Saturday, May 12, 2012

Vidal Sassoon: East End Anti-Fascist Streetfighter, Soldier and Hairdresser


Vidal Sassoon died yesterday aged 84. What an amazing life. A tough East Ender brought up during the Second World War in an orphanage, who was
apprenticed as a hairdresser in Whitechapel at age 14.

During which he become an anti-fascist street brawler who then went on to fight as an Israeli soldier before returning to London to become one of the fashionable
icons of the swinging 60s.

Early this year I heard him being interviewed on Desert Island discs. A complex man who had a very hard start in life but who did achieve material success due purely to his enormous talent and aptitude. I did not know him at all but I suspect he was one of those fascinating but ever so demanding charactors. I would recommend you listern to the interview with Kirsty.

(picture of Vidal with Mary Quant)

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