BOSTON (AP) – The son of famed stylist Vidal Sassoon plans to open a salon and massive new hair care academy in Boston as he moves to build his own empire.

The Academy for Hair and Skin by Elan Sassoon is a 90,000 square foot, $22 million school planned on Commonwealth Avenue near Boston University.

The school is the first of its kind in country and the first of four planned nationwide.

The school, which will have 180 dorm beds and a 200-seat auditorium, will require 1,500 hours of cosmetology training over nine months to graduate, 50 percent more the 1,000 hours required for a state license. The Boston beauty school project was first reported in the Boston Herald in March.

“I wanted to do this in Boston because this is the city of education. Why not have the best hair school here, too?” Elan Sassoon said. “This kind of education has never been done in cosmetology.”

The $19,500 tuition makes it one of the nation’s most expensive such programs.

Sassoon said he’s trying to fill increasing demand for beauty education. Other local cosmetology schools, including Elizabeth Grady, say their classes are filled to capacity and waiting lists are growing.

Construction on Sassoon’s school is set to begin in August, with the school opening in the spring, a few months after Sassoon and Lord’s & Lady’s Hair Salon founder Michael Barsamian open a high-end salon called Mizu on Boylston Street in Boston’s upscale shopping district.

The partners are also planning two new spa and salon businesses in Foxborough and Dedham, and they hope to launch a product line under Sassoon’s name.

Sassoon’s projects are a response to his failed bid several years ago to purchase the Vidal Sassoon brand. Sassoon said his $31 million bid came up $2 million short and longtime associates of Vidal Sassoon at Haircare Ltd., showed no favoritism.

“There was no love. That hurt,” he told The Boston Globe. “So I thought, why not open the finest school in the world?”