From MyWay/Associated Press:
Hairstyling pioneer Vidal Sassoon dies at 84 in LA
Vidal Sassoon used his hairstyling shears to free women from beehives and hot rollers and give them wash-and-wear cuts that made him an international name in hair care.
When he came on the scene in the 1950s, hair was high and heavy - typically curled, teased, piled and shellacked into place. Then came the 1960s, and Sassoon's creative cuts, which required little styling and fell into place perfectly every time, fit right in with the fledgling women's liberation movement.
Sassoon died Wednesday at age 84 at his home on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, police spokesman Kevin Maiberger said.
More on what he did:
"My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous," Sassoon said in 1993 in the Los Angeles Times, which first reported his death Wednesday. "Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power. They didn't have time to sit under the dryer anymore."
More:
Sassoon's hair-care mantra: "To sculpt a head of hair with scissors is an art form. It's in pursuit of art."
He did a lot of famous models hair -- I can not imagine what it must be like to be giving a hair cut to someone involved with a modeling campaign with several million dollars at stake; whether it is a designers showing or an advertising photo or video shoot. He had quite the personal life as well:
He sold his business interests in the early 1980s to devote himself to philanthropy. The Boys Clubs of America and the Performing Arts Council of the Music Center of Los Angeles were among the causes he supported through his Vidal Sassoon Foundation. He later became active in post-Hurricane Katrina charities in New Orleans.
And:
A veteran of Israel's 1948 War of Independence, Sassoon also had a lifelong commitment to eradicating anti-Semitism. In 1982, he established the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Quite the man.
