VIDAL SASSON, hairstylist and fashion world pioneer who created a natural look in the 1960s and built a multimillion-dollar business on his name, died Wednesday after a long battle with leukemia. He was 84.

    The British stylist’s scissors spelled the end of the 1950s-era beehive and the bouffant — untouchable hairstyles that owed their existence to lacquer and hair pins — and brought him international fame and fortune.

    Sassoon was dubbed a pioneer for coming up with so-called wash and wear looks — liberating many women from weekly salon trips to have their hair done.

    But as much as he was a genius in the salon, Sassoon was a whiz in business. He began marketing his name, styles and cutting techniques in a worldwide line of beauty salons, hair-cutting schools and later, related lines of hair products.

    Still, Sassoon never felt the profession that he put at the forefront of modern fashion received the respect it was owed.

    “Hairdressing in general hasn’t been given the kudos it deserves,” Sassoon said in 2010. “It’s not recognized by enough people as a worthy craft.”

    Born in London on Jan. 17, 1928, the son of a poor Turkish-Jewish carpet salesman, Sassoon spent eight of his early years in an orphanage after his father abandoned his family. He quit school at 14, and his stepfather agreed to finance his apprenticeship as a hairdresser.

    “It was my mother’s idea,” he once said of his entry into hairstyling. “Her feeling was that I didn’t have the intelligence to pick a trade myself.”

    His wispy-short early style was in vast contrast with the teased, brutally coiffed styles of the 1950s, and by 1963, he had created a short, angular cut on a horizontal plane that was the re-creation of the classic “bob cut.”

    Sassoon married four times in total and had four children. His eldest daughter, Catya, died of an accidental overdose in 2002 at age 33.

    The stylist maintained his British roots despite living in the United States. Apart from hairdressing interests, he set up the Vidal Sassoon Foundation to help the needy in educational pursuits abroad. Sassoon is survived by his wife, three children and grandchildren.(SD-Agencies)