Vidal Sassoon

Vidal Sassoon, CBE (17 January 1928 – 9 May 2012) was a British hairdresser, businessman, and philanthropist. He is credited with creating a simple geometric, "Bauhaus-inspired" hair style, also called the wedge bob. Establishing himself in the US in 1965, he opened the first chain of worldwide hairstyling salons, complemented by a line of hair-treatment products that became an international brand. His company's 1980s television commercials featured the popular tag line, "If you don't look good, we don't look good." Vidal Sassoon: The Movie, a documentary film about his life, was released in 2010.

Early life

Sassoon was born in Hammersmith, London, and lived in Shepherd's Bush. His parents were Sephardic Jews. His mother, Betty (Bellin), came from a family of immigrants from Spain, and his father, Jack Sassoon, was from Thessaloniki, Greece. Sassoon had a younger brother, Ivor, who died from a heart attack at the age of 46.

His father left his family when Vidal was three years old.