How I Remember Vidal Sassoon- Some beer and an angry mom!

An ancient photo of me in Italy with one of the many incarnations of a Vidal Sassoon Salon styled bob

sharon-florence_600_nBet I got your attention with this headline! I got my mom’s attention too.

I really owe my hair (on a good day) to Vidal Sassoon… well to the salon and their team of precision trained stylists.  The hair legend’s death this week has me thinking about how his work personally helped create my hair look.

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When I was about 15 my mom must have gotten sick and tired about my three threads of straggly long hippie hair and let me get a haircut at the Vidal Sassoon Salon. It was around the time that people were asking me about possibly modeling (so not for me) and I was starting to hang out with my friends at clubs (yes, I started going out at 15 1/2).

Vidal: The Autobiography
Vidal: The Autobiography

Somehow, Mom arranged an appointment for me with one of the top stylists at the salon in what was then the GM building in NYC. Mom came with me. My hair looked great.

I went on my own for me next hair cut at Sassoon. Another classic bob, but this time with side swept bangs (remember those?).

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That’s when it hit the fan with my mom!

Apparently, she had forgotten what time my hair appointment was and I came back home a little later than she expected.

And, I smelled of beer.

YES, BEER.

She freaked out. Really freaked out.

Cutting Hair the Vidal Sasoon Way
Cutting Hair the Vidal Sasoon Way

“Where were you and why do you smell of booze?”

“I had a haircut,” I answered. “Yes, I know and you’re late and stink like beer,” Mom carried on.

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It seems that back in the day before product launches, the stylists at the Sassoon salon used a combination of a few parts beer to more parts water, put the combo in a spritzer bottle and used it as a homemade volumizer. It works, but apparently my Mom’s over sensitive nose picked up the scent.

For years to come, there was a spray bottle of diluted beer in our  refrigerator. I still hate the taste of beer and always feel better when a hairstylist was trained in the Sassoon method.

I have another story, years later, about the travel-size bottles of Vidal Sassoon Shampoo and Conditioner, but I’ll save that saga for another day.

An ancient photo of me in Italy with one of the many incarnations of a Vidal Sassoon Salon styled classic bob  that I wore through the years is at the top– isn’t incredible how timeless those cuts are?

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