February 20, 2025 • 46 mins
It is said that Vidal Sassoon changed the world with a pair of scissors. After a rough childhood, Vidal Sassoon went on to become one of the biggest influences on style and fashion that the world has ever seen. He pioneered new hair cutting techniques and styles that had never been imagined before.
Vidal Sassoon's most famous commercial said "If you don't look good, we don't look good." In this episode, Alex and Kelly unpack the stories and influence of one of the original influencers the world has ever known.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alex (00:08):
Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of dirt nap
city. What is this? Is the showabout interesting, dead people,
and if you're, if you're ifyou're flipping the channels and
Kelly (00:25):
and you happened upon us, yeah, then
Alex (00:29):
you're in the right place if you're looking for
interesting dead
Kelly (00:33):
people stories. But it's not about death.
Alex (00:36):
Sometimes it is, sometimes it is.
Kelly (00:40):
I guess the flying wallendas were a little bit
about death.
Alex (00:43):
Yeah, yeah. And yeah, I have some future ones that are a
little bit more about death. Butno, that's it's not a macabre,
morbid type of haunted housevibe. We're not, we're not a
Halloween specialty. No,
Kelly (00:59):
no, we're, we're a comedy podcast about history. We try
Alex (01:03):
to feature their life. Of these interesting people
celebrate sometimes it's theirdeath that's interesting. More
often than not, it's their lifethat's been interesting, agreed.
So I got a good one for youtoday. Okay, really in my lane,
completely century, completelyin my 20th century. White Guy,
(01:27):
completely in my lane. But Iwould say that it's, it's gonna
be a little you and I will beout of our depths talking about
this person like, this is not inour area of our circle of
interest.
Kelly (01:46):
So it's not sports, and it's not because you're sports.
It's not like movies or musicbecause I'm both of those. But
it is very much pop culture.
Okay? Pop culture from this 20thcentury, 20th Century,
Alex (01:59):
white guy born in 1928 in London, died in 2012 in Los
Angeles. How
Kelly (02:10):
did I know it was going to be LA? I knew. I knew it was
going to be either New York orLA. Yeah. Good ones go. Yeah. So
okay, 2012 he died and 1928 inLondon. So British guy, yeah,
Alex (02:24):
but you might not have even known he is British. You
might not have ever, ever heardhim talk. And here's the power.
I'm going to demonstratesomething now. I'm only going to
say one line, and in doing so,I'm gonna demonstrate one of
three things. Either I'm gonnademonstrate the power of
(02:45):
advertising in the 1970s I'mgonna either demonstrate that
you didn't watch TV in the 1970sOkay, that's not true, but or
I'm gonna demonstrate that youhave a poor memory. That's
probably true. When I give thisone line, I have a feeling
you're gonna get it. Even thoughyou've never heard this person
(03:05):
talk, you probably don't evenknow what he looks like, and you
aren't in his target market atall. Okay, ready for the line.
Let's hear the line. If youdon't look good, we don't look
good.
Kelly (03:20):
Vil Sassoon, isn't that crazy
Alex (03:22):
dude, yeah, one line, you can't picture him, right? You've
never heard him talk. I bet he'shandsome. You're not, yeah,
yeah, good looking guy. You'renot in at all in his uh,
demographic, yeah? But Mr. VidalSassoon changed the world with a
pair of scissors.
Kelly (03:41):
Wow. So, so, first of all, I would have thought he was
with a name like that. I wouldhave thought he was Italian or
or Spanish or something, VidaSassoon.
Alex (03:51):
The name is actually Greek. I think Greek. His his
parents or his dad was Greek,but grew up in London, grew up
as a his dad was a Greekimmigrant,
Kelly (04:05):
and was that his real name? Oh, yeah, yeah, Dallas.
That's okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you don't look good, we don'tlook good.
Alex (04:12):
Before we get to that though, tell us, Kelly, a lot of
people listening don't even knowwhat you look like, but tell us
what your haircut history is. My
Kelly (04:24):
haircut history? Well, I started off, you know, like many
children do, with sparse hair,and then I grew into a very
blonde child with kind oflongish hair, and then I had a
period of mullet time duringhigh school and college where I
kind of had the business in thefront party in the back, a
little bit of curls, curl. Yeah,I remember a bunch is curls,
(04:46):
kind of curly hair. And then inmy probably 30s, as I started to
lose my hair, I had thisfascination with Dolph Lundgren.
Remember his haircut in Rockyfour where
Alex (04:58):
it was just short and.
Spiky, flat top,
Kelly (05:01):
spiky I wanted. I wanted that hair. I always thought that
was the coolest haircut ever,and I could never accomplish it
because of the curliness. So Ifinally just gave up, and now
just have to go really, reallyshort, I suppose to get well, I
do. I mean, my hair is my hairis a number one. My haircut
today is a number one. Butthat's more to fight baldness.
Here's the weird thing abouthaircuts, Alex, especially in
(05:22):
older men. And you know, I sayolder 50 something men, as you
start to lose your hair, whenyou grow your hair out, you look
more bald than when you shave itor cut it. I don't know why, but
when my hair gets long, what'snot there is painfully obvious.
But what is there is, is, islonger, but then when I cut it
(05:45):
super short, it I look like justkind of a tech bro, I guess. Did
Alex (05:51):
you ever dye your hair to achieve the
Kelly (05:55):
several times? Yes, really, dude, I did it. I dyed
your hair really. I've done it.
I I thought you knew this. Andthis is if my wife is probably
listening to this right now, andshe's probably laying next to me
in bed, because she goes tosleep listening to dirt nap city
sometimes. So Jody, if you're,if you're listening to this,
roll over and pat me on theback. She's
Alex (06:18):
never heard the end of this show, has she? She's, she's
never No,
Kelly (06:21):
no. It puts her right out. But it works, and she
enjoys the first five minutes,sure. But I dyed my hair right
before I got married, and so myhair was bleach blonde for not
only, I don't know, my bachelorparty, which was a snowboarding
trip, but also my wedding, myhair all my wedding pictures, I
(06:43):
was bleach blonde.
Alex (06:45):
And what were you trying to achieve? The Dolph Lundgren
thing, that was what you weretrying to,
Kelly (06:49):
um, I'm not sure, you know, I think I was pretty
young, and I thought it wouldlook good and, and a lot of my
family and Jody's family werestarting to second guess
whether, you know, I was marriedin material or not after I did
that, because you
Alex (07:04):
figured the bleach blonde was the that sell them. No, no,
Kelly (07:08):
no. Quite the opposite.
They were like, why did he dyehis hair right before the
wedding? Because it's like allmy wedding pictures, my hair is,
is bleach blonde. It worked forRyan
Alex (07:17):
Seacrest, you know? Why not? Wouldn't? Why wouldn't work
for you,
Kelly (07:22):
man, because I don't look good and you don't look good.
Nobody looks good when they'rearound me. I don't know. Man, it
was, I thought it looked Ithought it looked pretty cool,
but, but honestly, in hindsight,I could see where it was, maybe
a red flag for some of my wife'sfamily.
Alex (07:37):
Wow. So what we've just established, though, is the
importance of haircuts onsomebody's reputation,
somebody's looks. Yeah, just thewhole and I think what you'll
what I'll demonstrate about Mr.
Sassoon is that he changed thewhole culture. On on on
haircuts. Let me tell you alittle bit about this guy,
(07:58):
please. So he was born in Londonin 1928 to Jewish parents. His
father was a Greek Jew. Hismother was an English Jew, and
she emigrated from Russia, andhe lived in like a Greek Jewish
section of London. The fatherleft the whole family for
another woman when Vidal wasthree, and they were they had
(08:19):
money then, but then, when heleft, they basically were out on
the street. They becamehomeless, taken in by by one of
his mother's sisters. And sothere was seven people in a one
room house and no toilet. Thisis like pre war England, very
Dickensian, probably right,yeah, yeah. He had to, they had
(08:44):
to share a toilet with threeother families of like seven
people each. You know, that'srough.
Kelly (08:52):
Are we talking outhouse or indoor plumbing or do, you
know,
Alex (08:55):
I think it was like apartment, but there was like a
bathroom at the end of the hall.
Kelly (09:01):
Oh, so, like, all three families went down, so you had
to get in line, like, like adoor lane, like a dorm. I never
lived in the dorm.
Alex (09:10):
Yeah, we've already established that you're from the
elite, right, right? And they'reroof leaked, something that
you're never going toexperience. But they're, they're
hopefully not going forward, no.
And he said, when he wasremembering this, he said, you
know, all we could see from ourwindow was the grayness of the
tenement across the street.
(09:31):
There was ugliness all around.
You can kind of picture that prewar, yeah, England, it's just
gray, and everything's in blackand white, yeah, right. A lot of
a lot of bands, a lot of Britishbands, talk about growing up in
that kind of ugliness,monochromatic part of England
that just, there was no, nohope, just ugliness all around,
right, yeah. And they were sodestitute that eventually his
(09:56):
mom had to put him in a.
Orphanage. And I guess that'ssomething that people did back
then, when they when they justwere too poor to to have, you
know, and they'd have a lot ofkids, they would just, there was
a lot of orphanages around,yeah, so for seven years from
time he was four until he was11, um, he lived in an
(10:18):
orphanage. So he wasn't
Kelly (10:19):
actually technically an orphan, because his parents were
still alive. His mom was stillsort of taking care of him, but
he was shuffled off. Did shecall it like summer camp or
sleepover?
Alex (10:30):
She used to visit him once a month, but she wasn't allowed
to take him out of the building,so it was almost like he was in
jail, you know, like Kid jailuntil she finally remarried, and
then then they got him back,once they got money that he went
to a Christian school. But ofcourse, he was teased for being
(10:54):
Jewish, so that definitely hadan impact on him, and even his
teachers didn't really like himvery much. He was he said he was
a bad student, except for therewas a class they had called
mental arithmetic. This issomething that we didn't have in
school. I think it's so idea fora class is this
Kelly (11:15):
where you just do things in your head. You don't write it
out long form. Yes, they would
Alex (11:19):
ask you questions and you would do it in your head. No, so
he was good at a mentalarithmetic, and his teacher told
him, Sassoon, it's a pleasure tosee that you have gaps of
intelligence between bouts ofignorance.
