By Stevi Costa

It’s not every day that you see a hair salon decorated with motorcycles and flames, but that’s the theme of Sammy Mar’s Helmet Head salon in Georgetown. Mar was tired of working cookie-cutter corporate jobs and went to beauty school, after which she grew disappointed with the kind of salons she found herself working in and decided to strike out on her own.

Luckily, Mar found a kindred spirit in Heather Tubbs, whom she met while working at a salon downtown in 2002. Tubbs told Mar that she would follow her if she opened her own salon, and that’s exactly what she did. At first, Tubbs would work at Helmet Head on weekends and then, after about a year, she bought into the business as Mar’s partner. On Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010, Helmet Head salon celebrated its 8th year in business.

As for the hard-riding style of the salon, Mar cites her passion for motorcycles as her inspiration. “Riding your motorcycle is nice because you can really think about things and it’s kind of meditative,” she said. While that might not be everyone’s picture of relaxation, Mar wanted to create an atmosphere that was completely antithetical to the pretension that she feels riddles some high-end salons. She wanted to create a salon “where you can still get good service, but have a lot of fun.”

As for the Georgetown location, Mar was inspired by a custom motorcycle shop she frequented. She noticed that Georgetown housed a small, funky art community and felt it would be the best place for her to open up a salon. Georgetown has been good to Helmet Head. In 2007, the salon moved from a 750 sq. ft. retail space to its current 3,300 sq. ft. space at 5527 Airport Way South.

The business has expanded in other ways, as well. When the salon first opened, Helmet Head only offered basic cut and color services, but has since added manicure and pedicure services, skin care (including peels and waxes) and massage. The salon employs a total of 5 stylists, a nail technician, a skin technician and two massage practitioners.

Overall, though, its still hair that brings in the most business at Helmet Head. “Cut and color are our big mainstays,” Mar said. “Some of the other stuff has kind of fallen down a bit because of the economy, but everybody needs to get their hair done.”

To make looking good something that everyone can afford, Helmet Head uses salon products that come at a variety of price points. “Loma is the most affordable of our products,” Mar said of the Monroe, Wash. hair care brand. Any Helmet Head customer who purchases a Loma product from the salon can bring the empty bottles back for a refill at 25 percent off the original price.

Helmet Head will soon add another brand to its gallery of products, which currently includes Davines, Kevin Murphy and Paul Mitchell Men’s. On Feb. 25, the salon will be hosting a launch party from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to celebrate the addition of Moroccan Oil to its salon menu. “It’s a wonderful hair care line for people who have curly hair,” Mar said. The launch event will feature product samples and demonstrations from a Moroccan Oil representative, food, beverages and belly dancers. In addition, Helmet Head will feature Moroccan Oil products in all of its services for the following month in order to get customers excited about the new product line.

Despite its tough-gal image, furthered by an appearance Mar made on the Style Network’s stylist-swapping show Split Ends which made it seem as though Helmet Head does “nothing but red Mohawks all day,” Mar says that the salon is a place for anyone who wants to get their hair done in a no-pretension atmosphere. The shop sees a wide range of clients looking for an even wider range of hairstyles, from mild to wild. After all, some of the salon’s clients do happen to be members of local roller derby squad the Rat City Rollergirls, thanks to the presence of stylist Carly Jo, who is a derby girl herself.

Overall, Mar likes to think of her salon as having a comfortable, homey atmosphere, with a little bit of Sammy Mar’s special brand of sass. “We like to offer uptown skills, but we have a very down home attitude,” she said.