Owner of About Hair Denies Rape Charges

After his October 2005 arrest following charges of running a prostitution operation out of his Harvard Square salon, About Hair owner Duncan W. Purdy, 52, will be arraigned in court tomorrow morning on a separate charge of rape.

Earlier this week, Duncan was indicted for allegedly raping a customer in March 2004. The customer, a then-19-year-old woman, reported to police, after learning of Purdy’s arrest on the sex-selling charges, that he touched her “inappropriately and raped her” during a scheduled massage two years ago, according to a Middlesex District Attorney’s Office press release.

Purdy is also being charged with indecent assault and battery of a person over 14 years old, the report said.

“I am not guilty of the charges,” Purdy told The Crimson yesterday in his 1 Arrow St. salon. “I’ve been here for 20 years, and my whole life has been helping people. I have basically been a servant. I cut people’s hair.”

He said that the previous prostitution charges are also baseless.

“I went to court and proved my case,” he said of the earlier arrest. “I will do the same thing again.”

Although Purdy has not yet hired a lawyer, he said he will hire one if the need arises.

Purdy claimed to have no knowledge of the rape accusations until he was contacted by the press two days ago for comment.

“I don’t know who is accusing me,” he said. “I don’t know what the situation is.”

About Hair’s employees came to Purdy’s defense when asked about the allegations yesterday.

In response to the rape charges, one female masseuse said that Purdy had never treated her inappropriately.

“I am a 19-year-old beautiful girl,” she said. “I have been here for three months, and he hasn’t tried to do anything to me.”

“He’s a good guy,” said another female masseuse, 25, who has worked at About Hair for two months and asked not to be named. “He hasn’t done anything to me or to anyone else.”

She added that many patrons frequent the salon for the haircutting service in particular and that although it has a reputation for providing massages, it is not usually filled with clients looking for massages. On a typical day she gives one to three massages, she said.

She said she has seen nothing suspicious or illegal happen in the salon, although some customers have asked for illicit services.

“I haven’t really seen anything besides men coming here lately,” she said. “You get that everywhere, people asking for more than a massage. Just because it looks like this, doesn’t mean we offer that,” she said.

Since she has started working at the salon, the massage room has been renovated and the curtains have been removed from the windows.

“Some people want a professional massage along with a professional looking place,” she said.

In addition to remodeling the salon to have a more professional-looking massage room, Purdy hired two new employees in the past few months who claim to have been trained professionally in massaging.

Both masseuses said they are certified massage therapists.

“I don’t know what went on before,” the first masseuse said. “It’s not going on now.”

—Staff writer Shifra B. Mincer can be reached at smincer@fas.harvard.edu.