Kelly (11:33):
Wow, that is a I guess that teacher didn't write a
recommendation.
Alex (11:38):
So his, you know, kids at school, and they teased him. His
teacher didn't like him. Youknow, it was rough, rough
growing up, and then, as ifthings couldn't get worse, in
1939 when he was 11, World WarTwo broke out
Kelly (11:56):
in Europe. Did he become an ambulance driver? No,
Alex (12:00):
but he was his school was evacuated by or he was
evacuated. All the Jewish kidsin the neighborhood were
evacuated by train to adifferent part of England or
different part of London. Maybehe came back to London three
years later when he was 14, butit was still during the war. It
(12:22):
was rough times in in London atthe time, think about how
uncertain everything was. Theydidn't know they were going to
win the war. I mean, no, andLondon was constantly getting,
you know, bombed, and it wasawful. His mom wanted him to be
a hairdresser, that's where, andI don't know why she thought
that that was a good route forhim, but he wanted to play
(12:43):
soccer, but she insisted ontaking him to hairdressing
school.
Kelly (12:51):
Did he get teased about that at that point? Who cares?
Right, right, right, you'realready teased about everything
else. Just Just go with it.
Well, it was a two year
Alex (12:59):
program, and it was a little more expensive than they
thought it was going to be. Sothey left. But then as they're
walking out the door, the headof the school said, Come back
here. He says, You You have verygood manners. Start Monday and
forget the cost. It's on me. Oh,and so he went to hairdressing
(13:21):
school, and really liked it. Andyou know what he did that was
kind of cool, is that topractice his his skills, he
would go down to Skid Row.
That's the real Skid Row inLondon, and what once a week,
and he would give free haircutsto the homeless people in in
London, on skid row to practice.
(13:41):
They're getting a haircut. He'slearning it sounds like a win,
win, yeah. Well, when he was 20years old, he he actually went
on a kibbutz and fought in theArab Israeli war. I mean, that
was the war that established theState of Israel. He said that
(14:02):
was the best year of his life.
He said, here we have, you know,2000 years of our people being
put down, and we have a nationthat's rising up. So he loved
that experience, and it wasreally formative for him. He
kind of felt a sense of purpose.
But then came back to Englandand trained as a hairdresser
(14:26):
under a guy named RaymondBasson. Now we wouldn't know
this, because we didn't grow upback then, but in the 1950s uh,
Raymond Basson was a famoushairdresser, probably the first
famous hairdresser.
Kelly (14:40):
Can you name a famous hairdresser from the 2000 20s?
Alex (14:47):
No, okay, but this guy, his name was Raymond bassoon,
but people know him as Mr.
Tweezy. I.
Kelly (15:00):
Yeah, wow, yeah, Mr.
Tweezy.
Alex (15:02):
Or some people called him tz Weezy Raymond, but he was
this guy, and he would have thisfake French accent. And was he
English or American? He wasEnglish, but he had fake French.
Everyone thought he was Frenchbecause he'd walk around with
this fake French accent. And hewas the person that actually
developed the bouffant hair,hair,
Kelly (15:21):
hair, stuff. Teasy, Wheezy, because he teased the
hair. Did you
Alex (15:25):
just get that? Yeah, you thought it because he teased
videl so soon, yeah?
Kelly (15:28):
I thought maybe you know he everybody else is making fun
of him,
Alex (15:32):
no, because he teased the hair. Yeah? Okay, so the
bouffant, if you can picture theBucha, yeah, hairstyle that was
very big in the 1950s Right,right. Um, think Alice from The
Brady Bunch, right? Yeah,
Kelly (15:46):
yeah, she had the bouffant. I think, I think Mrs.
Brady did too,
Alex (15:49):
sure, the B 50 twos little fair, yeah, yeah, they rocked
that for years. But that waskind of in camp. Yeah,
Kelly (15:58):
they were, they were doing it to be ironic or retro
or whatever, but, right? Yeah,
Alex (16:03):
but this was a real thing, and that's how most women wore
their hair. Before that, it was,you know, going to the beauty
parlor and wearing curls likeyour great grandparents would
have. And you know about that,women would have to go once a
week. They'd go to the beautyparlor dryers that went over
their head, and you wouldn'twash your hair the rest of the
(16:25):
week. And you go to the beautyparlor, like every Friday or
something, and they would washyour hair and set it and you
didn't mess with it the rest ofthe week, right? You'd take a
shower with a shower cap. You'dsleep with the head covering on,
and you would just have thisstyle that was just set like a
hat.
Kelly (16:45):
That's my style, like a hat. Well,
Alex (16:47):
then when, when teasy Weezy came along, that kind of
gave a little glam to the to thehairstyle. But still, I think it
was still, you know, a once aweek Production and kind of a
set kind of thing. Okay? Well,our boy opened his salon in 1954
and he His thing was, he wantedto get to the basics of like the
(17:12):
angles of the head and the cutand the shape, and really do
some artistic things, but alsosomething that was more modern
and low maintenance. So he wouldHis thing was like geometric
shapes
Kelly (17:28):
hair, or men's hair, but women's, women's hair, okay,
okay, so that was a lot of work,and he wanted something a little
low maintenance, but stilllooked good.
Alex (17:37):
I think in the 1950s there was no men's cuts. Every guy had
the high, tight, yeah, you know,I don't think, I mean, this was
before, unless you were ahippie. But in the 50s, in 1954
I don't think anybody wasrocking long hair. Any men were
rocking long hair, because theBeatles came around, like 10
years later with the long hair.
But I think in the 50s, therewas no like, variety of men's
(18:02):
hairstyles. You were either highand tight or bald. Hmm, okay,
and everyone wore hats, so itdidn't
Kelly (18:10):
matter. Yeah, it sounds like me. Man, maybe I was born
too late. But think
Alex (18:14):
about it, men, until JFK came along and they, they say
that he was the first guy tolike, not he didn't wear a hat,
and that kind of started thetrend and made it okay to not
wear a hat. But if you look atlike people, like pictures of
baseball games in the stands inthe 50s, like every man wore a
(18:35):
hat back then. So yeah, I guesshairstyle really didn't matter
to men. Well, he was not onlyinterested in, like, the
geometric shapes of hair, but hewas also interested in, um, not
putting a lot of product inhere, that the hair has a
natural shine, right? And so thehair that they called it
(18:57):
lacquer, that people women wouldput in their hair to, like, give
it this artificial shine
Kelly (19:02):
and and also, probably, to keep it rigid, right, to keep
it in
Alex (19:05):
Yeah, probably, but it would just like, kind of look
porcelain, you know, um, so hecame up with the idea of, like,
what he called wash and wearhair, yeah, that a woman could
shake her head and it would fallback in place, yeah, you Know,
Kelly (19:20):
whether it was yes or no, however, she shook her head.
Alex (19:23):
However, whatever I'm talking about is how pretty much
everybody wears their hair now,right? But nobody wore their
hair back then, like he waschanged the world with a pair of
scissors. The other thing aboutwash and wear is that you only
needed to get it cut every sixweeks, not every week, right? So
(19:44):
this was a big deal that, youknow, women were starting, you
know, this is post war now,starting back, starting
workforce, starting to go in theworkplace for the first time.
Yeah, yeah, it's a big deal. Sothe hair style, the modern
hairstyle. Kind of mirrored whatwas going on and made it easier
for their their kind of newlives. The big thing that he
(20:06):
came up with was called the Fivepoint haircut. Anybody that's in
haircut cutting business willtell you they know what the five
point cut is, and it was, soit's like an asymmetrical think
about a bowl cut, and then,like, it's shifted a little
where one ends a little longer,and then the five points is like
(20:30):
one point in the front, two oneach one on each side, and then
two at the nape of the neck,kind of making, like a inverted
U shape. And then, okay, theneck, okay. He also created the
bob cut. So these are, yeah, sothese are, all of a sudden women
are getting short haircuts. Youknow that they only have to get
(20:52):
recut every six weeks. Absoluterevolution changed everything,
and it was his invention. Heopened his first US salon in
1965 on Madison Avenue in NewYork, and within five years, he
had one in Toronto, one inBeverly Hills, and he also had
(21:13):
his own hairdressing school inLondon. Were
Kelly (21:17):
they? Were they called Vidal Sassoon? Yeah, the salons,
okay, yeah.
Alex (21:21):
But his big break came in in like 1968 the movie
Rosemary's Baby. Have you everseen that movie?
Kelly (21:32):
No, but was it Sharon Tate, no. Mia Farrow. Mia
Farrow, okay,
Alex (21:38):
and if you could picture Mia Farrow, she had this real
short haircut, like real tightpixie is what we'd call it,
pixie cut, right? He was paid bythe director of the movie. He
was paid $5,000 which should belike $45,000 today, to create a
(22:01):
unique haircut for her for thatmovie. And he created Wow pixie
cut. Wanted something that thatworked for him, so he moved. He
moved to LA in 1970 he saw thatthis is, you know, this was very
lucrative. Everyone in BeverlyHills wanted him a stylist
Kelly (22:20):
or absolutely personal hairdresser. And
Alex (22:25):
then in 1973 somebody told him, you know, actually, I think
Michael King, the actor, takescredit for for this because he
was his roommate. For somereason, that's random. Yeah, you
see, it's whenever you readabout celebrities from right?
