Charles Thomas Williams has been cutting hair in the West Grove for 55 years.
A self-proclaimed “legend in the Grove,” Williams is the sole proprietor of the Charles Barber Shop, one of the last – perhaps the last – old-school Black-owned barbershops in Coconut Grove.
Since 2022, Williams has served his customers from inside a small blue building that stands apart on a quiet stretch of Grand Avenue, just west of Douglas Road.
The distinctive blue building on Grand Avenue that houses the Charles Barber Shop. (Don Finefrock for the Spotlight)
Over the years, inside this shop and at another location next door, Williams has trimmed thousands of heads, offered up advice on life, watched over the neighborhood’s kids, and been a friend to those just looking for someone to talk to.
Recently, though, Williams has been living in limbo, unsure whether the cut he bestows today or tomorrow will be his last.
After 24 years in business, Williams is close to retirement, but his future and the fate of his barbershop are being driven by other factors – factors outside his control.
Charles Thomas Williams (seated) with Dr. W. Eugene Jackson, a longtime customer and friend, inside the Charles Barber Shop (Jenny Jacoby for the Spotlight)
The building that houses the Charles Barber Shop at 3793 Grand Avenue is set to be demolished early next year to make way for a new development – reportedly a paddle sports facility – that will stretch across four plots of land along Douglas Avenue.
Williams, now in his 70s, will have to relocate if he wants to keep cutting hair. But does he? Williams doesn’t know.
Facing a September 30 deadline to shutter his shop, Williams gave what he thought might be his final haircut last week. “I cherished the moment,” he said.
Williams was back behind his chair this week. For how long, he didn’t know. The property owners have said they need to cut power to the building to obtain a demolition permit.
To stay in business, Williams will have to find a new location, but relocating would mean starting over, which he did only three years ago. His original shop on Grand Avenue was demolished in 2022, forcing him to move next door.
“It’s hard relocating,” Williams told the Spotlight recently. “People get comfortable and this is why a lot of them don’t want to see me leave because they got comfortable.”
Originally from Augusta, Georgia, Williams moved to Coconut Grove a year after graduating high school in 1965. With college out of the picture, Williams signed up for barber school. He’s been cutting hair in the Grove since 1970.
When he first started, Williams said he sometimes worked two shifts a day cutting hair, and upwards of 90 hours a week. After six years, he moved his practice to Brown’s Barber Shop, also on Grand Avenue.
That arrangement lasted 26 years. Williams then struck out on his own, opening Charles Barber Shop in 2001 at 3757 Grand Ave., where the business quickly became a part of the neighborhood’s fabric.
For some neighbors, the barbershop provided impromptu daycare, a trusted place where parents could leave their kids if they needed to run a few errands. Others sought out the barbershop as a meeting place, a hangout, and a refuge.
“A lot of them come in here to get therapy,” Williams said of his customers. “They don’t want to read a book or look at television. Mm-hmm. They just want to interact. And some will be crying out just for conversation.”
Others sought guidance, Williams said. “I’m a father figure and a barber. There’s a lot of young men that look up to me,” he said.
By 2004, Charles Barber Shop was known as “The Clearing House of Information.”
Customers could count on the shop as a place to read the local newspapers or to hear word-of-mouth updates on the community. Neighbors dropped off announcements, including obituaries for those who had passed.
Although the shop is smaller than Williams’ first location, it’s full of character.
“There’s a lot of integrity that exists here,” said Dr. W. Eugene Jackson, a longtime customer and friend of Williams.
Several red monobloc chairs sit on the classic black and white checkerboard floor. Pots of golden pothos hang from the ceiling, and a poster of Ricky Williams, the former Miami Dolphins running back, covers the back door, though Williams says he gave up on the Dolphins 20 years ago.
On the wall, a framed newspaper clipping shows the shop owner as a young football player, with the cutline that reads “Charles Williams Ready to Ward Off Any Tacklers.”
Taped to one of the mirrors, a printed piece of paper reads “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift.”
Underneath the mirror, Williams displays a pile of memorial announcements.
For customers and friends like Jackson, Charles Barber Shop is emblematic of a way of life in the Grove that has all but faded away.
“We’re not going to have that type of culture anymore,” Jackson said.
Back in the day, there were at least seven active barbershops in the West Grove, Jackson said. But as the neighborhood changed and people moved away, most of those barbershops have shuttered. Charles has outlasted them all.
“When you come from nothing, you are hungry. You want it. I had a rough childhood life, but I ain’t using that as an excuse,” Williams said.
Williams said he used to open his shop as early as 5:30 a.m. to accommodate his customers. “We figured we owed it to them to get up, to give them service,” he said.
Many people have sat down in William’s chair over the years, including some prominent sports figures like Michael Irvin, the former Dallas Cowboy wide receiver turned sports commentator who was part of the 1987 Miami Hurricanes national championship team.
But it was Williams’ regular customers – the ones who came month after month, year after year – who kept the business humming.
“A lot of them are deceased. But a lot of them were very loyal and we grew together as a family. As time went on, I was cutting the grandkids’ hair,” Williams said. “They were a bridge over troubled water and why I could be here now. ”How much longer Williams will be standing behind his barber’s chair is uncertain, but whatever the future holds, Williams is sure about this much: “Time brings about the change it brings about,” he said.
This story was originally published in the Coconut Grove Spotlight, a WLRN News partner.
