Sharon Cortes
COS 144
Mrs. McClellan

Vidal Sassoon
Vidal Sassoon was born January 17, 1928 in Hammersmith, United Kingdom. In his early life Vidal attended Essendine Road Primary School. His father left his mother when he was just a small child , his mother could not take care of him and his brother so they were placed in an orphanage were he spent seven years. Vidal left school at the age of 14 and worked as a messanger. At the age of 17, he became the youngest member of the 43 Group, a jewish veterans underground organization. In 1948, at the age of 20 Vidal joined the Haganah and fought in the Arab-Israeli War. Vidal Sassoon was married several times, in 1956 he married his first wife Elaine Wood and after just 2 years they divorced. In 1967 he married his second wife, actress Beverly Adams. Sassoon and Adams had 3 children together 2 daughters Catya born 1968 and died in 2002 of a drug overdose, and Eden Sassoon born January 17, 1970. One son Elan Benvidal date of birth is unknown. They also adopted a son name David who was born in 1972. Vidal married his third wife Jeanette Hartford-Davis in 1983. In 1992 Sassoon married for a fourth and final time to Rhonda “Ronnie” Holbrook. Sassoon’s career took off after he trained under Raymond Bessone in his salon in Mayfair. Sassoon opened his first salon in 1954, in London; his first customer was singer/actress Georgia Brown. His work included the geometric perm and the “Nancy Kwan” hairstyles. These hairstyles relied on dark, straight, and shiny hair cut into geometric organic shapes. Sassoon was credited with creating a simple geometric hairstyle called the “Wedge Bob”. In 1963, he created a short, angular hairstyle cut on a horizontal plane that was the recreation of the classic “Bob Cut”. The first New York City salon, on Madison Avenue was established in 1965. October 1971, he promoted his 30 year old 2nd in command, artistic director Roger Thomas to director of the Sassoon salon. In 1973 he began “Vidal Sassoon” hair care products with shampoos and conditioners. They sold worldwide. He was famous for the quote: If you don’t look good we don’t look good”. In 1980 troy corporation began manufacturing and marketing Sassoon hair-care products in El Paso, Texas. Richardson-Vicks announced the purchase of the Los Angeles- based Vidal Sassoon Inc. On april24, 1983 along with Sassoon’s Santa Monica, California hairdressing school. Former salon colleagues also bought Sassoon’s salons and acquired the right to use his name, the brand in salons extended from the United States to the United Kingdom. Hair products had topped at $110 million, with 80% of the revenues coming from the US two years later the company was bought by Procter and gamble. Vidal Sassoon international center for the study of Anti-Semitism was developed in 1982; it is a research center devoted to the non-political, interdispinary gathering of information about anti-Semitism. After selling his company he worked toward causes such as the Boys club of America and the performing Arts council of the music center of Los Angeles. Vidal was also active in the Hurricane Katrina relief, funded educational in Israel and elsewhere. In 2002, Vidal Sassoon salon chains were sold to Regis Corporation, Vidal sued for breach of contract in 2003 and fraud in federal court for allegedly neglecting the marketing of his brand name in favor of the company’s other hair products lines such as Pantene. In 2004 Sassoon was in longer associated with the brand that bears his name. Sassoon also had a very short lived television show called “Your New Day with Vidal Sassoon” that aired in the 1980’s. he also guest stared on the radio station BBC Radio 4’s Dessert Island Discs, on June 27, 1970nand October 9, 2011. In 2009 he was appointed commander of the Order of the British Empire. In June of 2011 Sassoon was reportedly diagnosed with leukemia, two years earlier he received treatment in Beverly Hills, California and London. Vidal Sassoon died at his home in BelAir on May 9, 2012; at the time of his death he had academies in England, U.S, and Canada. He had plans to open in Germany and China.