Hairdressing superstar Vidal Sassoon dies at 84

Vidal Sassoon, the acclaimed hairdresser who invented the "bob" hairstyle which epitomised the Swinging Sixties, has died at the age of 84.

Police in Los Angeles said that the man described as the "Chanel of hair" by fashion designer Mary Quant was found dead at his home in the city, apparently from natural causes.

The man who started life with what he described as "an Artful Dodger" accent cut and styled the hair of royalty, film stars and models during a career in which he revolutionised hairdressing.

But he was also prominent in a campaign on behalf of Jewish ex-servicemen, and in 1982 founded the Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of Anti-semitism, a non-political organisation.

Sassoon was born to Jewish parents in London on January 17 1928. His father abandoned the family, who then moved to the East End of London with his aunts. But he was soon sent to an orphanage in Maida Vale where he spent six years, before being evacuated during the war to Trowbridge, in Wiltshire.

On his return, aged 17, his mother had him apprenticed to a hairdresser. At that time, Sassoon became interested in anti-semitism, opposing "fascists preaching hate on every corner".

He subsequently joined the 43 Group, which originally comprised 43 Jewish ex-servicemen, but which grew to be 1,000-strong. During one heated fray, he was arrested and spent the night in jail, only to be freed the next morning by a judge who told him to "be a good boy".

In 1948, he left Britain to fight in the Israeli War of Independence for the Palmach (Israeli army).

On his return, he began to work for Raymond "Mr Teasy-Weasy" Bessone, but he needed to do something about his Cockney accent.

"In those days, you couldn't get hired in the more fashionable West End with an Artful Dodger accent like mine. I went to the theatre week after week to hear English the way it was meant to be spoken."

He opened his own Bond Street salon in 1958, and his trademark five-point bob revolutionised hairdressing. Sassoon was the father of modernist style and was also a key force in the commercial direction of hair-styling, turning his craft into a multimillion-pound industry. Mary Quant called him the "Chanel of hair".

Among his many celebrated clients were the Duchess of Bedford, model Jean Shrimpton, actor Terence Stamp and Quant.

He conducted his business in the United States as well as Britain, and he was hailed in both countries as a master of his art.