Knoxville hairdresser remembers and credits Vidal Sassoon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE;
If we were to credit one person for the way your hair looks today, it would not be you OR even your hairdresser! To credit one person for the current landscape in which the hairdressing industry looks today, would be to credit Vidal Sassoon. Vidal Sassoon was to hairdressing what Abe Lincoln was to slavery. Vidal Sassoon was more than a man, a soldier or a hairdresser, he held a vision that revolutionized an industry. Sassoon grew up an impoverished and orphaned childhood in Great
Britain. Vidal saw husbands and sons go off to war, leaving the responsibility to keep a nation running to the British women. The wives and mothers took employment in the factories and offices, as a nation was changed forever.
With women in the workplace, Vidal saw the need and offered a ”wash and wear” philosophy, liberating women from the weekly trip to the beauty parlor to have their “hair teased into a frenzy”. While that sounds so ‘common sense’ by today’s standards it sounded like an exercise in insanity if you were a practicing beautician of the day, mid 1950′s in Europe. How would you like to live on 1/5 of your income OR pay 5 times as much for your hair service? In the beehive world, if you worked 40 hours a week you needed a clientele of about 40 women, then you repeated that cycle week after week. With the ”wash and wear” approach you went to the salon once every 4 to 6 weeks. These were 2 very different schools of thought, while 1 war (WWII) had just concluded another was about to begin.
Begin it did. Salons became divided, hairdressers walked out after years of employment to open new salons with different rules of client engagement. This revolution pitted hairdresser against hairdresser, friend against friend. What was at stake was old vs. new. The old was represented by superfluous shapes held together with hairspray and backcombing requiring a weekly tune-up, while the new was championed by Sassoon’s vision of “wash and wear” simplicity combined with healthy hair. We know today what the British women chose for their future. What has remained far less clear is how WWII set the table for a revolution so dramatic that we still embrace it today.
Scott Stuart recounts,”It is a funny thing how the universe works. I had just decided that it is not likely that I would not likely meet Vidal Sassoon in our lifetimes. Then, I had the opportunity of my lifetime to meet Vidal Sassoon while attending a business only seminar in San Francisco. In the moment I knew I would meet Vidal, I worried what I would do for the rest of my career if he was not a nice person. I am still doing hair today with the satisfaction of knowing Vidal Sassoon as one of the most humble, well-mannered and charismatic people I have ever met.”
Stuart has worked as a hairdresser since graduation from his Pennsylvania high school in 1974. Stuart credits the ‘Hair Revolution’ initiated by Vidal Sassoon as the reason for his love of the beauty business. Stuart has been a student at Vidal Sassoon Academies in London, England as well as Los Angeles, CA. Stuart is co-owner of Metropolis Hair Fashions, Knoxville, TN. Stuart is responsible for offering PROseminars’ classes presented by some of the world’s greatest hairdressing educator’s for Knoxville area stylists to attend and learn every Spring and Fall.
Fine hair is the greatest candidate for static, it exists in the absence of the medulla and is the reason for the finer, thinner texture. Over the years we have found that KIWI shampoo and FlorAroma’s replenish conditioner often are a great combination in controlling STATIC. Since our products are great and they are guaranteed you have nothing to lose except the STATIC.
It’s January and the brisk SNAP of cold is in the Tennessee air. Before you know it you will realize the CHAP of winter’s cold in your hands and lips. Then suddenly, as if on cue, your hair that had behaved so well when there was humidity in the air, is STATIC-CHARGED and bearing resemblance to Al Einstein.
Our most recent PROseminars brought Fall colors, exciting new cuts and a renewed excitement for hair! Alex Hardy and Brian & Tracey Smith-Grieve offered their A-Game with cutting techniques like the triple C, refreshing color ideas and a level of expertise that is second to none. During a hands-on class with Alex, the Metropolis staff were introduced to the shiatsu stress relieving scalp message. So many clients have raved about the ‘out of this world experience’, at your request we have created an expanded selection of shiatsu therapies for your consideration:
It was just a regular day for the staff at Metropolis Hair Fashions on Kingston Pike; regular that is until a familiar face walked through the door. The man dressed in Wrangler jeans, boots and a gray t-shirt was as unsuspecting as the next guy except for the fact you can see him on T.V. every week. His name is Muse Watson and he’s been a long-time client of Metropolis Salon. Actually, the entire Watson family, Muse, his wife and daughter, are clients of the Salon.