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Created in 2013, Skate Guard is a blog that focuses on overlooked and underappreciated areas of the history of figure skating, whether that means a topic completely unknown to most readers or a new look at a well-known skater, time period, or event. There's plenty to explore, so pour yourself a cup of coffee and get lost in the fascinating and fabulous history of everyone's favourite winter sport!

Yusuke Suga

 Yusuke Suga

February 18, 1942-September 13, 1990


Born in a Japanese colony near Beijing, China, Yusuke Suga came from a long line of Shinto priests. Inspired by his older sister, who worked as a hairdresser on film sets, he went to Yamano Beauty College and studied hairdressing. Emigrating to New York City in the sixties with one suitcase, he established himself as one of the Big Apple's most sought-after celebrity hairdressers. Though he never skated, he was a big figure skating fan... and his famous contribution to the skating world and American pop culture was the Dorothy Hamill wedge haircut. Suga, as he was known to clients and friends alike, passed away in Tokyo, Japan on September 13, 1990 at the age of forty-seven. 


Suga's obituary from "The New York Times": "Yusuke Suga, a Japanese hair stylist who was well known in New York fashion circles, died on Thursday in Tokyo. He was 47 years old and lived in Manhattan. Suga, as he was known professionally, died of cancer, his business partner, Sandy Varga said... Suga came to the United States in 1965 and was a stylist at the Kenneth Salon in Manhattan for several years, before leaving to work on his own. He gained recognition for his high-fashion hair styling for such magazines as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Cosmopolitan. In 1972, he opened his own salon on East 70th Street and created the ''wedge' haircut worn by the skater Dorothy Hamill in the Olympics. His clients included Candice Bergen, Lauren Hutton, Faye Dunaway and the designer Hanae Mori. In 1981 he opened the Suga Salon on East 57th Street, which will continue to operate, Ms. Varga said. He is survived by his mother, Sakiyo Suga, two sisters, Yasuko Katsuki and Tamiko Takahashi, and a brother, Hajime Suga, all of Tokyo."

*Source for inclusion: "A Skating Life: My Story", Dorothy Hamill, 2007

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