Sassoon Salon goes for the gold with Olympic inspirations

Editor's note: We were saddened to hear about Vidal Sassoon's passing on May 9 in Los Angeles. To honor his career, we took a look back at highlights and some of his most iconic cuts.


Bronze, silver, and gold tones, round shapes, and natural movement are some of the features of the new Olympic-inspired Sassoon Salon Spring/Summer collection: Athletica.

Cole Thompson, the new Boston creative director at Sassoon, sat down with us to discuss the salon's summer direction.

“We’re really tapping into that high-fashion, but still wearable, contemporary look,” Thompson said. “We believe that’s gonna be huge this summer with the Olympics.”

He said many fashion designers were inspired by sporty styles to create high fashion versions of athletic looks for the runway. This season, Sassoon's creative team was inspired to follow the trend with cuts for the Athletica collection.

“In terms of technically with the haircuts, we were really inspired by the Olympic rings, so all of the hair curvature and all of the haircuts are very rounded with lots of movement,” Thompson said.

An additional source of inspiration for the creative team was the imagery of women in sports throughout the decades, beginning with vaulting in the early 1900s. Sassoon’s relationship with the Olympics dates back to 1984, when Vidal Sassoon cut the famous bob for gold medal figure skater, Dorothy Hamill.

The Athletica collection includes mostly short versatile styles that can work for all hair types. Thompson stressed that the Sassoon technique is customizable and a stylist can easily adapt a haircut from the collection for anyone’s personal lifestyle and hair type, including customers with longer length preferences.

To wrap things up, Thompson provided us with tips for keeping your hair healthy throughout the summer:

Problem: Sun exposure
Solution: Use products with UV protection. If you're going to be swimming, make sure to find a product that is also waterproof.

Problem: Greasiness
Solution: Only use conditioner from the mid-lengths to the ends, not many people need to apply it directly onto the root. If you have naturally oily hair, a color treatment will also help absorb some of the excess oil.

Problem: Dry, frizzy hair
Solution: Search for moisturizing products or visit a salon for treatments that act as injection of strength and conditioning into the hair. If treatment and conditioner aren’t enough, get a haircut. Sometimes the ends of the hair are past the point of no return and products just won’t do it. Also, a conditioning color would help to restore the natural shine and gloss of the hair.

Problem: Chlorine damage
Solution: There are deep cleansing shampoos that are perfect if you’re suffering from having too much chlorine in your hair. The product will remove the chemicals and then next time you shampoo, switch off for something that’s more nourishing to condition the hair.

Problem: Humidity
Solution: Use products with moisture in them. If you use heat in your hair and don’t add moisture to it, when you go outside, the hair will absorb the moisture in it and that’s when the humidity affects it.

Visit Thompson and his team in person, visit Sassoon Salon at 399 Boylston St., Boston.

-- Anna Marden, Boston.com Correspondent