- Vidal Sassoon spent several years as a young boy in a London orphanage
- He was apprenticed to a local barber
- Sassoon developed a hair care line, hair care tools, and chain of salons
Los Angeles (CNN) -- Vidal Sassoon, the legendary hairstylist, died of "apparent natural causes" at his Los Angeles home Wednesday morning, a Los Angeles police spokesman said. He was 84.
Police were called to Sassoon's Bel Air home on Mulholland Drive at 10:30 a.m., spokesman Kevin Maiberger said.
"When officers arrived, there were family members at the residence," Maiberger said.
Sassoon, a British native, spent several years as a young boy in a London orphanage after his father left and his mother could not afford to care for him.
Later, after his mother dreamed of her son being in a barber shop, she apprenticed him to a local barber. That began a career that saw him develop two classic hairstyles of the 1960s -- the bob and the even shorter five-point cut -- along with an eponymous hair care line, a range of hair care tools, and a chain of salons.
CNN's Stella Chan contributed to this report.