Kelly (22:41):
They always encountered each other somewhere, yeah, and
Alex (22:46):
it's always these, these throwaway stories where somebody
so Michael Caine claims that hetold him, you know, what you
really got to do is start a haircare product line. Yeah, you
gotta start selling shampoos andconditioners. And that was
something, I mean, think aboutit. We went from once a week
going to the beauty parlor,where somebody else would take
(23:08):
care of you. Now you got to takecare of your own hair. You got
to wash it, you know, everyother day, washing wear. And
that's part of it, right? And soyou got to, you got to put
product. You got to use shampoosand conditioners. Well, he was,
you know, right place, righttime, Michael Caine told him to
do it, so that's where it reallytook off, right? You could
(23:29):
probably picture the videlSassoon bottles of shampoo,
yeah. You could picture hislogo, right? They black and
white, I think, yeah. And Ithink he had a logo with, like,
uh, kind of a double Yeah, yeah.
Um, he was so famous that in1980 they even gave him his own
talk show. For, didn't, didn'tlast very long, but it's called
(23:49):
your new day when he wouldinterview people like for,
Kelly (23:54):
he'd probably have a podcast today. Absolutely, yeah,
jerks,
Alex (23:58):
always have a podcast. Um, by 1982 Vidal Sassoon was raking
in about $110 million in sales ayear. Wow, mostly in, mostly in
the US too. And he got so richthat he was able to go back to
(24:19):
Jerusalem and establish theVidal Sassoon International
Center for the Study of antisemitism, which still exists to
this day, and does really coolwork in Sociology and
anthropology and criminology andjust studying anti semitism. It
(24:43):
funds a lot of great research onon hate and the rise of of hate
crimes and things like that. Soit's really a, like a vital
Kelly (24:56):
or a or a Vidal. Oh, good, good. I
Alex (24:59):
see what you did there.
Yeah. Yeah, it's really a coolthing that that exists. Still,
Kelly (25:02):
this mission is very vider, that we accomplish this.
And you know,
Alex (25:07):
you say you haven't heard him talk, and maybe you have,
and he was in some of hiscommercials, but he didn't
really have a British accent. Ithink originally, he had, like,
a Cockney accent.
Kelly (25:17):
So he tried to get rid of that. He did
Alex (25:19):
get rid of it and wasn't popped up, ended up being more
like what we'd call likecontinental or mid Continental,
where you can't really tellwhere somebody's from. They just
sound like they're rich. Youknow what? I mean?
Kelly (25:31):
Yeah, like you and me.
Yeah, sure.
Alex (25:35):
Well, he sold the product line to Proctor and Gamble in
1984 but you know, he wasactually, remember, on a
previous episode, you talkedabout the Order of the British
Empire and how you could beknighted. Yeah, somebody calls
you sir, right? He got thecommander he was. He was deemed
(25:59):
a Commander of the Order ofBritish Empire. CBE, not a OBE,
so he wasn't, you can't call himsir. It's just the one right
below
Kelly (26:08):
that. Okay, yeah, he's the guy that cuts the SIRs
haircut. Hairs, yeah. PaulMcCartney, right, John, right,
right, right. He cuts all theKnights hairs.
Alex (26:17):
Um, 2009 I think even Michael Caine might have that.
They might have leapfrogged himand got the order. I think he
might be sir. Michael Caine, ifI'm not mistaken. Wow,
Kelly (26:27):
okay, yeah, talk about, I mean, who'd have known all those
years ago when those guys wereup late playing video games and
drinking beer, you know? Andthen there
Alex (26:37):
was a lot of drinking beer, yeah, 2009 is when he got
the CBE. You know, he wrote his,he wrote an autobiography, 1968
so he hadn't even really made it
Kelly (26:51):
huge, as he wasn't at the top of his, at the top of his
fame. And I mean
Alex (26:56):
the commercials, if you don't look good, we don't look
good. That was 1976 Okay, so1968 he was famous enough to
write his own autobiography. AndI love the title of this book.
It was called, sorry, I kept youwaiting, madam.
Kelly (27:13):
Yeah, I guess he had to say that a lot. That was
probably in his vocabulary.
Alex (27:17):
Think about it, yeah, you're waiting. You have a four
o'clock appointment, right? Herolls out at 420 and what does
he say, Dude, it's 420 Allright, 415
Kelly (27:30):
he says, The shortest word in the English language.
You know what? That is, sethere.
Alex (27:38):
Let's say he comes out at 415 okay. And he says, Sorry, I
kept you waiting, madam, yeah,
Kelly (27:44):
yeah, in his in his posh, can't identify where it's from,
accent, right? I really want tohear his voice now see what it
was like.
Alex (27:53):
Yeah, it was very smooth, like you said. He was a good
looking dude, very tan, yeah,already had, like, you know,
olive skin, right? Yeah. Sovery, very tan. Had nice,
beautiful gray hair as he as hegot older, yeah, yeah. They made
(28:13):
a documentary about him in 2010and it was called the del
Sassoon, the movie how one manchanged the world where the
Paris scissors, Oh, that wasn't,that wasn't me saying, yeah,
Kelly (28:25):
it was that's, that's great, though it's a great
title. But, you
Alex (28:29):
know, the legacy that this guy left was blending, like
men's haircuts now, yeah,blending edges, layers to the
hair, like all that, shaping andgeometry and all that stuff, and
not when you think about it.
When you look at movies from the40s and 50s, all the men kind of
have the same look, and all thewomen that kind of have the same
(28:53):
look. Not only was it liberatingfor them Nick but it was also
opportunity for people to havetheir own individual cuts, you
know, by breaking out of thateasy Weezy mode.
Kelly (29:07):
Like I said, I have rocked the mullet for a while,
and I'm, I wouldn't do it anyother way. That's, that's, that
was my look. That was my jam. Imean, I guess if I could have
done the Dolph Lundgren thing, Iwould have but I did never get
there.
Alex (29:22):
Now, Kelly, we're 35 minutes in, so your wife is
asleep right now. Yes, yeah. Solet me, let me ask you this,
what kind of hair do you like onwomen? Oh, what's your favorite
kind of cut? Well,
Kelly (29:36):
you know, I'm not big on the fussy haircuts, so I think
something that's wash and wear.
Alex (29:43):
What would you consider fussy? Oh, anything. So, so you
know what a blowout is. I'veheard of it, but I couldn't tell
you. I know these salons haveplaces
Kelly (29:52):
there are, and I think it's a Brazilian thing, right?
You go in for a blowout whereall they do is use the blow
dryer to kind. Kind of fluffyour hair up when this, this is
back to those days when they'llgo in once a week, or, you know,
every two weeks, to have ablowout, to make their hair. And
I guess there's a way to make itstay that way for a while, and
Alex (30:12):
it looks, ends up looking like, like you're in a hair
metal band. Yes,
Kelly (30:18):
yes, like you're, you're the lead guitarist for poison or
rat or shirt like that. Sure.
Alex (30:25):
Damn Yankees. I
Kelly (30:27):
do like it. Pulled back, I can see short hair looking
good, you know, I guess if onething I like about what my wife
does is she changes it up prettyoften, like she'll she'll do it
differently on different days.
It's not always the same.
Alex (30:42):
So you can feel like you're with somebody else.
Kelly (30:46):
I hope she's asleep.
Jody, if you're still awake,please don't hit me. So let me
ask you a question, how oftenyou get your No, I'm not gonna
ask anything about Tracy. Howoften do you get your hair cut?
Alex (31:02):
About every six weeks?
Okay? And
Kelly (31:05):
how often do you wash your hair every single day,
every day, huh? Because isn'tthat sort of advice really?
Alex (31:15):
Because I feel well, I'd never take a shower without
washing my hair and the showerevery day there's there would
never be a time where I wouldnot wash my hair if I'm in the
shower. That's ridiculous. You
Kelly (31:25):
know, I remember this really awesome shampoo that you
discovered. It's, it's GirlScout, Thin Mint shampoo.
Alex (31:34):
Native brand is called native, okay,
Kelly (31:38):
okay. Is that your favorite type of shampoo. It
Alex (31:41):
actually is, yeah, really, because it smells like no, not
the No, I actually use adifferent scent, but native is
good brand, yeah, like it, hey,hey, if you're listening and
you're from native, throw ussomething a little Yeah,
Kelly (31:56):
yeah. We definitely talk about our hair every episode, if
you gave us some sponsorship.
Alex (32:02):
Every episode features some sham we would we'll go back
from your earlier episodes andput in if you want to know,
we'll talk about typhoid Mary'shair style, right? We'll just
insert that stuff into oldepisodes if you want to throw us
some something.
Kelly (32:21):
So I had heard that washing your hair every day
dries it out. And not, not thatI have a whole lot of hair to
Alex (32:27):
I was gonna say, but you don't have hair and I do. So why
are you telling me what's badfor me? Whatever I'm doing
works.
Kelly (32:34):
It's true. Mine's all mine's all falling out. So okay,
no, I'll go with that. I'll gowith that. We're not going to
get into hygiene too much. Ifyou want to hear about our
hygiene, listen to the TyphoidMary episode, because we did
talk a lot about hand washingand bathing and stuff like that
in that episode. But Idefinitely don't wash my hair
every day. I intentionally,like, if I'm I'll take a longer
(32:56):
shower after a couple of days.
And then there are days I don'tif I didn't do anything that
really got me sweaty, and thenthere are days that I'll just
rinse off quickly, you know? So
Alex (33:06):
I'll tell you what. I love the feeling of getting my hair
washed. I don't know if it takesme back to when I was a kid, my
mom would wash my hair, but man,there's nothing better than
rolling up at a hair cuttingplace, putting your hair in that
sink, and they make the water,oh, yeah, man. And, and then
they gently massage that scalpwhere it's, it's, it's almost
(33:31):
like their nails are in it, butnot they back off a little,
yeah, yeah. And it's such a goodfeeling. There's nothing better
than getting your hair washed.
