MANHATTAN — Legendary hairstylist Vidal Sassoon was found dead at his Los Angeles home at the age of 84 after an "unspecified illness," the L.A. Times reported Wednesday.
Sassoon, the subject of a 2010 documentary, became the beauty world's "king of hair" after his reinvention of the bob in the 1960s, a geometric hairdo most famously associated nowadays with Anna Wintour. He made headlines for shearing Mia Farrow for her iconic short-haired role in 1968's "Rosemary's Baby," which was filmed at the Dakota on the Upper West Side.
The British-born Sassoon's career spanned nearly seven decades, starting on Bond Street in London before moving to New York where he spent a decade.
"I had 10 years of lovely theater, great music, extraordinary art," Sassoon told the Daily News last year. "I love New York and I think there's a certain period in anyone's artistic life, whether writer or whatever they do, that New York must be important to them."
Sassoon became identified with his tagline: "If you don't look good, we don't look good." By the early 1980s, the hair icon sold his name to Procter & Gamble, which sold his hair care products around the world. But in 2003, he had sued the conglomerate, claiming it stopped selling his brand in favor of one of P & G's other brands, Pantene.
There are still two Sassoon Salons in Manhattan, one at West 18th Street and the other at West 56th Street, both between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
When the New York Times asked Sassoon last year, what it takes to be a great hairdresser, he said, "The ability to look at somebody’s face and body structure. It’s like sculpture. You eliminate the superfluous."
