Vidal Sassoon quotes:

I kept thinking I would be spending my life up to my elbows in shampoo.

I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

Mary Quant is my favourite fashion designer.

Capri on the Amalfi Coast in Italy is my ultimate holiday destination.

From my point of view, there is a tremendous amount to be said for secular humanism.

We learned to put discipline in the haircuts by using actual geometry, actual architectural shapes and bone structure. The cut had to be perfect and layered beautifully, so that when a woman shook it, it just fell back in.

I'll never forget one morning I walked in and I had a hell of a bruise - it had been a difficult night the night before - and a client said to me, 'Good God, Vidal, what happened to your face?' And I said, 'Oh, nothing, madam, I just fell over a hairpin.'

Hairdressing in general hasn't been given the kudos it deserves. It's not recognised by enough people as a worthy craft.

For nine years I worked to change what was hairdressing then into a geometric art form with color, perm without setting which had never been done before.

I came home after a year and although my profession was only hairdressing, I knew I could change it.

Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power. They didn't have time to sit under the dryer.

There were so many pretty girls coming into the salon as clients, and others working in the salon. And I thought, 'Hmm. This is rather nice.'

The Pianist' is a movie I could watch over and over again.

Hair excited me. As the old ways - backcombing, rollers and rigidity - went out of the window, I started to feel the possibilities in front of my eyes.

Hairdressers are a wonderful breed. You work one-on-one with another human being and the object is to make them feel so much better and to look at themselves with a twinkle in their eye.

I got a telegraph from my mother who said that my step-father had had a heart attack, come home and earn a living. So I went back to England and the only thing I knew to earn any cash was through hairdressing.

If you get hold of a head of hair on somebody you've never seen before, cut beautiful shapes, cut beautiful architectural angles and she walks out looking so different - I think that's masterful.

I was all about my thoughts, my work, my inspiration. I was always in hair.

You must always do what you feel is right.

If you have a sense of style and purpose and will you don't want to compromise.

Like most ghetto kids I knew it was important to be 'somebody' so I became a good soccer player, because excelling at a sport seemed to make you special.

My greatest regret is selling my company.

My mother had a premonition and she felt that hairdressing would be very very good for me.

A working woman could save a few shillings a week, and then every five weeks she'd come in and we'd cut her hair. She could shampoo it under the shower, swing it and dry it off or just let it dry by itself. It changed the lives of many young girls who'd never had the opportunity to be styled like that before.

My mother left me for seven years in an orphanage.

It's okay saying sorry, but when you are drunk you say what you really feel.

When I was about 10 I ran away to see my father. He couldn't have cared less. He just took me back as soon as he could.

The essence is, what can we do next? And will it be good?

We learned to put discipline in the haircuts by using actual geometry, actual architectural shapes and bone structure. The cut had to be perfect and layered beautifully, so that when a woman shook it, it just fell back in."

It's hard to give advice. There are so many people, how do you give major advice to a group of people, it's very presumptuous.

If you don't look good, we don't look good.

During the late '20s my father left us. My mother was in a complete hole with no money, and we were evicted.

I don't sort of sit in a chair and pompously feel proud of myself about all the things we might have accomplished.

As stylists, we're groundshakers and daymakers. I was always in hair.

Beauty is.. The passionate and positive expression of the complete self.

Everything about morality and obligations I owe to football.

For me the working of hair is architecture with a human element.

Hair is another name for sex.

I just consider being one of the luckiest people in the sense that creativity came to me and it flowed.

I think that as good architecture enhances a city, a good cut enhances the definition and expression of a face.

I was a bit of a rebel.

I was born in 1928 and by 1931 the Depression was beginning to mount.

If someone were to ask me, 'What's the number one thing, in essence, that you left behind?'... it was the teaching of others, so that they could take my work and take it further.

If you just do something, then you're a five-year wonder and, goodbye, you're gone. But if people feel it's worthwhile, not only do they copy but they want to learn how to do it To me, that's what it's all about. If someone were to ask me, 'What's the number one thing, in essence, that you left behind?' It was the teaching of others so that they could take my work and take it further.

If you look good, we look good.

I'm a great jazz fan.

It's not recognized by enough people as a worthy craft.

Judaism is important to me from a tribal point of view.

Most people have excellent necks. Now they cover them with curtains, which is kind of ridiculous. But there are some beautiful necklines that you can cut into and create wonderful backs, as well as bone structure for the face.

My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous.

Realizing our society as it is, without theology dogmatically telling us how we should react to it, and being humane toward that society, that is all that we're sure of.

So I was shampooing at 14. But I've always thought that had I the opportunity for an education, I would have been an architect. There's no question about it.

Take good advice, make sure it is good advice, then do it your way.

'The Pianist' is a movie I could watch over and over again.

To me hair dressing means shape. It's very important that the foundations should be right.

To sculpt a head of hair with scissors is an art form. It's in pursuit of art.

When the doubters tell you it can't be done and all kind of tragedies will come your way, I say nonsense. If you can get to the very root of who you are and make something happen from it, my sense tells me you are going to surprise yourself.

You either create something and you keep it a secret and you die with it, or you can benefit the craft.

You never argued with my mother. You couldn't win.