Man, that's the height ofluxury. That's a height of
luxury. I see why all thesekings and and noblemen that you
always talk about why that'sthat's something that they
strive for. I
Kelly (33:50):
have not had that done in probably 10 years because I have
not had my hair cut by anyoneother than my wife who just,
it's just the number one guardon the razor the backyard.
Alex (34:03):
Wow. So during COVID, my wife attempted to cut my hair.
She bought a hair cutting set onAmazon. I sat in the bathroom. I
sat on a swivel chair when I'mprobably the one I'm sitting in
right now, and the little kiteven came with a cape. Oh, she
(34:26):
was so excited. She got thesescissors and and she was real
excited about getting the tools.
And then when it came time toactually do it, it was a
disaster. And I'm always verytalented a lot of areas,
smartest person I've ever met,but it was a struggle, man, to
cut my hair. First of all, shewould always have me hold all
(34:46):
the stuff she wasn't using. Soyou
Kelly (34:49):
were probably a picky little bitch the whole time too.
It was awful. Actually,
Alex (34:53):
I was laughing through the whole thing, and then she would
look at and she just did such abad job of it. But. It I was at
the time I was teaching on Zoom,so it didn't really matter what
the back of my head looked like.
So we only cared about right inthe front leg, good. So the back
was a disaster. We both agreedthat it really didn't matter
what the back of it looked like,right? But it was already in
(35:16):
party in the back, and shecouldn't wait until I went and
got but I think she did it twoor three times, and it was a
mess. Yeah, it was, it was fun,though. It was funny, good, good
memories on that. I never gotmad about that. I didn't care.
Yeah, now what you already kindof told me that you like, I was
gonna say, what kind of hair doyou like on men? Like, what do
(35:39):
you think is a good a goodhaircut? But I think you're, you
already told me your ideal iskind of the dolphin, Dolph
Lundgren. How do you feel aboutdudes with long hair? Like, do
you get jealous of that? Or doyou, what do you think about
that?
Kelly (35:56):
You know, I think certain people could really rock that.
But like, if you're going baldat all. You got to just get rid
of it. Like you really can't dothe the sort of drape down over
the shoulders with nothing uptop that. Yeah, you cannot do
that. You can't do the Bf,
Alex (36:13):
what? What guys do you think have good hair?
Kelly (36:17):
Well, the guy from the commercials of Dos Equis, the
most interesting man in theworld, or is that modelo?
Alex (36:27):
No, that's, that's, that's a while ago, but that's, that's
just a good beard
Kelly (36:33):
he has. He has that curly Gray, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I
just watched this movie calledwolves, and George Clooney has
really great hair. And again,that's, that's kind of gray,
gray hair. Trying to think of ayounger person that you know,
kind of like Billy corgan'sLook, if you know, completely
(36:54):
bald, shiny, shiny bald head.
Yeah, yeah. Dave Grohl had somebeautiful hair back in the day,
and he still has decent hair.
Alex (37:02):
So, so, yeah, you hadn't listed anybody with long hair.
But okay, no, oh,
Kelly (37:06):
Dave Grohl. I mean, if you first of all, Dave Grohl was
a handsome, very handsome fellowback in the nerve
Alex (37:13):
I think he got better looking with age, actually,
really, he's better looking nowthan he did was in Nirvana,
including
Kelly (37:19):
his hair. Though, did you ever see his hair back? Yeah, he
had good hair, for sure. Andthen I'm gonna give it a shout
out to my neighbor, Patrick. SoPatrick lives kitty corner
behind us, like kind of cattycorner behind us, and Patrick
has long braids. And I thinkPatrick must be partly Native
American because he has justlong, beautiful, braided hair
(37:40):
and a full head of hair, andhe's my age, or maybe a little
bit younger, but yeah, Patrick,Patrick, my neighbor,
Alex (37:48):
yeah. How about you? I never was able to grow long
hair. My hair doesn't grow down.
It grows out like a Yeah, same,same. So I was always kind of
jealous of people I would haveliked to experiment with long
hair at some point in my life,and never got to. It also
wouldn't grow real straight. Itwould and but it wasn't curly
(38:10):
either. It would just grow out.
But like Eddie Vetter, I thinkis somebody in the 90s that had
really, really anybody thatcould kind of toss their hair.
Yeah, I was jealous of like,yeah. Like Anthony Kiedis, oh
no, or Eddie Vedder being ableto walk around on the stage and
just flip your hair around wasalways a really, I would have
(38:34):
liked to experience that once ortwice. You're
Kelly (38:36):
familiar with the band, Soul asylum, yeah. So Dave
Perner is their singer's name.
And I went to see them once, andhe kept doing this thing, and we
called it the helicopter, wherehe was spinning his head around.
Yeah, his hair was just goinglike a helicopter blade in a
circle. Yes, that's kind ofcool.
Alex (38:53):
And like you, I always thought that long braids or
dreadlocks was always reallycool. I always, I always, I
think Bob Marley had really coolhair. Yeah, yeah, I would have
loved to have but, you know,doesn't, not everyone could pull
that stuff off. No,
Kelly (39:12):
no, you have to, yeah, you definitely have to own it.
And I, I feel like we're alittle old to get in that game
at this point,
Alex (39:22):
probably, probably, yeah, we're probably stuck with what
we rock now, for sure.
Kelly (39:27):
So, so what? What were Vidal's latest like in his
latest years? Anything you knowis, he said he was given a honor
by the queen or by the Britishgovernment. He moved to LA. He
was, did he? Did he have anysort of famous marriages or
affairs with people or anything?
Alex (39:47):
No, well, probably, but we won't get into that. But, you
know, no, what happened wasProctor and Gamble, kind of
mismanaged, in his opinion,mismanaged the brand. Oh,
Kelly (40:00):
so it ended up tasting like glue.
Alex (40:04):
Oh, shout out to the old Colonel Sanders episode two. No,
he said that they didn't put asmuch marketing energy into the
Vidal Sassoon brand, you know, abig company like Procter and
Gamble that's just anothershampoo that they have, you
know. And at the time, he saidthey favored Pantene over over
(40:28):
his, yeah. And he actually suedthem, because he said that, you
know, that wasn't part of thedeal. I wasn't just gonna sell
this to you so you My name's onthis still, you know, you could,
so you could destroy my name.
And they really kind of ran thatinto the ground. He also had one
of his assistants named PaulMitchell, got big on, kind of
went his own way and did his ownthing. And Paul Mitchell designs
(40:53):
and Paul Mitchell hair productsis something you
Kelly (40:58):
still see, oh, yeah, that's probably bigger than
Vidal Sassoon, now,
Alex (41:01):
probably now, yeah, for sure. In fact, when you said,
who's another famoushairstylist, that's the one that
I was come up with. That justgoes to show you the fact that
we can't name one of howimpressive he was. You know, I
mean, it was Mr. Teasy, easy,right? Videl Sassoon, Paul
Mitchell, Paul Mitchell, it'sbasically it. Now I'm sure that
(41:24):
if the Holy Trinity, yeah, if wewere in the business, I'm sure
that if we, even if we wereadjacent to the business, if we
were actors, we would probablyknow who the big hair stylists
in Hollywood. I mean, that'syour those are probably famous
people in that world, in thatindustry, this guy transcended
all that. He wasn't just a haircutting, cutting Mia Farrow's
(41:50):
hair, but he was influencingpeople all over the world and
especially in the US, like allthe haircuts today are still
from the DNA from of the fivepoint cut and and, I mean, I
just think that his legacy can'tbe overstated, that he was, um,
(42:12):
like, responsible for the modernlook that we think of attractive
people these days. If you watchan old movie, those people look
different. They look likethey're from a different planet
then. And, but if you watch amovie from the 70s, those are
just styles that keep coming andgoing, you know what? I mean,
yeah, and, and from the 80s, Imean, those things come and go,
(42:33):
but they're all like adescendant of this guy's look.
So he had a enormous impact onthe 20th and 21st century, what
we consider to be attractivelooks. So
Kelly (42:47):
next time I squirt some shampoo into my hair, I will
raise a toast to Mr. VidalSassoon. What are you doing
every month or so, every month,every month and a half, you're
not one of these guys that says,oh, you know, I've heard that
horse shampoo is really
Alex (43:02):
because they saw that too, you know, no,
Kelly (43:05):
no, I think, I think we're rocking, actually, some
Pantene.
Alex (43:10):
All right. Native, forever. Native, let's do this.
Get us on your, uh, advertiserslist,
Kelly (43:17):
yeah, we will definitely use your product and talk about
it. And, and, you know, withwith faces like these, which you
probably can't see becauseyou're listening to a podcast,
you're gonna want to work withus,
Alex (43:27):
yeah? But you know, if you don't look good, yeah, we don't
look good.
Kelly (43:33):
Bye.
Unknown (43:38):
Little on his scissors, was born in England fair, till
he gave that Skid Row bum asmile and went and cut his hair.
He grew up four, but old, vitalhad a dream. He became a legend,
and his hair was always clean.
Before vital came to town, mostmen wore a hat, and the women
(44:01):
went to the salon, eating cheeseand getting fat, and it's all
because he cut that Skid Rowbum's hair. He did it on a dare.
Please tell me the story of aDale who invented wash and wear.
He changed the world withscissors until everyone looked
(44:22):
grand. He inspired Paul Mitchelland Dave Groh to start a punk
rock band by vital Sassoon. Heinvented all the popular styles,
Buzz cuts, bowl cuts, bobs andcheese. Oh, don't offer him a
blowout cause that just makeshim sneeze. Oh. Vidal Saum got
(44:43):
his hair cut. Vidal and hisscissors. His family came from
Greece. His family's very richthese days, especially his
niece, other brothers, sis. Hisbrother, mother's cousin's
uncle's dog is even lookingplease these days like a mullet
(45:04):
on a frog. Soon, you know, Buzzcuts, low cuts, bobs and Ts
there was before offer him ablowout. It's time for him to go
out soon. Got hishair cut. When all of this was
(45:39):
finished, he came up with thesewords, if you don't look good,
we don't look bad. Hair is forthe birds.
