A biography for Vidal Sassoonhasn’t been written yet.
“To me hair dressing means shape. It's very important that the foundations should be right.”
“If you get hold of a head of hair on somebody you've never seen before, cut beautiful shapes, cut beautiful architectural angles and she walks out looking so different - I think that's masterful.”
“A working woman could save a few shillings a week, and then every five weeks she'd come in and we'd cut her hair. She could shampoo it under the shower, swing it and dry it off or just let it dry by itself. It changed the lives of many young girls who'd never had the opportunity to be styled like that before.”
“I was born in 1928 and by 1931 the Depression was beginning to mount.”
“During the late '20s my father left us. My mother was in a complete hole with no money, and we were evicted.”
“Everything about morality and obligations I owe to football.”
“You must always do what you feel is right.”
“It was my mother's idea. Her feeling was that I didn't have the intelligence to pick a trade myself.”
“When I was about 10 I ran away to see my father. He couldn't have cared less. He just took me back as soon as he could.”
“If you have a sense of style and purpose and will you don't want to compromise.”
“Most people have excellent necks. Now they cover them with curtains, which is kind of ridiculous. But there are some beautiful necklines that you can cut into and create wonderful backs, as well as bone structure for the face.”
“My mother had a premonition and she felt that hairdressing would be very very good for me.”
“My mother left me for seven years in an orphanage.”
“So I was shampooing at 14. But I've always thought that had I the opportunity for an education, I would have been an architect. There's no question about it.”
“Judaism is important to me from a tribal point of view.”
“Bring out the eyes.”
“It's hard to give advice. There are so many people, how do you give major advice to a group of people, it's very presumptuous.”
“Like most ghetto kids I knew it was important to be 'somebody' so I became a good soccer player, because excelling at a sport seemed to make you special.”
“Hairdressers are a wonderful breed. You work one-on-one with another human being and the object is to make them feel so much better and to look at themselves with a twinkle in their eye.”
“From my point of view, there is a tremendous amount to be said for secular humanism.”