London hairdresser Vidal Sassoon is remembered for his captivating and successful career and his enduring cultural impact. After enduring a troubled childhood and living through World War II, Sassoon defied fate and embarked on a career as a hairdresser. Soon after, he opened his own salon in London and began his world-changing career.
Early in his career, Sassoon conceptualized a new hairstyle for the modern woman, a blunt bob. The geometric cut was unlike any standard hairstyle of the time, required little maintenance, and signaled a shift in attitude when it came to women's fashion. Reflecting on his career in the documentary Vidal Sassoon: The Movie, the stylist said: "If I was going to do hair in the long run, I wanted to change things up... Hair for me was about geometry, angles. Cutting irregular shapes, as long as it suited that face and that bone structure." His style, said to be inspired by Bauhaus architecture, was incredibly easy to copy and could be recreated in any hair salon around the world. The iconic bob blossomed into a series of similarly constructed hairstyles and Sassoon became a household name. His work was seen on the covers of top fashion magazines, in blockbuster films and on the heads of celebrities such as Sharon Tate, Mia Farrow and Peggy Moffitt. In his later years, Sassoon was honoured with a royal title as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for his significant contributions to society. In 2011, Sassoon was diagnosed with leukemia and tragically died a year later.