(46:05):
Air. When all of this wasfinished, he came up with these
words, if you don't look good,We don't look good. Bad hair is
(46:30):
for the birds.
Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of dirt nap
city. What is this? Is the showabout interesting, dead people,
and if you're, if you're ifyou're flipping the channels and
Kelly (00:25):
and you happened upon us, yeah, then
Alex (00:29):
you're in the right place if you're looking for
interesting dead
Kelly (00:33):
people stories. But it's not about death.
Alex (00:36):
Sometimes it is, sometimes it is.
Kelly (00:40):
I guess the flying wallendas were a little bit
about death.
Alex (00:43):
Yeah, yeah. And yeah, I have some future ones that are a
little bit more about death. Butno, that's it's not a macabre,
morbid type of haunted housevibe. We're not, we're not a
Halloween specialty. No,
Kelly (00:59):
no, we're, we're a comedy podcast about history. We try
Alex (01:03):
to feature their life. Of these interesting people
celebrate sometimes it's theirdeath that's interesting. More
often than not, it's their lifethat's been interesting, agreed.
So I got a good one for youtoday. Okay, really in my lane,
completely century, completelyin my 20th century. White Guy,
(01:27):
completely in my lane. But Iwould say that it's, it's gonna
be a little you and I will beout of our depths talking about
this person like, this is not inour area of our circle of
interest.
Kelly (01:46):
So it's not sports, and it's not because you're sports.
It's not like movies or musicbecause I'm both of those. But
it is very much pop culture.
Okay? Pop culture from this 20thcentury, 20th Century,
Alex (01:59):
white guy born in 1928 in London, died in 2012 in Los
Angeles. How
Kelly (02:10):
did I know it was going to be LA? I knew. I knew it was
going to be either New York orLA. Yeah. Good ones go. Yeah. So
okay, 2012 he died and 1928 inLondon. So British guy, yeah,
Alex (02:24):
but you might not have even known he is British. You
might not have ever, ever heardhim talk. And here's the power.
I'm going to demonstratesomething now. I'm only going to
say one line, and in doing so,I'm gonna demonstrate one of
three things. Either I'm gonnademonstrate the power of
(02:45):
advertising in the 1970s I'mgonna either demonstrate that
you didn't watch TV in the 1970sOkay, that's not true, but or
I'm gonna demonstrate that youhave a poor memory. That's
probably true. When I give thisone line, I have a feeling
you're gonna get it. Even thoughyou've never heard this person
(03:05):
talk, you probably don't evenknow what he looks like, and you
aren't in his target market atall. Okay, ready for the line.
Let's hear the line. If youdon't look good, we don't look
good.
Kelly (03:20):
Vil Sassoon, isn't that crazy
Alex (03:22):
dude, yeah, one line, you can't picture him, right? You've
never heard him talk. I bet he'shandsome. You're not, yeah,
yeah, good looking guy. You'renot in at all in his uh,
demographic, yeah? But Mr. VidalSassoon changed the world with a
pair of scissors.
Kelly (03:41):
Wow. So, so, first of all, I would have thought he was
with a name like that. I wouldhave thought he was Italian or
or Spanish or something, VidaSassoon.
Alex (03:51):
The name is actually Greek. I think Greek. His his
parents or his dad was Greek,but grew up in London, grew up
as a his dad was a Greekimmigrant,
Kelly (04:05):
and was that his real name? Oh, yeah, yeah, Dallas.
That's okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you don't look good, we don'tlook good.
Alex (04:12):
Before we get to that though, tell us, Kelly, a lot of
people listening don't even knowwhat you look like, but tell us
what your haircut history is. My
Kelly (04:24):
haircut history? Well, I started off, you know, like many
children do, with sparse hair,and then I grew into a very
blonde child with kind oflongish hair, and then I had a
period of mullet time duringhigh school and college where I
kind of had the business in thefront party in the back, a
little bit of curls, curl. Yeah,I remember a bunch is curls,
(04:46):
kind of curly hair. And then inmy probably 30s, as I started to
lose my hair, I had thisfascination with Dolph Lundgren.
Remember his haircut in Rockyfour where
Alex (04:58):
it was just short and.
Spiky, flat top,
Kelly (05:01):
spiky I wanted. I wanted that hair. I always thought that
was the coolest haircut ever,and I could never accomplish it
because of the curliness. So Ifinally just gave up, and now
just have to go really, reallyshort, I suppose to get well, I
do. I mean, my hair is my hairis a number one. My haircut
today is a number one. Butthat's more to fight baldness.
Here's the weird thing abouthaircuts, Alex, especially in
(05:22):
older men. And you know, I sayolder 50 something men, as you
start to lose your hair, whenyou grow your hair out, you look
more bald than when you shave itor cut it. I don't know why, but
when my hair gets long, what'snot there is painfully obvious.
But what is there is, is, islonger, but then when I cut it
(05:45):
super short, it I look like justkind of a tech bro, I guess. Did
Alex (05:51):
you ever dye your hair to achieve the
Kelly (05:55):
several times? Yes, really, dude, I did it. I dyed
your hair really. I've done it.
I I thought you knew this. Andthis is if my wife is probably
listening to this right now, andshe's probably laying next to me
in bed, because she goes tosleep listening to dirt nap city
sometimes. So Jody, if you're,if you're listening to this,
roll over and pat me on theback. She's
Alex (06:18):
never heard the end of this show, has she? She's, she's
never No,
Kelly (06:21):
no. It puts her right out. But it works, and she
enjoys the first five minutes,sure. But I dyed my hair right
before I got married, and so myhair was bleach blonde for not
only, I don't know, my bachelorparty, which was a snowboarding
trip, but also my wedding, myhair all my wedding pictures, I
(06:43):
was bleach blonde.
Alex (06:45):
And what were you trying to achieve? The Dolph Lundgren
thing, that was what you weretrying to,
Kelly (06:49):
um, I'm not sure, you know, I think I was pretty
young, and I thought it wouldlook good and, and a lot of my
family and Jody's family werestarting to second guess
whether, you know, I was marriedin material or not after I did
that, because you
Alex (07:04):
figured the bleach blonde was the that sell them. No, no,
Kelly (07:08):
no. Quite the opposite.
They were like, why did he dyehis hair right before the
wedding? Because it's like allmy wedding pictures, my hair is,
is bleach blonde. It worked forRyan
Alex (07:17):
Seacrest, you know? Why not? Wouldn't? Why wouldn't work
for you,
Kelly (07:22):
man, because I don't look good and you don't look good.
Nobody looks good when they'rearound me. I don't know. Man, it
was, I thought it looked Ithought it looked pretty cool,
but, but honestly, in hindsight,I could see where it was, maybe
a red flag for some of my wife'sfamily.
Alex (07:37):
Wow. So what we've just established, though, is the
importance of haircuts onsomebody's reputation,
somebody's looks. Yeah, just thewhole and I think what you'll
what I'll demonstrate about Mr.
Sassoon is that he changed thewhole culture. On on on
haircuts. Let me tell you alittle bit about this guy,
(07:58):
please. So he was born in Londonin 1928 to Jewish parents. His
father was a Greek Jew. Hismother was an English Jew, and
she emigrated from Russia, andhe lived in like a Greek Jewish
section of London. The fatherleft the whole family for
another woman when Vidal wasthree, and they were they had
(08:19):
money then, but then, when heleft, they basically were out on
the street. They becamehomeless, taken in by by one of
his mother's sisters. And sothere was seven people in a one
room house and no toilet. Thisis like pre war England, very
Dickensian, probably right,yeah, yeah. He had to, they had
(08:44):
to share a toilet with threeother families of like seven
people each. You know, that'srough.
Kelly (08:52):
Are we talking outhouse or indoor plumbing or do, you
know,
Alex (08:55):
I think it was like apartment, but there was like a
bathroom at the end of the hall.
Kelly (09:01):
Oh, so, like, all three families went down, so you had
to get in line, like, like adoor lane, like a dorm. I never
lived in the dorm.
Alex (09:10):
Yeah, we've already established that you're from the
elite, right, right? And they'reroof leaked, something that
you're never going toexperience. But they're, they're
hopefully not going forward, no.
And he said, when he wasremembering this, he said, you
know, all we could see from ourwindow was the grayness of the
tenement across the street.
(09:31):
There was ugliness all around.
You can kind of picture that prewar, yeah, England, it's just
gray, and everything's in blackand white, yeah, right. A lot of
a lot of bands, a lot of Britishbands, talk about growing up in
that kind of ugliness,monochromatic part of England
that just, there was no, nohope, just ugliness all around,
right, yeah. And they were sodestitute that eventually his
(09:56):
mom had to put him in a.
Orphanage. And I guess that'ssomething that people did back
then, when they when they justwere too poor to to have, you
know, and they'd have a lot ofkids, they would just, there was
a lot of orphanages around,yeah, so for seven years from
time he was four until he was11, um, he lived in an
(10:18):
orphanage. So he wasn't
Kelly (10:19):
actually technically an orphan, because his parents were
still alive. His mom was stillsort of taking care of him, but
he was shuffled off. Did shecall it like summer camp or
sleepover?
Alex (10:30):
She used to visit him once a month, but she wasn't allowed
to take him out of the building,so it was almost like he was in
jail, you know, like Kid jailuntil she finally remarried, and
then then they got him back,once they got money that he went
to a Christian school. But ofcourse, he was teased for being
(10:54):
Jewish, so that definitely hadan impact on him, and even his
teachers didn't really like himvery much. He was he said he was
a bad student, except for therewas a class they had called
mental arithmetic. This issomething that we didn't have in
school. I think it's so idea fora class is this
Kelly (11:15):
where you just do things in your head. You don't write it
out long form. Yes, they would
Alex (11:19):
ask you questions and you would do it in your head. No, so
he was good at a mentalarithmetic, and his teacher told
him, Sassoon, it's a pleasure tosee that you have gaps of
intelligence between bouts ofignorance.
