picked up by the media and coincides with the advancement of consumer culture and technology. Magazines of the day debate the idea of bobbing the hair and young women embrace the new look which distances them from the Gibson Girl feminine ideal. F. Scott Fitzgerald In 1920 a short story by F.

Scott Fitzgerald is published in the USA’s Saturday Evening Post magazine. The story is titled Bernice Bobs Her Hair and tells the tale of a young sweet girl who is transformed into an avenging vamp merely by getting a bob haircut. The story becomes a talking point for the fashionable young ladies of New York. By 1921 the bob is sported by celebrities such as Louise Brooks, Coco Chanel, Joan Crawford, Clara Bow , Colleen Moore, Ina Claire and Dutch film star Truus van Aalten. Fitzgerald claimed: “I was the spark that lit up Flaming Youth, Colleen Moore was the torch. What little things we are to have caused all that trouble.” Fitzgerald’s wife Zelda was also a wearer of the bob style and the flapper attitude to match it. Fitzgerald called her the first American flapper. 1920s The bob will forever be defined as the 1920s look as the female revolution quickly abandons old rules of femininity and fashion. After the personal freedom allowed them during the World War 1, young women go out to work, get permission to vote, play sports and demand to leave the house unchaperoned (oh my!).

Women are becoming emancipated and financially independent, especially since so many men had been lost to the war or died from Spanish flu epidemic in the years that followed. Giving up long hair becomes a symbol of an independence and strength equal to men. Many commentators predict this new wave of bobbing the hair to be a fashion that will soon pass. Hairdressers, more accustomed to styling and waving long hair, are shocked to discover that the urge to bob is taking on a fervour that they need to take advantage of. New York, however, is not quite prepared for the queues of women outside barber shops waiting to take the plunge and bob their hair. At this time, in New York, hairdressing salons did not really exist in great numbers. It takes a while for the style to get a more professional look after the European hairdressers move in on the opportunity to answer the demand. Just a few years later, by 1923, women of New York are wearing the bob in waves and shingle cuts. The shingle cut The shingle cut, introduced to Belle Epoque Paris by Polish-born hairdresser Antoine ‘de Paris’, is considered masculine and severe at first but soon becomes popular.

In 1924 Antoine opens his New York salon on Fifth Avenue to respond to the demand for cutting women’s hair. This new style fuels the flapper girl spirit to be more and more daring and controversial in style. Incidently, the term ‘flapper’ has for centuries been a slang word in the UK to refer to, how shall I put it?, an impetuous young woman of easy virtue. The shingle cut is named after the method for tiling roofs which allows tiles to overlap each other. The look of the rows of waves and layers over a closely shorn neck closely resemble the row of sloping shingles used on a roof. Singer Mary Garden has this to say when she is interviewed in Pictorial Review in 1927: “Bobbed hair is a state of mind and not merely a new manner of dressing my head…When I consider the achievements of women in the past few years in the field of athletics I find it impossible to do so without taking into account the tremendous freedom-giving changes in fashion that have accompanied them. And enjoying the blessings of short hair is a necessary part of those fashion changes. To my way of thinking, long hair belongs to the age of general feminine helplessness.

Bobbed hair belongs to the age of freedom, frankness, and progressiveness.” from “Why I Bobbed My Hair,” Pictorial Review, April 1927 ( ) The Eton crop The Eton crop briefly becomes the extreme fashion choice for the flapper who really wants to cause a stir. This style largely resembles a masculine hairstyle and is groomed very close to the head. Women’s sexuality is questioned as gender-bending becomes a fashionable pursuit. Josephine Baker is known for this type of severe hairstyle. Compromise Plenty of women decide to keep their hair long in the 1920sbut they can still look fashionable by pinning it up into a style that resembles a bob. This can easily be done by turning the long hair under at the nape of the neck and pinning it into place (see picture, right). Many women also cover up their short bob style on certain occasions by using creatively designed hairpiece pins (postiches) to hide the shorn section at the back of the neck. Indeed some women even keep the hair that had been cut off only to re-attach it when the occasion called for them to be more ‘traditional’.

1930s By the time the 1930s roll around, bob styles are becoming less short and severe and more feminine and sophisticated. The bob is not going to go away that quickly: women have been changed forever. The bob evolves through the movie star styles of Jean Harlow, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Katherine Hepburn, Carole Lombard and Ginger Rogers. They all wear a more sophisticated, natural and less severe version of the bob haircut throughout the 1930s and 40s. However it still symbolised the independent, modern lady in her many forms. The page boy and gamine looks become popular with bohemian types. Bobs are once again symbolising youth and the teenage look with jaw length styles that are less wavy and more smooth, structured and flicked out at the ends. Housewives are wearing their hair in a structured bob almost sitting like a helmet on the head and gallons of hairspray. Think Doris Day, who modelled the bob in its varying shapes throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The bob, unfortunately, is losing its revolutionary edge until…….

