Opening this Friday in NYC, director Craig Teper's doc reveals the visionary behind a global hair empire—and his rags to riches rise to the top.



Music had The Beatles, fashion had Mary Quant, and when hairdressing was due for a revolution, hairdresser Vidal Sassoon was it. Best known for his Bauhaus-influenced bobs and sleek salons, Sassoon is an international hairstyling staple who is heralded as the Einstein of his industry. It was his geometric cuts that modernized women’s hair, saving them from tedious hours at dowdy salons.

Though his hairstyling legacy still thrives around the world, much less is known about Sassoon’s fascinating journey to the top. In his directorial debut, Craig Teper takes a euphoric look at Sassoon’s rags to riches rise. Employing vintage footage to modern-day conversations with family, colleagues and the charismatic, 81-year-old master himself, Vidal Sassoon: The Movie is ultimately a captivating cross-section of an inherent artist.

(Note: the film had its world premiere at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival!)



Born to Jewish parents in a London between World Wars, Sassoon’s father abandoned the family when Vidal was three, forcing his mother Betty to move her children into an orphanage for 7 years. When Vidal was 14, Betty had a premonition he would become a hairdresser. Following her instincts, she marched her son straight to a salon in the heart of London’s ghetto, where the young Vidal charmed his way into an apprenticeship, a job that would lay the foundation for his multi-million dollar corporation.

Sassoon took a hiatus from hair in the aftermath of the Holocaust, first joining the 43 Group, a Jewish veterans' militia organization that broke up Fascist meetings in East London after the end of the war, and then the Israeli Defence Forces to fight in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was during this experience Sassoon was able to discover himself and unlock the artistic creativity later showcased in his revolutionary hairstyles, such as the “five-point” bob and Mia Farrow’s shorn cut for Rosemary’s Baby, a look that sparked an uproar with the press and her then-husband, Frank Sinatra.



Despite the success of his empire, Sassoon continued to face adversity at home: his first wife leaving him for a water-skiing instructor; the disintegration of his second marriage to Beverly Adams, which had served as the rock on which he built a health and fitness empire; and the untimely death of his daughter Catya at age 33. Through Teper’s interviews with the legend, however, it is clear Sassoon has remained the gracious gentleman who charmed his way into the world of hair at age 14.

Now 81, Sassoon welcomes the future with a soft smile and the mantra that anyone can surprise themselves, "if they can get to the root of who they are."

Get tickets to Vidal Sassoon The Movie, opening this Friday in New York at the Village East Theater!

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Watch the trailer: