Vidal Sassoon spent six years in a Jewish orphanage in London after his father abandoned the family. When his mother remarried, the family re-united, and as Sassoon tells it, he had no interest in hair until he was 14, when his mother suggested he apply for a job sweeping floors at a salon. After dropping out of high school, Sassoon worked under Mr Teasy-Weasy, aka Raymond of Mayfair, aka Raymond Bessone, who was the most famous celebrity hairstylist of the 1950s. When Sassoon started his own salon, it soon spawned the trendiest looks of the 1960s. Sassoon invented the "bob" look in 1963, and pioneered geometric hairdos in 1966. He was paid $5,000 to fly across the Atlantic and create Mia Farrow`s crewcut for Rosemary`s Baby.

He was the official hairstylist of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and he hosted Your New Day, a stylish television show in the 1980s. He`s the author of Cutting Hair the Vidal Sassoon Way. Peggy Moffitt, an early supermodel, said "Sassoon is to hair care what Picasso is to painting".

Sassoon is involved in a messy lawsuit against Procter & Gamble, the conglomerate that owns the right to market Sassoon`s products in America. Sassoon maintains that P&G has allowed his name brand to slip to almost discount product status. In 1998, the corporation spent $34 million advertising Sassoon products in America; in 2002 they spent just $90,000.

The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism was established at the University of Jerusalem in 1982.