The 1960s bob In the 1960s the bob is about to become as radical a style shape as in the 1920s and will symbolise a further phase of female emancipation. Young women take interest in the future and distance themselves from the stuffy austere past of their parents (does this sound familiar?). In 1963 Vidal Sassoon re-styles the bob and its attitude for the 1960s by creating the five point bob cut. It is short, geometric, angular, unfussy. This time the bob is easier to style as the shape lies in the cut and can be styled at home. Sassoon begins another bob revolution that speaks to liberated young women. Fashion designers Jean Muir and Mary Quant, at the heart of Swinging Sixties London, become known for making fashionable the 1960s bob. UK model Twiggy (Lesley Hornby) also wears a style not unlike the severe Eton Crop of the early 1920s and becomes a sensation. She is poster girl for a new generation and look.

In fact, aspects of the 1920s spirit, style and fashion was very much in vogue in the 1960s and early 1970s. Many stars also donned a bob during this era: Julie Christie, Barbara Streisand, Diana Rigg, Amanda Barrie and singers such as Keely Smith and Diana Ross. Thoroughly Modern Millie, a musical film starring Julie Andrews is released in 1967. It is a jolly pastiche of the 1920s flapper girl attitude and continues the late 1960s love affair with 1920s style and culture. 1970s By the 1970s, the coiffured look is out and a more natural way of styling the hair is considered sexy. The hippy outlook had its influence on killing the more structured styles of the 1960s. During the 1976 Winter Olympics, ice skating champion Dorothy Hamill‘s bob becomes a sought after style.

The pageboy look is most definitely ‘in’ and many take to wearing this low-maintenace cut: Kate Jackson in Charlie’s Angels and Joanna Lumley in The New Avengers. Buy This at Allposters.com Punk style also raises its ‘ugly’ head and the fashion for anti-fashion begins: Debbie Harry creates her own messy style of anti-fashion bob in the new wave band Blondie. So, as the decade wears on, the bob diversifies even more and becomes more of a stylistic choice than a symbol of anything deeply radical. 1980s In the 1980s the bob haircut starts to diversify further and creative cuts are used to show off the talents of high-profile hairstylists. Rebellious Dutch hairdresser Christiaan Houtenbos creates the buzz bob in 1984. From the front it can look like a classic bob cut but the back is shaved underneath the shape. Also the radical look of buzz-cutting the sides or one side becomes a futuristic fashion trend for many. The spiky punk style has morphed into a futuristic spiky bob.

Pris, Daryl Hannah’s character in Blade Runner (1982) has a punky bob, as does pop stars Siouxsie Soux (above), Hazel O’Connor and Toyah Wilcox. The bob also goes retro in the mid-80s as jazz and nostalgic music become popular for a while. Think Swing Out Sister, Martika and Lisa Stansfield (with her contemporary Eton crop). The sleek bob in the style of Louise Brooks also becomes a very popular look. Actresses also wear this sleek style such as Phoebe Cates, Patsy Kensit and Molly Ringwald. There is also a new type of textured bob which was messier and layered, influenced by the punk/Indie look: Beatrice Dalle in Betty Blue (above); Samantha Mathis and Winona Ryder. Perms also become popular and the curly bob is seen as a sophisticated move away from the sleek boyish bobs and funky textured looks.

It seems that for a while everyone has a curly bob in the mid 1980s and Madonna revamps the 1930s bob style in her 1989 video Express Yourself whilst filming scenes for the Dick Tracy film of 1990 (below). 1990s In the mid-1990s the bob goes into hibernation for a while and eventually the just becomes another hairstyle choice. Bobs come in all shapes, sizes and colours and even become popular with men looking for an air of French sophistication (men have been successfully getting away with bobs in France for sometime now). In fact the bob is no longer a symbol of liberation or modernity in the 1990s. Everyone from Whitney Houston to Courtney Love and even Emo Phillips expresses personal style through the bob haircut. The future of the bob haircut In the 21st Century, I think the bob has nowhere left to go as its versatility has meant that many people have tried a bob hairstyle just for a change of style for a while. Bobs will often now signify a relatively safe alternative: retro, chic, edgy, vintage, arty.

Now we also have tame bobs: soft classic bobs that are flattering and not too severe; bobs that don’t look like bobs and back to bobbing the hair for practical reasons. And, if you are Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, the bob is the only haircut to be taken seriously in fashion circles. Is there anywhere left for the bob haircut to go? For me, the bob will always be the epitomé of French style from Joan of Arc to Polaire to Coco Chanel to Betty Blue to Amelie. But I love its daring history. How do you feel about the bob?

Question: Which famous hairdresser who died in 2012 created the wedge-bob?
Answer: Vidal Sassoon