Kelly (11:33):
Wow, that is a I guess that teacher didn't write a
recommendation.
Alex (11:38):
So his, you know, kids at school, and they teased him. His
teacher didn't like him. Youknow, it was rough, rough
growing up, and then, as ifthings couldn't get worse, in
1939 when he was 11, World WarTwo broke out
Kelly (11:56):
in Europe. Did he become an ambulance driver? No,
Alex (12:00):
but he was his school was evacuated by or he was
evacuated. All the Jewish kidsin the neighborhood were
evacuated by train to adifferent part of England or
different part of London. Maybehe came back to London three
years later when he was 14, butit was still during the war. It
(12:22):
was rough times in in London atthe time, think about how
uncertain everything was. Theydidn't know they were going to
win the war. I mean, no, andLondon was constantly getting,
you know, bombed, and it wasawful. His mom wanted him to be
a hairdresser, that's where, andI don't know why she thought
that that was a good route forhim, but he wanted to play
(12:43):
soccer, but she insisted ontaking him to hairdressing
school.
Kelly (12:51):
Did he get teased about that at that point? Who cares?
Right, right, right, you'realready teased about everything
else. Just Just go with it.
Well, it was a two year
Alex (12:59):
program, and it was a little more expensive than they
thought it was going to be. Sothey left. But then as they're
walking out the door, the headof the school said, Come back
here. He says, You You have verygood manners. Start Monday and
forget the cost. It's on me. Oh,and so he went to hairdressing
(13:21):
school, and really liked it. Andyou know what he did that was
kind of cool, is that topractice his his skills, he
would go down to Skid Row.
That's the real Skid Row inLondon, and what once a week,
and he would give free haircutsto the homeless people in in
London, on skid row to practice.
(13:41):
They're getting a haircut. He'slearning it sounds like a win,
win, yeah. Well, when he was 20years old, he he actually went
on a kibbutz and fought in theArab Israeli war. I mean, that
was the war that established theState of Israel. He said that
(14:02):
was the best year of his life.
He said, here we have, you know,2000 years of our people being
put down, and we have a nationthat's rising up. So he loved
that experience, and it wasreally formative for him. He
kind of felt a sense of purpose.
But then came back to Englandand trained as a hairdresser
(14:26):
under a guy named RaymondBasson. Now we wouldn't know
this, because we didn't grow upback then, but in the 1950s uh,
Raymond Basson was a famoushairdresser, probably the first
famous hairdresser.
Kelly (14:40):
Can you name a famous hairdresser from the 2000 20s?
Alex (14:47):
No, okay, but this guy, his name was Raymond bassoon,
but people know him as Mr.
Tweezy. I.
Kelly (15:00):
Yeah, wow, yeah, Mr.
Tweezy.
Alex (15:02):
Or some people called him tz Weezy Raymond, but he was
this guy, and he would have thisfake French accent. And was he
English or American? He wasEnglish, but he had fake French.
Everyone thought he was Frenchbecause he'd walk around with
this fake French accent. And hewas the person that actually
developed the bouffant hair,hair,
Kelly (15:21):
hair, stuff. Teasy, Wheezy, because he teased the
hair. Did you
Alex (15:25):
just get that? Yeah, you thought it because he teased
videl so soon, yeah?
Kelly (15:28):
I thought maybe you know he everybody else is making fun
of him,
Alex (15:32):
no, because he teased the hair. Yeah? Okay, so the
bouffant, if you can picture theBucha, yeah, hairstyle that was
very big in the 1950s Right,right. Um, think Alice from The
Brady Bunch, right? Yeah,
Kelly (15:46):
yeah, she had the bouffant. I think, I think Mrs.
Brady did too,
Alex (15:49):
sure, the B 50 twos little fair, yeah, yeah, they rocked
that for years. But that waskind of in camp. Yeah,
Kelly (15:58):
they were, they were doing it to be ironic or retro
or whatever, but, right? Yeah,
Alex (16:03):
but this was a real thing, and that's how most women wore
their hair. Before that, it was,you know, going to the beauty
parlor and wearing curls likeyour great grandparents would
have. And you know about that,women would have to go once a
week. They'd go to the beautyparlor dryers that went over
their head, and you wouldn'twash your hair the rest of the
(16:25):
week. And you go to the beautyparlor, like every Friday or
something, and they would washyour hair and set it and you
didn't mess with it the rest ofthe week, right? You'd take a
shower with a shower cap. You'dsleep with the head covering on,
and you would just have thisstyle that was just set like a
hat.
Kelly (16:45):
That's my style, like a hat. Well,
Alex (16:47):
then when, when teasy Weezy came along, that kind of
gave a little glam to the to thehairstyle. But still, I think it
was still, you know, a once aweek Production and kind of a
set kind of thing. Okay? Well,our boy opened his salon in 1954
and he His thing was, he wantedto get to the basics of like the
(17:12):
angles of the head and the cutand the shape, and really do
some artistic things, but alsosomething that was more modern
and low maintenance. So he wouldHis thing was like geometric
shapes
Kelly (17:28):
hair, or men's hair, but women's, women's hair, okay,
okay, so that was a lot of work,and he wanted something a little
low maintenance, but stilllooked good.
Alex (17:37):
I think in the 1950s there was no men's cuts. Every guy had
the high, tight, yeah, you know,I don't think, I mean, this was
before, unless you were ahippie. But in the 50s, in 1954
I don't think anybody wasrocking long hair. Any men were
rocking long hair, because theBeatles came around, like 10
years later with the long hair.
But I think in the 50s, therewas no like, variety of men's
(18:02):
hairstyles. You were either highand tight or bald. Hmm, okay,
and everyone wore hats, so itdidn't
Kelly (18:10):
matter. Yeah, it sounds like me. Man, maybe I was born
too late. But think
Alex (18:14):
about it, men, until JFK came along and they, they say
that he was the first guy tolike, not he didn't wear a hat,
and that kind of started thetrend and made it okay to not
wear a hat. But if you look atlike people, like pictures of
baseball games in the stands inthe 50s, like every man wore a
(18:35):
hat back then. So yeah, I guesshairstyle really didn't matter
to men. Well, he was not onlyinterested in, like, the
geometric shapes of hair, but hewas also interested in, um, not
putting a lot of product inhere, that the hair has a
natural shine, right? And so thehair that they called it
(18:57):
lacquer, that people women wouldput in their hair to, like, give
it this artificial shine
Kelly (19:02):
and and also, probably, to keep it rigid, right, to keep
it in
Alex (19:05):
Yeah, probably, but it would just like, kind of look
porcelain, you know, um, so hecame up with the idea of, like,
what he called wash and wearhair, yeah, that a woman could
shake her head and it would fallback in place, yeah, you Know,
Kelly (19:20):
whether it was yes or no, however, she shook her head.
Alex (19:23):
However, whatever I'm talking about is how pretty much
everybody wears their hair now,right? But nobody wore their
hair back then, like he waschanged the world with a pair of
scissors. The other thing aboutwash and wear is that you only
needed to get it cut every sixweeks, not every week, right? So
(19:44):
this was a big deal that, youknow, women were starting, you
know, this is post war now,starting back, starting
workforce, starting to go in theworkplace for the first time.
Yeah, yeah, it's a big deal. Sothe hair style, the modern
hairstyle. Kind of mirrored whatwas going on and made it easier
for their their kind of newlives. The big thing that he
(20:06):
came up with was called the Fivepoint haircut. Anybody that's in
haircut cutting business willtell you they know what the five
point cut is, and it was, soit's like an asymmetrical think
about a bowl cut, and then,like, it's shifted a little
where one ends a little longer,and then the five points is like
(20:30):
one point in the front, two oneach one on each side, and then
two at the nape of the neck,kind of making, like a inverted
U shape. And then, okay, theneck, okay. He also created the
bob cut. So these are, yeah, sothese are, all of a sudden women
are getting short haircuts. Youknow that they only have to get
(20:52):
recut every six weeks. Absoluterevolution changed everything,
and it was his invention. Heopened his first US salon in
1965 on Madison Avenue in NewYork, and within five years, he
had one in Toronto, one inBeverly Hills, and he also had
(21:13):
his own hairdressing school inLondon. Were
Kelly (21:17):
they? Were they called Vidal Sassoon? Yeah, the salons,
okay, yeah.
Alex (21:21):
But his big break came in in like 1968 the movie
Rosemary's Baby. Have you everseen that movie?
Kelly (21:32):
No, but was it Sharon Tate, no. Mia Farrow. Mia
Farrow, okay,
Alex (21:38):
and if you could picture Mia Farrow, she had this real
short haircut, like real tightpixie is what we'd call it,
pixie cut, right? He was paid bythe director of the movie. He
was paid $5,000 which should belike $45,000 today, to create a
(22:01):
unique haircut for her for thatmovie. And he created Wow pixie
cut. Wanted something that thatworked for him, so he moved. He
moved to LA in 1970 he saw thatthis is, you know, this was very
lucrative. Everyone in BeverlyHills wanted him a stylist
Kelly (22:20):
or absolutely personal hairdresser. And
Alex (22:25):
then in 1973 somebody told him, you know, actually, I think
Michael King, the actor, takescredit for for this because he
was his roommate. For somereason, that's random. Yeah, you
see, it's whenever you readabout celebrities from right?
