Camera Ready Kutz
Khane Kutzwell, owner of Camera Ready Kutz barbershop, doesn’t really dig the term “LGBTQ-friendly.” It shouldn’t be necessary. “It reminds me of ‘Colored people are welcome,’” she says. “You should just be friendly, period.” Khane felt compelled to open her own barbershop upon hearing story after story of her LGBTQ community receiving subpar treatment at neighborhood shops: being stared at, for example, enduring hateful comments, being refused service, feeling the need to “butch up” to feel comfortable, or getting questions like, “Why do you want to look like a man?” Khane – who was born in Trinidad, raised in Queens – enrolled in barber school more than a decade ago, cutting hair from her apartment before opening Camera Ready Kutz in Crown Heights last December. She calls it an LGBTQ safe space “so that people know,” and ultimately considers her shop a welcoming place for everyone to enjoy the classic barbershop experience.
“It was important for me to design this the way that I did,” Khane says of her pristine shop. Camera Ready Kutz’s inviting atmosphere has drawn a clientele that includes “Grey’s Anatomy” actor Sara Ramirez; spoken-word poet and activist Staceyann Chin, and Ryan Jamaal Swain, star of the new FX show “Pose.” Also important to Khane is supporting fellow entrepreneurs. The shop sells indie hair products, including a college student-run line called Hair Lixa’, in addition to Khane’s homemade incense. With a summer-ready backyard space, Camera Ready Kutz also holds regular events. Check them out on June 22 for their next movie night, screening the documentary short “Shape Up: Gay in the Black Barbershop” by Harlem native Derrick L. Middleton.
“ I didn’t become a famous painter or anything like that.But my art is in the hair.”
Now let’s get to the bread and butter of Camera Ready Kutz: the kutz part. Khane specializes in artful designs cut into clients’ hair, from swirls and lightning bolts to Basquiat and Keith Haring-inspired imagery. She’s an art school kid, after all (Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design). “I didn’t become a famous painter or anything like that,” she said. “But my art is in the hair.”
73 Utica Avenue, 347-349-5889, camerareadykutz.com
