Pioneering Hairstylist Vidal Sassoon Dead at 84

Vidal Sassoon, the most famous and innovative hair stylist of the 20th century, lost his battle with leukemia Tuesday. He was 84.

Sassoon went to work as a "shampoo boy" at the age of 14 and opened his first salon in London in 1954. By the early 1960s, he freed women from the shackles of overwrought beehives by inventing easy-to-care-for angular cuts that went on to define the style of the turbulent decade, and included the iconic short cut worn by Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby.

In 1973, Sassoon launched his own line of hair care products and became the first hairstylist to celebrities who was also one in his own right. He later hosted his own talk show and was the subject of the excellent 2010 documentary, Vidal Sassoon: The Movie.

Watch the trailer for that film below.