Kelly (22:41):
They always encountered each other somewhere, yeah, and
Alex (22:46):
it's always these, these throwaway stories where somebody
so Michael Caine claims that hetold him, you know, what you
really got to do is start a haircare product line. Yeah, you
gotta start selling shampoos andconditioners. And that was
something, I mean, think aboutit. We went from once a week
going to the beauty parlor,where somebody else would take
(23:08):
care of you. Now you got to takecare of your own hair. You got
to wash it, you know, everyother day, washing wear. And
that's part of it, right? And soyou got to, you got to put
product. You got to use shampoosand conditioners. Well, he was,
you know, right place, righttime, Michael Caine told him to
do it, so that's where it reallytook off, right? You could
(23:29):
probably picture the videlSassoon bottles of shampoo,
yeah. You could picture hislogo, right? They black and
white, I think, yeah. And Ithink he had a logo with, like,
uh, kind of a double Yeah, yeah.
Um, he was so famous that in1980 they even gave him his own
talk show. For, didn't, didn'tlast very long, but it's called
(23:49):
your new day when he wouldinterview people like for,
Kelly (23:54):
he'd probably have a podcast today. Absolutely, yeah,
jerks,
Alex (23:58):
always have a podcast. Um, by 1982 Vidal Sassoon was raking
in about $110 million in sales ayear. Wow, mostly in, mostly in
the US too. And he got so richthat he was able to go back to
(24:19):
Jerusalem and establish theVidal Sassoon International
Center for the Study of antisemitism, which still exists to
this day, and does really coolwork in Sociology and
anthropology and criminology andjust studying anti semitism. It
(24:43):
funds a lot of great research onon hate and the rise of of hate
crimes and things like that. Soit's really a, like a vital
Kelly (24:56):
or a or a Vidal. Oh, good, good. I
Alex (24:59):
see what you did there.
Yeah. Yeah, it's really a coolthing that that exists. Still,
Kelly (25:02):
this mission is very vider, that we accomplish this.
And you know,
Alex (25:07):
you say you haven't heard him talk, and maybe you have,
and he was in some of hiscommercials, but he didn't
really have a British accent. Ithink originally, he had, like,
a Cockney accent.
Kelly (25:17):
So he tried to get rid of that. He did
Alex (25:19):
get rid of it and wasn't popped up, ended up being more
like what we'd call likecontinental or mid Continental,
where you can't really tellwhere somebody's from. They just
sound like they're rich. Youknow what? I mean?
Kelly (25:31):
Yeah, like you and me.
Yeah, sure.
Alex (25:35):
Well, he sold the product line to Proctor and Gamble in
1984 but you know, he wasactually, remember, on a
previous episode, you talkedabout the Order of the British
Empire and how you could beknighted. Yeah, somebody calls
you sir, right? He got thecommander he was. He was deemed
(25:59):
a Commander of the Order ofBritish Empire. CBE, not a OBE,
so he wasn't, you can't call himsir. It's just the one right
below
Kelly (26:08):
that. Okay, yeah, he's the guy that cuts the SIRs
haircut. Hairs, yeah. PaulMcCartney, right, John, right,
right, right. He cuts all theKnights hairs.
Alex (26:17):
Um, 2009 I think even Michael Caine might have that.
They might have leapfrogged himand got the order. I think he
might be sir. Michael Caine, ifI'm not mistaken. Wow,
Kelly (26:27):
okay, yeah, talk about, I mean, who'd have known all those
years ago when those guys wereup late playing video games and
drinking beer, you know? Andthen there
Alex (26:37):
was a lot of drinking beer, yeah, 2009 is when he got
the CBE. You know, he wrote his,he wrote an autobiography, 1968
so he hadn't even really made it
Kelly (26:51):
huge, as he wasn't at the top of his, at the top of his
fame. And I mean
Alex (26:56):
the commercials, if you don't look good, we don't look
good. That was 1976 Okay, so1968 he was famous enough to
write his own autobiography. AndI love the title of this book.
It was called, sorry, I kept youwaiting, madam.
Kelly (27:13):
Yeah, I guess he had to say that a lot. That was
probably in his vocabulary.
Alex (27:17):
Think about it, yeah, you're waiting. You have a four
o'clock appointment, right? Herolls out at 420 and what does
he say, Dude, it's 420 Allright, 415
Kelly (27:30):
he says, The shortest word in the English language.
You know what? That is, sethere.
Alex (27:38):
Let's say he comes out at 415 okay. And he says, Sorry, I
kept you waiting, madam, yeah,
Kelly (27:44):
yeah, in his in his posh, can't identify where it's from,
accent, right? I really want tohear his voice now see what it
was like.
Alex (27:53):
Yeah, it was very smooth, like you said. He was a good
looking dude, very tan, yeah,already had, like, you know,
olive skin, right? Yeah. Sovery, very tan. Had nice,
beautiful gray hair as he as hegot older, yeah, yeah. They made
(28:13):
a documentary about him in 2010and it was called the del
Sassoon, the movie how one manchanged the world where the
Paris scissors, Oh, that wasn't,that wasn't me saying, yeah,
Kelly (28:25):
it was that's, that's great, though it's a great
title. But, you
Alex (28:29):
know, the legacy that this guy left was blending, like
men's haircuts now, yeah,blending edges, layers to the
hair, like all that, shaping andgeometry and all that stuff, and
not when you think about it.
When you look at movies from the40s and 50s, all the men kind of
have the same look, and all thewomen that kind of have the same
(28:53):
look. Not only was it liberatingfor them Nick but it was also
opportunity for people to havetheir own individual cuts, you
know, by breaking out of thateasy Weezy mode.
Kelly (29:07):
Like I said, I have rocked the mullet for a while,
and I'm, I wouldn't do it anyother way. That's, that's, that
was my look. That was my jam. Imean, I guess if I could have
done the Dolph Lundgren thing, Iwould have but I did never get
there.
Alex (29:22):
Now, Kelly, we're 35 minutes in, so your wife is
asleep right now. Yes, yeah. Solet me, let me ask you this,
what kind of hair do you like onwomen? Oh, what's your favorite
kind of cut? Well,
Kelly (29:36):
you know, I'm not big on the fussy haircuts, so I think
something that's wash and wear.
Alex (29:43):
What would you consider fussy? Oh, anything. So, so you
know what a blowout is. I'veheard of it, but I couldn't tell
you. I know these salons haveplaces
Kelly (29:52):
there are, and I think it's a Brazilian thing, right?
You go in for a blowout whereall they do is use the blow
dryer to kind. Kind of fluffyour hair up when this, this is
back to those days when they'llgo in once a week, or, you know,
every two weeks, to have ablowout, to make their hair. And
I guess there's a way to make itstay that way for a while, and
Alex (30:12):
it looks, ends up looking like, like you're in a hair
metal band. Yes,
Kelly (30:18):
yes, like you're, you're the lead guitarist for poison or
rat or shirt like that. Sure.
Alex (30:25):
Damn Yankees. I
Kelly (30:27):
do like it. Pulled back, I can see short hair looking
good, you know, I guess if onething I like about what my wife
does is she changes it up prettyoften, like she'll she'll do it
differently on different days.
It's not always the same.
Alex (30:42):
So you can feel like you're with somebody else.
Kelly (30:46):
I hope she's asleep.
Jody, if you're still awake,please don't hit me. So let me
ask you a question, how oftenyou get your No, I'm not gonna
ask anything about Tracy. Howoften do you get your hair cut?
Alex (31:02):
About every six weeks?
Okay? And
Kelly (31:05):
how often do you wash your hair every single day,
every day, huh? Because isn'tthat sort of advice really?
Alex (31:15):
Because I feel well, I'd never take a shower without
washing my hair and the showerevery day there's there would
never be a time where I wouldnot wash my hair if I'm in the
shower. That's ridiculous. You
Kelly (31:25):
know, I remember this really awesome shampoo that you
discovered. It's, it's GirlScout, Thin Mint shampoo.
Alex (31:34):
Native brand is called native, okay,
Kelly (31:38):
okay. Is that your favorite type of shampoo. It
Alex (31:41):
actually is, yeah, really, because it smells like no, not
the No, I actually use adifferent scent, but native is
good brand, yeah, like it, hey,hey, if you're listening and
you're from native, throw ussomething a little Yeah,
Kelly (31:56):
yeah. We definitely talk about our hair every episode, if
you gave us some sponsorship.
Alex (32:02):
Every episode features some sham we would we'll go back
from your earlier episodes andput in if you want to know,
we'll talk about typhoid Mary'shair style, right? We'll just
insert that stuff into oldepisodes if you want to throw us
some something.
Kelly (32:21):
So I had heard that washing your hair every day
dries it out. And not, not thatI have a whole lot of hair to
Alex (32:27):
I was gonna say, but you don't have hair and I do. So why
are you telling me what's badfor me? Whatever I'm doing
works.
Kelly (32:34):
It's true. Mine's all mine's all falling out. So okay,
no, I'll go with that. I'll gowith that. We're not going to
get into hygiene too much. Ifyou want to hear about our
hygiene, listen to the TyphoidMary episode, because we did
talk a lot about hand washingand bathing and stuff like that
in that episode. But Idefinitely don't wash my hair
every day. I intentionally,like, if I'm I'll take a longer
(32:56):
shower after a couple of days.
And then there are days I don'tif I didn't do anything that
really got me sweaty, and thenthere are days that I'll just
rinse off quickly, you know? So
Alex (33:06):
I'll tell you what. I love the feeling of getting my hair
washed. I don't know if it takesme back to when I was a kid, my
mom would wash my hair, but man,there's nothing better than
rolling up at a hair cuttingplace, putting your hair in that
sink, and they make the water,oh, yeah, man. And, and then
they gently massage that scalpwhere it's, it's, it's almost
(33:31):
like their nails are in it, butnot they back off a little,
yeah, yeah. And it's such a goodfeeling. There's nothing better
than getting your hair washed.
Man, that's the height ofluxury. That's a height of
luxury. I see why all thesekings and and noblemen that you
always talk about why that'sthat's something that they
strive for. I
Kelly (33:50):
have not had that done in probably 10 years because I have
not had my hair cut by anyoneother than my wife who just,
it's just the number one guardon the razor the backyard.
Alex (34:03):
Wow. So during COVID, my wife attempted to cut my hair.
