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Vidal Sassoon (January 17, 1928 to May 9, 2012)

Vidal Sassoon was born in Hammersmith, London. His parents were Sephardi Jews, his mother from Spain; his father from Greece. His father left his family when Vidal was 3. His mother placed him and his brother in a Jewish orphanage.

At 14, Sassoon started a hairdressing apprenticeship. At 17, he became the youngest member of the 43 Group, a Jewish veterans underground organisation that broke up the British Union of Fascist meetings.

Sassoon trained under stylist Raymond Bessone at his salon. He began his line of hair care products in 1973. After a lot of buying out, by 2004, Sassoon was no longer associated with his own brand. In 1982, he started the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism.

Sassoon was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2009. On May 9, 2012, he died at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles from complications. He is survived by his fourth wife, and four children.