Q & A A Shampoo Boy's Tale

Vidal Sassoon ON SHAPING THE WORLD OF HAIR

"Reinventing the bob certainly made him the most important hairdresser of the last 100 years."

was most awestruck at how soft-spoken he was. Yes, still bespoke after all these years.'

GEORGE WAYNE

"Jack LaLanne has nothing on this kid. He still flexes the pectorals, still swims like a dolphin, and still loves to bask in that California sunshine_ So swoon over Sassoon!"

"Here is one senior citizen who's made it to the 21st century and still reverberates: LEGEND!"

t the age of 14, in 1942, Vidal Sassoon took his first job, in an East End beauty salon, and by the 1960s he was at the stylistic center of the youthquake movement in Swinging London. Now, at 78, Sassoon sits atop an empire of styling schools and hairtreatment products. Our correspondent makes an appointment with the stylist.

George Wayne: You knew you wanted to be a hairdresser the minute you popped out of your mama's womb.

Vidal Sassoon: No, my mother knew I wanted to be a hairdresser. I wanted to be a soccer player.

G.w. She must have been psychic.

v.s. She had a premonition, and when I was 14 forced me into a salon in the East End of London. It was wartime and the Luftwaffe was re-arranging the streets of London. An interesting time to be the apprentice to a hairdresser. I just loved creating new shapes, and I was very inspired by architecture, by the Bauhaus. In fact, at our 50th anniversary, we got Walter Gropius's Bauhaus Building, at Dessau, to do a show, which was absolutely marvelous.

G.w. Vidal Sassoon recreated the bob—it is as simple as that. And that is what made him an icon.

v.s. I first did that on Nancy Kwan, a very beautiful Chinese actress, and that was the cut that was first noticed. And then we did the hair for an Ungaro show in Paris where we did the asymmetric look.

G.W. Tell me about the Mia Farrow look. She was one of your most famous clients ever.

v.s. She was married to Sinatra and in a fit of

pique, I think, she chopped up her hair, and she came in and said, "Do something!" And I cut it short, because it was the only thing I could do. But she had such tremendous bone structure; she could wear it long, short—it didn't matter.

G.w. It's all about bone structure.

v.s. Oh, it's all about the bones, whether it's a building, a piece of architecture, a painting.

G.w. You got rid of the overdone hairdo. Threw it away,

vs. The whole idea was to eliminate the superfluous. They dressed and teased hair, and then put on a hat to go to tea at the Savoy. All that had nothing to do with modern lifestyle. It was old and elitist.

G.W. A native of London, a survivor of the war, and you are still here. My God, you must be a hundred years old! v.s. I was 20 in 1948.

G.w. And your father left your mother when you were five years old. Talk about traumatic—being in war-torn London. You ended up in an orphanage. v.s. Mum was broke, and, you know, I asked her later in life, "What was your worst moment?" She said, "Being homeless, not having anywhere to live." She did put my brother and myself into an orphanage. I was there from the age of 5 to 11. What that taught me is that luck plays an enormous part in life. There is a lovely saying by Camus which I think is as relevant today as it was then: "Too many have dispensed with generosity to practice charity."

G.W. And one of the most famous Vidal Sassoon stories is when he created the famous Peggy Mojfitt cut over lunch after a photo shoot with Avedon. v.s. Peggy was the model, the clothes were by Rudi Gernreich, a wonderful designer, one of the greats,

I think, and Avedon was the photographer. Peggy was just marvelous, and she had an extraordinary way of acting out in the mirror. Avedon was a joy. I guess in those days we didn't realize that we were working with so many of the top people around.

G.W. Can onefuid Soss~n products at, say, Wa/-Mart?

v.s. The only place to find a Vidal Sassoon product is in the Far East, where we do an extraordinary business. Proctor & Gamble closed us down in Eurbpe and the United States.

G.W. They didn't realize they were fighting a legenc~ who wouldn't go down easily. You sued P&G. Wha~ was the verdict of the lawsuit?

v.s. I can't talk about it, George, because when they

settled I agreed not to talk about it.

G.W. A great quote! read from you said, "Discipline is a necessary inconvenience."

v.s. Yes, I actually stole that from a very delightful actress in London, who, when asked how she lost her virginity, said, "When it became an inconve nience." And, by the way, I love your interviews, George, especially your scatological references. G.W. Well, thank you.

v.s. After all, who wants to read another boring interview?

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