She bought a hair cutting set onAmazon. I sat in the bathroom. I
sat on a swivel chair when I'mprobably the one I'm sitting in
right now, and the little kiteven came with a cape. Oh, she
(34:26):
was so excited. She got thesescissors and and she was real
excited about getting the tools.
And then when it came time toactually do it, it was a
disaster. And I'm always verytalented a lot of areas,
smartest person I've ever met,but it was a struggle, man, to
cut my hair. First of all, shewould always have me hold all
(34:46):
the stuff she wasn't using. Soyou
Kelly (34:49):
were probably a picky little bitch the whole time too.
It was awful. Actually,
Alex (34:53):
I was laughing through the whole thing, and then she would
look at and she just did such abad job of it. But. It I was at
the time I was teaching on Zoom,so it didn't really matter what
the back of my head looked like.
So we only cared about right inthe front leg, good. So the back
was a disaster. We both agreedthat it really didn't matter
what the back of it looked like,right? But it was already in
(35:16):
party in the back, and shecouldn't wait until I went and
got but I think she did it twoor three times, and it was a
mess. Yeah, it was, it was fun,though. It was funny, good, good
memories on that. I never gotmad about that. I didn't care.
Yeah, now what you already kindof told me that you like, I was
gonna say, what kind of hair doyou like on men? Like, what do
(35:39):
you think is a good a goodhaircut? But I think you're, you
already told me your ideal iskind of the dolphin, Dolph
Lundgren. How do you feel aboutdudes with long hair? Like, do
you get jealous of that? Or doyou, what do you think about
that?
Kelly (35:56):
You know, I think certain people could really rock that.
But like, if you're going baldat all. You got to just get rid
of it. Like you really can't dothe the sort of drape down over
the shoulders with nothing uptop that. Yeah, you cannot do
that. You can't do the Bf,
Alex (36:13):
what? What guys do you think have good hair?
Kelly (36:17):
Well, the guy from the commercials of Dos Equis, the
most interesting man in theworld, or is that modelo?
Alex (36:27):
No, that's, that's, that's a while ago, but that's, that's
just a good beard
Kelly (36:33):
he has. He has that curly Gray, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I
just watched this movie calledwolves, and George Clooney has
really great hair. And again,that's, that's kind of gray,
gray hair. Trying to think of ayounger person that you know,
kind of like Billy corgan'sLook, if you know, completely
(36:54):
bald, shiny, shiny bald head.
Yeah, yeah. Dave Grohl had somebeautiful hair back in the day,
and he still has decent hair.
Alex (37:02):
So, so, yeah, you hadn't listed anybody with long hair.
But okay, no, oh,
Kelly (37:06):
Dave Grohl. I mean, if you first of all, Dave Grohl was
a handsome, very handsome fellowback in the nerve
Alex (37:13):
I think he got better looking with age, actually,
really, he's better looking nowthan he did was in Nirvana,
including
Kelly (37:19):
his hair. Though, did you ever see his hair back? Yeah, he
had good hair, for sure. Andthen I'm gonna give it a shout
out to my neighbor, Patrick. SoPatrick lives kitty corner
behind us, like kind of cattycorner behind us, and Patrick
has long braids. And I thinkPatrick must be partly Native
American because he has justlong, beautiful, braided hair
(37:40):
and a full head of hair, andhe's my age, or maybe a little
bit younger, but yeah, Patrick,Patrick, my neighbor,
Alex (37:48):
yeah. How about you? I never was able to grow long
hair. My hair doesn't grow down.
It grows out like a Yeah, same,same. So I was always kind of
jealous of people I would haveliked to experiment with long
hair at some point in my life,and never got to. It also
wouldn't grow real straight. Itwould and but it wasn't curly
(38:10):
either. It would just grow out.
But like Eddie Vetter, I thinkis somebody in the 90s that had
really, really anybody thatcould kind of toss their hair.
Yeah, I was jealous of like,yeah. Like Anthony Kiedis, oh
no, or Eddie Vedder being ableto walk around on the stage and
just flip your hair around wasalways a really, I would have
(38:34):
liked to experience that once ortwice. You're
Kelly (38:36):
familiar with the band, Soul asylum, yeah. So Dave
Perner is their singer's name.
And I went to see them once, andhe kept doing this thing, and we
called it the helicopter, wherehe was spinning his head around.
Yeah, his hair was just goinglike a helicopter blade in a
circle. Yes, that's kind ofcool.
Alex (38:53):
And like you, I always thought that long braids or
dreadlocks was always reallycool. I always, I always, I
think Bob Marley had really coolhair. Yeah, yeah, I would have
loved to have but, you know,doesn't, not everyone could pull
that stuff off. No,
Kelly (39:12):
no, you have to, yeah, you definitely have to own it.
And I, I feel like we're alittle old to get in that game
at this point,
Alex (39:22):
probably, probably, yeah, we're probably stuck with what
we rock now, for sure.
Kelly (39:27):
So, so what? What were Vidal's latest like in his
latest years? Anything you knowis, he said he was given a honor
by the queen or by the Britishgovernment. He moved to LA. He
was, did he? Did he have anysort of famous marriages or
affairs with people or anything?
Alex (39:47):
No, well, probably, but we won't get into that. But, you
know, no, what happened wasProctor and Gamble, kind of
mismanaged, in his opinion,mismanaged the brand. Oh,
Kelly (40:00):
so it ended up tasting like glue.
Alex (40:04):
Oh, shout out to the old Colonel Sanders episode two. No,
he said that they didn't put asmuch marketing energy into the
Vidal Sassoon brand, you know, abig company like Procter and
Gamble that's just anothershampoo that they have, you
know. And at the time, he saidthey favored Pantene over over
(40:28):
his, yeah. And he actually suedthem, because he said that, you
know, that wasn't part of thedeal. I wasn't just gonna sell
this to you so you My name's onthis still, you know, you could,
so you could destroy my name.
And they really kind of ran thatinto the ground. He also had one
of his assistants named PaulMitchell, got big on, kind of
went his own way and did his ownthing. And Paul Mitchell designs
(40:53):
and Paul Mitchell hair productsis something you
Kelly (40:58):
still see, oh, yeah, that's probably bigger than
Vidal Sassoon, now,
Alex (41:01):
probably now, yeah, for sure. In fact, when you said,
who's another famoushairstylist, that's the one that
I was come up with. That justgoes to show you the fact that
we can't name one of howimpressive he was. You know, I
mean, it was Mr. Teasy, easy,right? Videl Sassoon, Paul
Mitchell, Paul Mitchell, it'sbasically it. Now I'm sure that
(41:24):
if the Holy Trinity, yeah, if wewere in the business, I'm sure
that if we, even if we wereadjacent to the business, if we
were actors, we would probablyknow who the big hair stylists
in Hollywood. I mean, that'syour those are probably famous
people in that world, in thatindustry, this guy transcended
all that. He wasn't just a haircutting, cutting Mia Farrow's
(41:50):
hair, but he was influencingpeople all over the world and
especially in the US, like allthe haircuts today are still
from the DNA from of the fivepoint cut and and, I mean, I
just think that his legacy can'tbe overstated, that he was, um,
(42:12):
like, responsible for the modernlook that we think of attractive
people these days. If you watchan old movie, those people look
different. They look likethey're from a different planet
then. And, but if you watch amovie from the 70s, those are
just styles that keep coming andgoing, you know what? I mean,
yeah, and, and from the 80s, Imean, those things come and go,
(42:33):
but they're all like adescendant of this guy's look.
So he had a enormous impact onthe 20th and 21st century, what
we consider to be attractivelooks. So
Kelly (42:47):
next time I squirt some shampoo into my hair, I will
raise a toast to Mr. VidalSassoon. What are you doing
every month or so, every month,every month and a half, you're
not one of these guys that says,oh, you know, I've heard that
horse shampoo is really
Alex (43:02):
because they saw that too, you know, no,
Kelly (43:05):
no, I think, I think we're rocking, actually, some
Pantene.
Alex (43:10):
All right. Native, forever. Native, let's do this.
Get us on your, uh, advertiserslist,
Kelly (43:17):
yeah, we will definitely use your product and talk about
it. And, and, you know, withwith faces like these, which you
probably can't see becauseyou're listening to a podcast,
you're gonna want to work withus,
Alex (43:27):
yeah? But you know, if you don't look good, yeah, we don't
look good.
Kelly (43:33):
Bye.
Unknown (43:38):
Little on his scissors, was born in England fair, till
he gave that Skid Row bum asmile and went and cut his hair.
He grew up four, but old, vitalhad a dream. He became a legend,
and his hair was always clean.
Before vital came to town, mostmen wore a hat, and the women
(44:01):
went to the salon, eating cheeseand getting fat, and it's all
because he cut that Skid Rowbum's hair. He did it on a dare.
Please tell me the story of aDale who invented wash and wear.
He changed the world withscissors until everyone looked
(44:22):
grand. He inspired Paul Mitchelland Dave Groh to start a punk
rock band by vital Sassoon. Heinvented all the popular styles,
Buzz cuts, bowl cuts, bobs andcheese. Oh, don't offer him a
blowout cause that just makeshim sneeze. Oh. Vidal Saum got
(44:43):
his hair cut. Vidal and hisscissors. His family came from
Greece. His family's very richthese days, especially his
niece, other brothers, sis. Hisbrother, mother's cousin's
uncle's dog is even lookingplease these days like a mullet
(45:04):
on a frog. Soon, you know, Buzzcuts, low cuts, bobs and Ts
there was before offer him ablowout. It's time for him to go
out soon. Got hishair cut. When all of this was
(45:39):
finished, he came up with thesewords, if you don't look good,
we don't look bad. Hair is forthe birds.
(46:05):
Air. When all of this wasfinished, he came up with these
words, if you don't look good,We don't look good. Bad hair is
(46:30):
for the birds.
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