Vidal Sassoon

There are few names as recognisable in hairdressing as Vidal Sassoon. In the 1960s, he revolutionised the hair industry, creating iconic geometric bobs for women that came to define the style of the Swinging Sixties.

The unlikely story of Vidal Sassoon began in the East End in 1928. Born into a Jewish immigrant family, he was abandoned by his Greek carpet-salesman father and lived in an orphanage for six years until his mother could take him home.

He left school at 14 to become a shampoo boy at Cohen’s Beauty and Barber shop, where he got his start in the industry.

In 1954, Vidal Sassoon opened his first salon in Mayfair and soon expanded to bigger premises. His clients included top models and film stars of the day. By the 1970s, he had set up salons in the US, hairdressing schools in London and beyond, and launched a global multi-million-pound line of hair products.

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