I had the pleasure of working at the Vidal Sassoon New Bond Street Salon (in London) from 1960 until 1971, I then moved to the USA to help begin the “Sassoon” revolution, which became the bible of haircutting for the professional hair industry. I left the Sassoon organization in 1976, but I still keep in touch with as many of the original “Sassooners” as possible. Vidal was my friend and mentor and we spoke often. My philosophy and standards were established by Vidal and the team and I am proud to continue the same in my business and life.
I also owe a great debt of gratitude and thanks to another one of my Sassoon mentors, Robert Edele who believed in me when I was a kid and he gave me the opportunity to come to America and help him open up the first advanced hair cutting academy in San Francisco for Sassoon. Many of our industry “icons” were trained at that school (on Ellis Street) as we began to teach a system of haircutting and styling that would change the USA (and the world) forever.
As the years progressed we hired new teachers and brought over from the UK others. Robert Edele was the President of the salons and academies. He truly was one of the originals, as he was with the Sassoon organization from the very beginning and stayed there for over 30 years. He is known as the father of Sassoon Education. Robert has since passed away, but will always be remembered.
Sadly, Vidal too passed away in 2011, he was living in Los Angeles with his wife Ronnie, he is greatly missed by me and many others, but his spirit lives within us all.
I continue to stay in touch with his children Elan & Eden as well as his ex-wife and an icon too, Beverly Sassoon.
Send me a message, I’d love to hear from you too…were you there???
Hey Tony,
My name is Ian Levinson and I’m a 25 year old barber/men’s hairdresser based in upstate, New York. I recently stumbled upon you and your story as one of the original Sassoon stylists. I’ve been barbering for the past 5 years now and in recent years I started to make a complete shift towards hairdressing after getting into education. My quest for truth and understanding has lead me towards a deeper discovery and more meaningful development of this passion for hair cutting. As a result of this autodidactic journey, I have arrived at hairdressing’s most revolutionary period (the 1960’s). In recent months I have become completely enthralled with the history of hairdressing and all things Vidal Sassoon. I was wondering if you could just tell me your own personal account of what it was like being part of such a revolutionary and remarkable time and movement in this fine industry. The other night I was watching an old video where Christopher Brooker had said that many of the old techniques that Vidal had picked up from Raymond Bessone that he was using in the early days of Sassoon were now “gone” or “lost”. I was wondering if you could elaborate on this and explain anything you can remember about these techniques. Regardless, thank you so much for being someone who has had a hand in shaping this industry and inspiring generations even to this day.
Kindest Regards,
Ian Levinson
I remember Tony Beckerman from the Rosalie Cantrell days with Arthur Treble & Graham Breakwell educational hair shows & in Hawaii.
Just awesome!
Glad to see Tony still making history.
Best wishes,
Suzanne Dupree