Veteran hairdressing businessman Kemeel Azan has died

A Jamaican-Canadian pioneer in the hair salon business in Toronto has died at the age of 85.

Kemeel Pethro Azan was born on February 4, 1938 in Clarendon, Jamaica, and immigrated to Canada in 1957, one year after his mother came to the country. He died on August 15.

Azan’s body was cremated and his church, the Toronto New Covenant Cathedral, will host a memorial on August 27. His family will hold a public celebration of his life at a later date.

The Holmwood Technical High School alumnus bought the building that houses his now popular salon, Azan’s Beauty Salon, on Davenport Road in Toronto’s famous Yorkville district some 55 years ago. In 1962, he opened his first hair salon in Toronto. But the idea of owning his business, he says, was not new as he grew up helping his father in the family business.

On the early beginnings of his entrepreneurial ventures, he recalls that his mother, “a fundamentalist Christian who does nothing to her hair”, was hosting a visitor who needed to go to a hairdresser. Azan took the visitor to one on Queen Street and was surprised to see the number of women in line waiting to get their hair done. She paid $4 and with 17 women in line, he calculated that $68 per day was a pretty good sum to make.

He was working on the Canadian National Railways as a porter and by coincidence met a hairdresser who was travelling on the train. This sparked an idea to start his own business and after doing the research, he registered at the Marvel Beauty School where his creativity thrived.

STEREOTYPE

While there, he also worked part-time with some of the best hairdressers, including Gus Caruso, a celebrity hairstylist, who offered him a job. He graduated in 1958 as the only black person in his class.

He then studied at Madame Perdue Beauty School in New York, and while there he worked with a renowned hairdresser for Broadway stars.

His clientèle would include black women who came to Canada under the West Indian Domestic Scheme – an immigration programme for Caribbean women between 1955 and 1967 that brought approximately 3,000 to the country.

Caruso, however, advised him against doing black women’s hair, reasoning that most at the time were domestic workers. He decided to go against that stereotyping.

“Black women have been very good to me. I was in the right place at the right time but passionate about it. I always believed that I could make a difference in the way a black woman saw herself and her hair because historically it’s a kitchen industry – you do my hair, I’ll do your hair. Most hairdressers those days were considered not bright. You can’t do anything else so you do hair,” he told The Gleaner in a 2013 interview when he was the recipient of the prestigious Harry Jerome Award presented by the Black Business and Professional Association.

He bucked that trend in his belief that gorgeous black women could be empowered and he could make a living out of it.

Azan said he wanted his four sons, Tony, Michael, Omar and Khalil, to be hairdressers because he thought it was the hidden secret. His rationale was that the birthrate of girls is greater than boys, and black women are far more progressive than black men. They get ahead in the corporate world and they have money to spend on taking care of themselves.

Khalil, his youngest, decided to follow his father’s footstep. His father says he is bright and has been modernising the business. The senior Azan said life has come full circle because his son is where he was years ago when he started. Michael also works at the hair salon.

“The philosophy that I have is, if you like this industry, come let me teach you all that I know and when you’re through move on with your own life. Because it’s bigger than you and I, it’s a multibillion-dollar business. And the more a black woman becomes successful, the more money she will spend,” said the pioneer businessman.

His advice to his sons is sound and simple: “Don’t get too high on yourself. What you’re reaping today is a seed that was planted and it has grown and is now bearing fruit. Be respectful of the client, be respectful of the tree, and never forget that you’re in a business catering to people and you must be mindful of your service, others, and the people.”

This is advice that both sons have taken to heart.“I really think he has made it okay for black women to be pretty. They’ve always known that but he has built an establishment where they can come in, spend their money and feel good about themselves,” said Khalil.

Michael said his father was a self-made man and although there had been fluctuations in life, he was proud of the way the senior Azan came through it and the success he gained because he worked hard for it.

Kemeel Azan credited his wife of over 60 years, Madge, and his sons for his success.

He leaves behind a large extended family of siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews spread across Jamaica, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.