{"id":826,"date":"2012-05-09T10:57:21","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T16:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=826"},"modified":"2012-06-09T11:34:48","modified_gmt":"2012-06-09T17:34:48","slug":"vidal-sassoon-hair-stylist-and-philanthropist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/vidal-sassoon-hair-stylist-and-philanthropist\/","title":{"rendered":"Vidal Sassoon, hair stylist and philanthropist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vidal Sassoon<\/strong>, the legendary Los Angeles hairstylist who revolutionized\u00a0his industry in the\u00a01960s,\u00a0died at his Bel Air home on May 8 after a two-year battle with leukemia. Although Sassoon lived in the glitzy\u00a0entertainment world\u00a0for more than a half century, he never forgot his humble beginnings in London’s East End, nor his Jewish ancestry.\u00a0 At the age of 20, Sassoon joined the Haganah<\/em> and fought in Israel\u2019s war for independence in 1948. Sassoon\u2019s professional hairstyling career began during WWII when he worked as a “shampoo boy.”\u00a0 He opened his first salon in 1954 and quickly increased his salon locations throughout England and the United States.\u00a0 He broadened his hairstyling empire when he branded and created shampoos and styling products under the \u201cSassoon\u201d label.\u00a0Sassoon sold his $113 million-a-year company in 1983 to Richardson-Vicks, which then sold it two years later to Procter and Gamble.\u00a0\u00a0In 2003, Sassoon sued Procter and Gamble for neglecting the marketing of his brand name products in favor\u00a0of other hair products.\u00a0 He alleged that Procter and Gamble\u00a0intentionally didn’t\u00a0promote his products so\u00a0they could\u00a0pay Sassoon lower\u00a0royalty fees.\u00a0\u00a0An undisclosed settlement between the parties was reached in 2004.Philanthropy was important to Sassoon.\u00a0 He created the Vidal Sassoon Foundation that supports\u00a0the arts, youth causes such as the Boys Clubs of America and educational \u201cneed base\u201d grants mostly for Israelis.\u00a0\u00a0Sassoon helped establish the Vidal Sassoon International Center (SICSA) which engages in research on anti-Semitism throughout history.\u00a0 Located on the Mount Scopus Campus of The Hebrew University, SICSA is an independent, non-political establishment that studies and reports on international situations of tension and crisis between Jews and non-Jews.\u00a0 The current administrator of the center is the Dr.\u00a0 Robert Wistrich<\/strong>.\u00a0 Sassoon is survived by his fourth wife of 20 years, Ronnie, and his three children Eden, Alan and David.<\/p>\n

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