Most people have excellent necks. Now they cover them with curtains, which is kind of ridiculous. But there are some beautiful necklines that you can cut into and create wonderful backs, as well as bone structure for the face.
Vidal SassoonI got a telegraph from my mother who said that my step-father had had a heart attack, come home and earn a living. So I went back to England and the only thing I knew to earn any cash was through hairdressing.
Vidal SassoonA working woman could save a few shillings a week, and then every five weeks she'd come in and we'd cut her hair. She could shampoo it under the shower, swing it and dry it off or just let it dry by itself. It changed the lives of many young girls who'd never had the opportunity to be styled like that before.
Vidal SassoonI don't sort of sit in a chair and pompously feel proud of myself about all the things we might have accomplished.
Vidal SassoonSo I was shampooing at 14. But I've always thought that had I the opportunity for an education, I would have been an architect. There's no question about it.
Vidal SassoonWomen were going back to work, they were assuming their own power. They didn't have time to sit under the dryer.
Vidal SassoonI just consider being one of the luckiest people in the sense that creativity came to me and it flowed.
Vidal SassoonI came home after a year and although my profession was only hairdressing, I knew I could change it.
Vidal SassoonIf you get hold of a head of hair on somebody you've never seen before, cut beautiful shapes, cut beautiful architectural angles and she walks out looking so different - I think that's masterful.
Vidal SassoonIf someone were to ask me, 'What's the number one thing, in essence, that you left behind?'... it was the teaching of others, so that they could take my work and take it further.
Vidal SassoonLike most ghetto kids I knew it was important to be 'somebody' so I became a good soccer player, because excelling at a sport seemed to make you special.
Vidal SassoonWhen the doubters tell you it can't be done and all kind of tragedies will come your way, I say nonsense. If you can get to the very root of who you are and make something happen from it, my sense tells me you are going to surprise yourself.
Vidal SassoonDuring the late '20s my father left us. My mother was in a complete hole with no money, and we were evicted.
Vidal SassoonI'll never forget one morning I walked in and I had a hell of a bruise - it had been a difficult night the night before - and a client said to me, 'Good God, Vidal, what happened to your face?' And I said, 'Oh, nothing, madam, I just fell over a hairpin.'
Vidal SassoonTo me hair dressing means shape. It's very important that the foundations should be right.
Vidal SassoonYou either create something and you keep it a secret and you die with it, or you can benefit the craft.
Vidal SassoonHairdressers are a wonderful breed. You work one-on-one with another human being and the object is to make them feel so much better and to look at themselves with a twinkle in their eye.
Vidal SassoonHairdressing in general hasn't been given the kudos it deserves. It's not recognised by enough people as a worthy craft.
Vidal SassoonRealizing our society as it is, without theology dogmatically telling us how we should react to it, and being humane toward that society, that is all that we're sure of.
Vidal SassoonWe learned to put discipline in the haircuts by using actual geometry, actual architectural shapes and bone structure. The cut had to be perfect and layered beautifully, so that when a woman shook it, it just fell back in.
Vidal SassoonHair excited me. As the old ways - backcombing, rollers and rigidity - went out of the window, I started to feel the possibilities in front of my eyes.
Vidal SassoonI think that as good architecture enhances a city, a good cut enhances the definition and expression of a face.
Vidal SassoonMy idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous.
Vidal Sassoon