Remembering the ‘larger-than-life’ man behind a Yorkville salon for decades
He styled Maya Angelou, Diahann Carroll and Ella Fitzgerald’s hair. But everyday Black women in Toronto were the clients who mattered most to him
Actress Tonya Williams was just 15 years old when she and her mother first stepped into Azan’s Hair Salon on Davenport Road.
Having spent most of her life to date in predominantly white communities, the 1975 visit marked a pivotal moment for Williams, formerly on the soap opera “The Young and the Restless.” “An establishment filled with Black people, everyone hustling and bustling,” she recalled.
A “larger-than-life” figure approached her and her mother. “I remember how he put one hand into my hair,” Williams said. “It was a confident hand, and it felt to me that my hair recognized it was in good hands.”
That man was Kemeel Azan, the owner of Azan’s, one of the first Black hair salons in Toronto. Azan died Aug. 15, 2023, but his memorial was postponed to accommodate people coming from overseas. Notable attendees included Jean Augustine, the first Black woman to serve as a member of Parliament, former Toronto journalist JoJo Chintoh and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow.
“Think of all the people that he hired and all the loyal customers that followed,” Chow said in her speech.
Born in Clarendon, Jamaica, on Feb. 4, 1938, Kemeel Pethro Azan was gregarious and hardworking, according to his youngest son, Khalil Azan. At 19, after graduating high school, he immigrated to Toronto.
In Canada, where there was a demand for cheap labour, Azan worked various jobs including as a Canadian National Railway porter. It was while doing that job when he first had the idea to attend Toronto’s
Marvel Beauty School.
Upon graduation in 1958 — he was the only Black person in his class — Azan worked with celebrity stylist Gus Caruso before moving to New York City in 1960 to attend Madame Perdue Beauty School. There, he honed his craft in Black hair care, styling celebrities including Maya Angelou, Diahann Carroll, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and former NBA player Charles Oakley.
He returned to Toronto the following year and in 1962, he opened his first salon, Beauty World by Azan Limited, on Spadina Avenue, just south of Chinatown. Although he had styled celebrities, equally important to Azan were his everyday clients, mainly Black women who arrived in Canada through the West Indian Domestic Scheme, an immigration program that brought thousands of Caribbean women to Toronto between 1955 and 1967.
Two years after opening his first salon, Azan opened a second location on Bloor Street. By 1968, he bought the building that currently houses Azan’s Beauty Salon in Yorkville. Over time, he and his wife and business partner Madge Jones — who he’d met at private school in Jamaica during the mid-1950s — added two more salons in the city before consolidating all operations at the Yorkville location.
“They were the mother and father of the salon; a dynamic duo,” Williams said. “It is impossible to speak about Mr. Azan and not speak about Mrs. Azan.” The couple had four sons: Tony, Michael, Omar and Khalil.
Between 1973 and 1992, the family kept a hobby farm in Newmarket. “He had a passion for the land and his animals,” Omar said. “Goats were introduced by Madge to Mr. A and he took it to the next level. At one point we had over 300 goats.”
“Family and friends meant the world to my dad,” said Omar. And he had a gift, his nephew Philip Josephs adds, “of making everyone feel seen and valued,” especially salon patrons.
“He didn’t want a client waiting, ever,” said Azan’s second son, Michael. “He’d impose the importance of greeting a client even if they were in their car.”
With 43 employees, business thrived even as Azan pursued his passion for travel, visiting Ghana, Tanzania, Japan, Costa Rica and countries in the Caribbean. In 1988, he took a five-year hiatus, returning to work when Khalil wanted to learn the business.
An avid volunteer, Azan was a key fundraiser for a new location for the Toronto New Covenant Cathedral and served on committees for the Eastern Canada Church of God of Prophecy. He supported agricultural initiatives by sending goats from his hobby farm to Jamaica and co-founding the Human Employment and Resource Training (HEART) College of Beauty Services with Jamaican former first lady Mitsy Seaga.
It’s been nearly 50 years since Williams first set foot in Azan’s, and she still stops by the salon when she’s in Toronto. “He left a legacy that had so much impact for thousands of customers,” she said. “But his legacy also extended to the many hairdressers that he mentored over the decades.”
‘‘ He didn’t want a client waiting, ever. He’d impose the importance of greeting a client even if they were in their car.
MICHAEL AZAN KEMEEL’S SON