Jay Sebring

Career In Los Angeles, he graduated from beauty school and opened a shop on Fairfax Avenue, designing and building it for less than $500. Sebring cut hair for 13 hours a day, sleeping in the back, but was challenged by mounting costs. His innovations including shampooing men's hair before styling it, cutting their hair with scissors instead of clippers, and using blow dryers, which were popular in Europe but not well known in the United States.

His breakthrough happened after meeting actress Barbara Luna at a party. She told Vic Damone, who liked him enough to fly him to Las Vegas for a trim. In turn, he introduced Sebring to Peter Lawford and Frank Sinatra. His hairstyling clients included Warren Beatty and Steve McQueen. He flew to Las Vegas every three weeks to cut the hair of Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.

His business, Sebring International, was flourishing by the late 1960s, with profitable salons in West Hollywood, New York City and London. Sebring maintained a playboy lifestyle, with high-profile Hollywood personalities like Beatty among his closest associates.

Sebring assisted with launching the film career of Bruce Lee, after meeting him at the International Karate Championships in Long Beach in 1964. He introduced Lee to his producer friend Bill Dozier, who started Lee's career with The Green Hornet.

Although not seeking an acting career himself, Sebring made a cameo appearance in a December 1966 episode of the TV show Batman, playing a character based on himself called Mr. Oceanbring. Sebring also appeared in a 1967 episode of The Virginian titled "The Strange Quest of Claire Bingham", playing a frontier barber. Sebring also appeared as himself on the January 28, 1963 episode of To Tell the Truth. He received three of four possible votes.

Jay Sebring was one of the people profiled in the 1967 cult documentary, Mondo Hollywood. Bobby Beausoleil, a future member of the notorious Manson Family, was also seen in it. Beausoleil was arrested for the murder of Gary Hinman two days before the Tate–LaBianca murders that took Sebring's life.

Back in 1969, Sebring was nicknamed The Candyman and was said to have used his salon to peddle drugs to the stars. Jim Markham was Sebring’s protege and business partner in a budding franchise of men’s hair salons and has made this statement publicly.

Relationship with Sharon Tate

Sebring was introduced to Sharon Tate by journalist Joe Hyams in October 1964 and they began a relationship. Watson then shot Sebring, knifed his left fist and bayonet stabbed Sebring several times in the back. Sebring died from blood loss caused by his wounds. The group then murdered Frykowski, Folger, and Tate. Sebring's body was found lying down and bloodied, his face disfigured. A long nylon rope was placed around his neck and hung over one of the living room's ceiling beams. At the other end, Tate's body lay with the same rope around her neck. While the coroner's inquest found that Tate was still alive when she was hanged, in Sebring's murder it was found that he was hanged lifeless.

On Wednesday, August 13, funerals for Tate and Sebring took place the same day; the funerals were scheduled several hours apart (first for Tate and then Sebring) to allow mutual friends to attend both.

Sebring was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, Michigan. Steve McQueen gave the eulogy.

Legacy A feature-length documentary Jay Sebring....Cutting to the Truth was released in September 2020 by Shout! Factory. Directed and produced by Sebring's nephew Anthony DiMaria, the film has received widely positive reviews.

Emile Hirsch portrays Sebring in the 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, directed by Quentin Tarantino, which contains a revisionist interpretation of the night of the Manson murders. In the film's version of events, Sebring survives, as the murderers do not attack at the Tate / Polanski address, but next door at the fictional Rick Dalton home.

In 2025 a 576-page biography Jay Sebring: Cutting to the Truth was released through Steven W. Booth's "Genius Book Publishing", written by Marshall Terrill and Anthony DiMaria. The biography was initially introduced to the public with a Hollywood screening and Q&A of the Sebring film documentary at the vintage Los Feliz 3 theatre delivered by the American Cinematheque organization led by chairman Rick Nicita.