Vidal: The Autobiography

by Vidal Sassoon

Overview

Vidal Sassoon's extraordinary life has taken him from an impoverished East End childhood to global fame. The father of modern hairdressing, his slick sharp cutting took the fashion world by storm and reinvented the hairdressers' art. Before Vidal Sassoon, a trip to the hairdressers meant a shampoo and set or a stiffly lacquered up-do that would last a week - or more. After Vidal Sassoon, hair was sleek, smooth and very, very stylish. Along with his lifelong friend and partner in style, Mary Quant, who he first met in 1957 and who to this day sports a Sassoon-style geometric bob, he styled the 1960s. As memorable as the mini - be it car or skirt - he is one of the few people who can genuinely be described as iconic. His memoirs are as rich in anecdote as one might hope and full of surprising and often moving stories of his early life - his time at the Spanish&Portuguese Jewish Orphanage in Maida Vale, fighting Fascists in London's East End and fighting in the army of the fledgling state of Israel in the late Forties. And then there's the extraordinary career, during which he cut the hair of everyone who was anyone, launched salons all over the world, founded the hairdressing school that still bears his name and became a global brand, with Vidal Sassoon products on all our bathroom shelves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230753792
Publisher:	Pan Macmillan
Publication date:	09/03/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Vidal Sassoon was born in London in 1928. He began his hairdressing career as an apprentice during the Second World War. Today, his name is still associated with the salons and the hairdressing schools he founded in the 1960s. He lives in London and Beverley Hills and in 2009 he was made a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Vidal Sassoon was born in London in 1928. He began his hairdressing career as an apprentice during the Second World War. Today, his name is still associated with the salons and the hairdressing schools he founded in the 1960s. He lives in London and Beverly Hills and in 2009 he was made a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgements xiii

Prologue 1

1 An East End Childhood 5

2 Professor Cohen 28

3 Private Sassoon 49

4 West End Boy 71

5 There's Something About Mary 94

6 Me and Mr Jones 126

7 Suddenly It Happened 143

8 Sassoonery Goes Stateside 159

9 Passing the Yankee Test 168

10 Movie Stars, Mia and Me 187

11 Crimpers' Academy 210

12 'If You Don't Look Good, We Don't Look Good' 237

13 Wash and Go 253

14 A Girl Called Ronnie 273

15 Meetings With Remarkable Men 291

16 Letting Go 308

17 A Bypass Round My Heart 315

18 Hairdressers in a Hurricane 325

19 A One-Man Salon on Capri 335

Index 351

Editorial Reviews

"Anyone who lived through the 1960s and wishes to be reminded of the decade's tumultuous changes or those who wish to see the Mad Men era from a London perspective, Sassoon's charming and heartfelt autobiography is a gentle but always enjoyable meander through a world shaking era."  —Jewish Chronicle

From the Publisher

Growing up in poverty in London's East End, Sassoon, now 82, spent seven years in an orphanage after his father left and his mother could not afford to care for him and his brother. At 14 he apprenticed in a London salon when his mother had a premonition that hairdressing would be right for him. After fighting for the foundling state of Israel in the late 1940s, Sassoon returned to London and opened his own salon, with the proviso that "there would be no hairdressing in the old-fashioned sense." From back-combed, shellacked helmets of hair to styles that relied on architectural shapes that flattered a woman's face, Sassoon transformed hair cutting and design, leaving an indelible mark on contemporary style. VERDICT Sassoon's early life gave him the courage and ambition to revolutionize hairdressing and become one of the best-known figures in modern beauty and fashion. His autobiography is a reflection of 20th-century culture as well as a captivating profile of an innovator and successful entrepreneur.—Meagan Storey, Virginia Beach

Library Journal