Vidal Sassoon, the originator of the bob cut, hosts Flash Bob to celebrate 70 years!
Following ‘Flash Bobs’ in New York and LA, the Vidal Sassoon team sent models and clients (including Swing Out Sister’s Corinne Drewery - a lifelong Sassoon client) with the brand’s signature bob cuts out onto the streets of London, the spiritual home of Sassoon, to celebrate 70 years of the iconic brand. From the streets of Soho to Buckingham Palace, the models, aged 17-70, turned heads as crowds gathered to take pictures.
When Vidal Sassoon conceptualised the bob, it wasn’t just a hairstyle, it heralded a cultural shift for women to a low maintenance style, freeing them from weekly salon appointments, stiff lacquered hair and hours under the hood dryer. Sassoon pioneered the idea that hair should be cut to fall into place and follow the natural curves of the face and body. As Grace Coddington, former creative director of US Vogue and an early wearer of the bob said, "Vidal came along and liberated hair. He totally changed everything. Before this, hair was lacquered and stiff. Suddenly you could move and shake your hair - it was a defining moment of the Sixties."
The bob remains a go-to cut all these years later, emerging as the uncontested style of 2024 and seen on celebrities including Margot Robbie, Gigi Hadid, Kim Kardashian, Zendaya, Nicole Kidman, Rita Ora, Jennifer Lopez, Raye, Carey Mulligan, Hailey Bieber – the list is endless!
The newly opened House of Sassoon in Soho’s Greek St is an innovative Academy and Salon concept, with a sister House of Sassoon launched simultaneously on Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills heralding a new era for the iconic brand, which turns 70 this year. The Soho location nods to Sassoon’s inextricable link with the fashion industry (it was sponsorship from Sassoon that saved London Fashion Week from closure in 1994) as the building was formerly home to Central Saint Martin Fashion College and Conde Nast College of Fashion and Design. The Academy is launching a brand-new bob course offering delegates to learn the original cut from the originators.
Sassoon has a heritage and an affinity with London that stretches back to the original Bond Street Salon, which opened in 1954. As the originator of the bob, Vidal Sassoon looked after a who’s who of models, actors and press, including Twiggy, Mia Farrow, Mary Quant, Grace Coddington, Goldie Hawn, Nancy Kwan, Cameron Diaz and Helen Mirren, with photographers clamouring to shoot his latest looks. A celebrity in his own right, he even hosted a TV chat show in the US. House of Sassoon is revered throughout the hair industry globally as the place to learn to cut a bob, the technique for which forms the backbone of the majority of modern-day styles.
The Sassoon Bobs course runs at House of Sassoon, 16-17 Greek St, London W1D 4DR
- Date: 11-12th August 2024
- Cost: £655 inc VAT
- Info & booking: [email protected]
To book an appointment: [email protected] / 0204 538 9400 / @house_of_sassoon_salon_soho.