Celebrity hairstylist and Frizz Ease creator John Frieda dies at 75

John Frieda, the British hairstylist who worked with Princess Diana and Madonna and built a global hair-care brand around Frizz Ease, has died at 75.

His salon announced his death in an Instagram post on Tuesday. “It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that our dear John passed away peacefully … surrounded by his family,” the statement said. His cause of death was not immediately clear.

Frieda’s clients spanned fashion, film, music and public life. They included Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Twiggy, Mick Jagger, Nicole Kidman, Sarah Jessica Parker and Scarlett Johansson, as well as Diana and Madonna. He also created the Purdey bowl cut worn by actor Joanna Lumley in the television series The New Avengers in 1976.

Born Alan Howard Frieda in London in 1951, he grew up around hairdressing. His father owned a salon in Ealing, west London, and his grandfather was a Fleet Street barber, the BBC reported. Frieda told The Standard in 2012 that his father had wanted him to become a doctor, but he chose hairdressing to avoid studying.

Frieda joined the House of Leonard salon as an assistant to Leonard Lewis and went on to style models for British Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. He opened his own central London salon in 1976. As his reputation grew, it booked appointments months in advance, according to the BBC. He later opened salons abroad, including in Los Angeles.

His name reached far beyond salon chairs through a line of hair products. Frieda created Frizz-Ease serum to tame frizzy hair in 1988, the BBC reported, and launched the brand in the 1990s. He stepped back from cutting hair to focus on the business, which expanded internationally. In 2002, he and business partner Gail Federici sold the company to Japanese conglomerate Kao for $450 million, according to the BBC.

The salon’s statement called Frieda “more than a mentor to us” and “a true icon of the hair industry.” It added: “He was the person who taught us everything, believed in us, and made us better.”

In advice to younger hairdressers given to the British Beauty Council in June, Frieda urged them to focus on the person in the chair rather than the payment. “The reward is giving her the best haircut she’s ever had. That is your reward,” he said.

Frieda had a son with Scottish singer and actor Lulu, whom he later divorced. The sources give different years for their marriage: NBC News says 1976, while the BBC says 1977. He later married Avery Agnelli, the widow of Fiat heir Giovanni Agnelli. They had two children, and he had a stepdaughter, Asia Agnelli Lagrange.

“Today we lost the best man to ever exist,” Lagrange wrote in an online tribute. “I share this because I know he touched the lives of so many.”