“Chas won the first case ever brought by the US Government against the holder of a Cosmetologist License for styling men and women’s hair in the same salon. During a period in our history of emerging awareness about the existing evils of racial and sexual discrimination, he fought back. In doing so, he was faced with the potential of a five year felony prison sentence if he lost the case. It was the fight of his life. ”

“It is a beautiful fall day. The leaves have started to turn color. The summer Baltimore heat and humidity has passed and there is a refreshing crispness in the air. I am sitting on the wooden colonial bench outside of my Salon Chas at the Ritz Carlton, taking a short break before my next client styling appointment.

As I look out over the Inner Harbor and into the Bay way beyond, I see the distant outline of a tanker ship which is heading into the Port of Baltimore. I laugh to myself and wonder if the tanker was inbound from St. Martin. The tanker brings back a sudden rush of amazing memories that make me realize that it has been a little over forty years since I led a court case that changed my life and that of many, many others and the whole beauty industry for the better.

I have not shared my story before, but this rush of memories made me decide that it was time to do so. I do it to honor the many amazing people who have been a part of it...”

“So she opens up the door to the theory class, and there were 98 girls and the two guys. Well, I almost fainted, right then and there! Ninety-eight girls and two guys ... l said to the teacher, “Can I stay?” She told me I had to enroll first, but I wanted to go into the theory class. So we enrolled me, and the following week, I became a beauty student at the Nouveau Beauty Academy. ”

“I was 16 at this time; I wasn’t taking anything seriously. I was just sort of happy-go-lucky, and I wasn’t paying attention. To make a long story short, I left my last client under the dryer. They locked the salon, and I left. This woman was locked in the department store, by herself, under the dryer. ”

“He asked me again what I thought of this profession. I said, ‘Well, you know what, Mr. Sassoon (and he corrected me and told me to call him Vidal), I never really gave it that much thought.’ He said, ‘Let me tell you how I feel about it. I think it’s a noble profession.’

...Whenever I would walk into a building -whenever I would go anywhere -I had this feeling of being noble, of being special. To this day, I give Vidal Sassoon credit, little known to him that he inspired me to become one of the really successful people in the hair business and to eventually go and open up the first chain of unisex hair salons in America. That was a very life-changing experience.”

“My long hair was down almost to my shoulders. Nobody wore their hair like me. I had this thing we called the shag that I was doing on myself. This was just getting ready to go into the 70’s, when long hair would become the in thing for most guys.”

“His name was Gary Hashig, and he said, ‘Hey, Chas, there’s a place in New York City called Paul McGregor’s. It’s in the village and they are doing guys and girls hair together, all day long! They are not doing any teasing and no roller sets. It’s all these natural cuts and the shag. It’s all shag -shag -shag.’ I said to him ‘Gary, let’s go to New York and see it.’

I opened the door, and I saw ... the future. I saw 20 hair cutters and 30 clients, all lying around on chaise lounges while they’re waiting to get their hair cut. The hair blowers are going; everybody had a hair blower. There was music blasting, and I ran down the steps, got John,
Gary and Danny. I said, ‘You’ve got to see this, man. I just saw the future.’

Now we are in this new world that nobody knows about yet. There is only one unisex salon in America. It’s in New York City on St. Marks Place and the next one we are going to make happen in Baltimore Maryland.”

“This is like a nightmare. I’m ready to get back to Baltimore to do this amazing thing. I’m excited, and now I find myself in prison for smoking a little grass. That wasn’t the worst of it. They put me in a cell block with 12 “hardened guys”. Johnny, Gary and Danny were in their own cells. We can holler to each other from our cells. This is a crazy experience. I couldn’t even believe its happening. So, when I walk into this cell with these 12 guys, there are a couple of guys that start calling me ‘Pretty Boy, come on in here,’ and this sort of stuff. Remember, I’m still a boxer. They don’t get who they’re talking to. I am not afraid of anybody. Well, one of the guys challenges me...”

“Little did we know what was going to happen and that it was going to change the world. I mean, the Beatles changed the world, Elvis Presley changed the world, Michael Jackson changed the world, and unisex hair designing changed the world.”

“That afternoon I was cutting a man’s hair, while his girlfriend was waiting in the next chair for me to cut her hair. Suddenly, somebody grabbed my arms and pulled them behind me, I looked up into the mirror in front of me and there were two policemen putting handcuffs on me. ‘We are placing you under arrest, Mr. Kuhn and we will be taking you to police headquarters for your failure to stop cutting men’s hair in your salon.’

From that moment on we would have this lawsuit. It’s The United States of America vs Charles Florenz Kuhn Jr. the case would change the beauty industry forever. Hundreds, thousands and millions of hairdressers across this country don’t even know that there was an individual who would be fighting for his partner and all other hair designers.”

“So when you walked in, it was barn siding and Bose speakers. The concept exploded. We had a pool table in the middle of the hair salon. Everybody’s playing pool. It was a hangout. We had all the famous football players; all the baseball players including the now Hall of Farner Jim Palmer. Everybody was our clients. We were it. Now, we’re in The Hair Garage, and we are a massive hit. We are becoming famous. All the celebrities are coming. A guy that used to hang out in our salon - every single day he was there, for the first two years -his name was John Waters.”

“We landed and, needless to say, when we did we were all “flying high” and boarded our own private plane to fly to Ocho Rios. There we boarded our own limos for the drive to our hotel. Of course, we had to stop a couple of times along the way to sample the wears.”

“She wanted to know what we were doing or if we were having any special event, like our cut-a-thon, that we had become famous for. I said, ‘Well, Oprah, I’m not really sure. We haven’t made any special things up. There will be no naked people at our Valentine’s Day party.’”