Hairstyling pioneer Vidal Sassoon dies at 84 in LA

LOS ANGELES — Vidal Sassoon used his hairstyling shears to free women from beehives and hot rollers and give them wash-and-wear cuts that made him an international name.

When he came on the scene in the 1950s, hair was high and heavy — typically curled, teased, piled and shellacked into place. Then came the 1960s, and Sassoon’s creative cuts, which required little styling and fell into place perfectly every time, fit right in with the fledgling women’s liberation movement.

Sassoon died Wednesday at age 84 at his home in Los Angeles, police spokesman Kevin Maiberger said.

Officers were summoned to the home at about 10:30 a.m. and found Sassoon dead, Maiberger said. His family was with him. Officers determined Sassoon died of natural causes, and there will be no further police investigation.

“My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous,” Sassoon said in 1993 in the Los Angeles Times. “Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power. They didn’t have time to sit under the dryer anymore.”