Celebrity hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, whose Sixties wash-and-wear cuts freed women from endless teasing and hairspray, has died aged 84.A spokesman for the Los Angeles police, who were called to the home, confirmed his death.
The famous coiffeur passed away from natural causes, although it is known that Vidal suffered from leukemia, a battle he kept quiet.
Vidal was born in Hammersmith, London, and was brought up in Shepherd's Bush.
His mother Betty came from a family of immigrants from Ukraine, and his father, Nathan Sassoon, was from Thessaloniki, Greece.
After the youngster's father left, when Vidal was three, his mother placed him and his older brother in a Jewish orphanage. The boys stayed there for seven years, until his mother remarried.
As a young man he became involved in a Jewish anti-fascist organisation, then at age 20 he joined the Israeli Defence Forces and fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The easy-maintenance cuts also fitted in with the fledgling women's liberation movement. Vidal developed a popular line of shampoos and styling products bearing his name. His slogan was "If you don't look good, we don't look good".
His geometric cuts required little styling. They were an integral part of the look of Mary Quant, the Sixties fashion designer who popularised the miniskirt.
On his return to London he trained as a hairdresser in Mayfair, opening his first London salon in 1954. But he said that it wasn't until the Sixties he perfected his 'cut is everything' approach.
