Vidal Sassoon

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Coco Chanel’s saying, �Fashion fades, but style remains,� applies acutely to Vidal Sassoon. The salon had its mad, mod moment in the Swinging Sixties, when Londoner Vidal Sassoon became celebrated for innovative geometric haircuts, including Mia Farrow’s shortie in Rosemary’s Baby and topless bikini model Peggy Moffitt’s asymmetric black bangs. The mainly Anglo-American salon empire is still going strong, delivering haircuts of such architectural integrity, they keep their shape for months. Like a fashion house, the London-based organization comes out with Autumn-Winter and Spring-Summer cut and color looks that interpret stylistic and cultural trends for an international urban clientele. Stylists are rigorously trained at Sassoon academies and work their way up a dozen levels of seniority (one superscissor is said to have even worked on a certain editor-in-chief’s iconic bob). Colorists are equally skilled in gently glamorous highlighting and subtle lowlighting. Sassoon’s two spacious Manhattan outposts hold a special appeal to men, who compose nearly half the clientele, so you’re likely to spy at least one ponytailed gent overhauling his outdated image and enjoying an eyebrow trim and sideburn shaping in the process. — Karen Tina Harrison

Vidal Sassoon’s New York salons occasionally offer discounts or gift-with-purchase deals through New York magazine ads and advertorials.