Vidal Sassoon revolutionised the way women thought about their hair. Before Vidal, they just had a ‘hairdo’. Then Vidal invented cut and style. He was a visionary. He didn’t do perms and sets. He saw that, like architecture — for which he had a passion — hair could be cut into bold, unfussy, structured shapes.
Vidal not only created the most famous and important of his cuts, the ‘five-point’ — which became my trademark — but he went on to develop more and more innovative variations. Asymmetric or ‘en brosse’, I enjoyed them all, as so many of us did.
Sassoon also liberated women from the tyranny of hours spent par-boiling under the bonnet of a hairdryer, with fat rollers skewered to their scalps.
We found the freedom to swim in the sea, drive in an open-top car, walk in the rain and then just slick our head under a tap and shake it to look good again.
As well as being a creative genius, Vidal Sassoon was a formative figure of the Sixties. Along with the Pill and the mini-skirt, his influence was truly liberating.
As a hair stylist he has legions of protégés and millions of imitators. His influence remains ubiquitous; he was, quite simply, an inspiration to everyone around him.
