Vidal Sassoon, the visionary hairstylist who died yesterday at age 84, revolutionized women’s hairstyling by freeing women from looks that depended on curlers, hair dryers and stiff hairsprays and giving them styles created with little more than a pair of scissors. His signature cuts were geometric, edgy—and touchable. “He changed the way everyone looked at hair,” said Grace Coddington, the creative director of American Vogue, said in an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday. “Before Sassoon, it was all back-combing and lacquer; the whole thing was to make it high and artificial. Suddenly you could put your fingers through your hair!” Among his iconic looks were the wedge bob, the five-point-cut (a bowl-like style featuring five distinct points) and a boyish pixie he created for Mia Farrow in the 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby. He was also one of the first stylists to launch an eponymous product line (along with a catchy tag line: If you don’t look good, we don’t look good.”). It’s fair to say his impact on the hair industry was profound and the effects of it will be felt (and enjoyed) for generations to come.