Peter Dawson, master of colour, was born in Leeds in the north of England in 1959, and discovered his interest in hairdressing at the age of 15. To supplement his pocket money, when he was still at school he worked as a “Saturday boy” in a salon. In 1975, Dawson began to train in Leeds in the Vidal Sassoon team, and he has remained with them ever since: “It was tougher than I had expected, and I had never met such a bunch of crazy people before – it was great.” The apprentice quickly developed into a master. At an early stage in his career, Dawson worked as a stylist in photo shoot productions. He was able to exercise full creative freedom in 1978 when he went to Hamburg and established himself there as the only “colour master”. Since the early 1990s, Peter Dawson has been “Creative Director Colour Germany” at Vidal Sassoon and is making efforts to establish coloration as an independent branch of training.