Icon Vidal Sassoon Dies at 84

It’s impossible to think of the world of hair and beauty and not think Vidal Sasson, an iconic stylist and “the founder of hairdressing.” Sassoon, 84, was found dead in his Mulholland Drive home in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Sassoon started his career at the ripe age of 14 as a shampoo boy; he was responsible for mixing dyes, bleach powder, peroxide and ammonia. In 1954 he opened his first salon in London, where he became famous for the bob haircut as well as the pixie cut he gave Mia Farrow for Rosemary’s Baby. “We learned to put discipline in the haircuts by using actual geometry, actual architectural shapes and bone structure,” Sassoon told the LA Times in a 1999 profile. “The cut had to be perfect and layered beautifully, so that when a woman shook it, it just fell back in.”

Law enforcement sources said the icon died after an unspecified illness and that family was by his side. He had been fighting leukemia this past year after being diagnosed with blood cancer in 2009.