What It Means to Train at Rizzieri Now That Sassoon Connect Is in the Classroom
Some names in hairdressing get thrown around a lot. Vidal Sassoon is not one of them. When people in the beauty industry say the name, they mean something specific. They mean precision. They mean a cutting system that changed the way the world looks at hair. And they mean decades of education that has shaped some of the most technically skilled professionals working today.
Rizzieri Aveda School students are learning it now.
In April 2026, Aveda Institutes and Sassoon Connect announced a partnership bringing the Vidal Sassoon curriculum directly into Aveda Institute classrooms across the country. Rizzieri, already the only Aveda partner school in New Jersey, is part of that rollout. For prospective students, that matters. This is not a supplemental resource or a new elective. It is a full curriculum integration that puts Rizzieri students in the same training system that professionals around the world seek out specifically.
WHO VIDAL SASSOON WAS AND WHY THE NAME CARRIES WEIGHT
Vidal Sassoon started cutting hair in London in the late 1940s and spent the next several decades changing an entire industry. Before Sassoon, hairstyling depended on heavy products, elaborate settings, and styles that had to be maintained by professionals. Sassoon believed the cut itself should do the work. His approach was built on precision geometry and structural technique, producing styles that moved naturally and held their shape without intervention.
His clients included some of the most recognized names in fashion and film. He built a global salon chain, launched one of the most recognized hair care product lines in history, and founded the Vidal Sassoon Academy, which has trained professionals around the world for over six decades. The cutting system he developed continues to be the foundation of how the world’s most technically skilled stylists are trained today.
WHAT SASSOON CONNECT IS
Sassoon Connect is the digital education platform of the Sassoon Academy, built to bring that same standard of training to beauty schools and professionals across the globe. It is a structured curriculum covering cutting, colouring, and men’s hairdressing, built around the Sassoon method and delivered through step-by-step technical instruction, hands-on training frameworks, and content led by world-class Sassoon educators.
At the center is the ABC cutting system. The letters stand for the three fundamental techniques that form the foundation of precision haircutting: lines, graduation, and layering. In their purest form and in combination, these techniques create the framework for virtually every precision cut a stylist will execute in their career. The program also includes educator training built into its structure, so the instructors teaching it are working from the same Sassoon methodology as the students learning it.
Students who complete the program earn a certificate from a globally recognized brand, a credential that speaks to salon owners and hiring managers who understand what Sassoon training means.
WHAT IT MEANS FOR STUDENTS AT RIZZIERI
Rizzieri Aveda School has been preparing students for careers in the beauty industry for three generations. The school traces its roots to 1924, when Franco Cipriotti opened what became the first cosmetology school in New Jersey. Frank Rizzieri, who carries that legacy forward today, remains actively involved in the school and continues to work at the highest levels of the industry, including New York Fashion Week and Bridal Fashion Week, bringing real industry perspective back into the curriculum every year.
That history of knowing what the industry needs before students even walk through the door is central to what Rizzieri offers. The addition of Sassoon Connect fits that pattern exactly.
“Rizzieri has always been the only Aveda partner school in New Jersey,” says Frank Rizzieri. “Now our students are also learning the Sassoon method, the same curriculum top professionals travel the world to access. That combination doesn’t exist anywhere else in this state.”
Through the Aveda Institutes x Sassoon Connect partnership, Rizzieri students now have access to the same curriculum that top professionals around the world have sought through the Sassoon Academy. They are learning a cutting system respected across salons, editorial teams, film sets, and fashion weeks globally. They are building technical precision on a foundation the industry already recognizes.
As Kevin Molin, Aveda Vice President of Global and North America Education, said of the partnership: “Partnering with Sassoon Connect allows us to elevate our curriculum with globally respected techniques and a shared passion for craftsmanship, discipline, and innovation.”
Mark Hayes, Senior International Creative Director of Vidal Sassoon, described it this way: “We are proud to collaborate with Aveda Institutes to expand access to our signature techniques and inspire a new generation of hair professionals to achieve the highest standards in their craft.”
Those standards are now being taught in Voorhees, New Jersey.
WHY IT MATTERS WHEN YOU GRADUATE
Salons hire stylists who can cut with precision, work across hair types and textures, and produce consistent results from day one. The Sassoon method is recognized globally as training that produces exactly that kind of professional. For Rizzieri graduates, that recognition is now part of what they bring to every job interview and every client.
The combination of Aveda’s approach to holistic beauty, Rizzieri’s century-long legacy of professional training, and the Sassoon Connect curriculum gives graduates something most beauty school students simply do not have: an education built from three of the most respected names in the industry, all under one roof in South Jersey.
TRAIN AT RIZZIERI
If you are considering cosmetology school, skin care school, or any program at Rizzieri Aveda School, this is the right time. The school is actively teaching the Sassoon Connect curriculum, which means students enrolling now will learn this system from the ground up during their training. Schedule a tour at Rizzieri Aveda School to learn more about programs, schedules, and what your education could look like. The conversation starts there.