AUBURN ? Featuring a bright, stylish automotive up-do, The Hair Station hair salon has opened at 146 Turner St. in a former dilapidated gas station.

“Hair salons typically have a good female base,” owner and cosmetologist Marlo Hewitt said. “But we wanted to do something to attract the males to come in too.”

The salon has a vintage car feel to it, including a Chevy grille that holds up the front counter and standing tool chests by each chair to hold each stylist’s tools.

The building is an old Shell gas station revamped, which is what motivated Hewitt to maintain a car feel. The idea came about one evening when Hewitt drove by a pizza place with a similar design.

Then, one day, “We were just driving by and I saw the building and I looked to my mom and said ‘Mom, I have to get a look inside that building,’ and once I did, I knew this would be the perfect spot.”

With the help of her mother, who is a real estate agent, Hewitt secured the location. The building “definitely needed some work,” Hewitt said.

With the help of her uncle, who is a contractor, the family first stripped the structure down to its frame. Then doing all the work themselves, they began the remodeling.

Some of the things Hewitt used were already in the building when she bought it, including some light fixtures and knobs. And they maintained the same basic internal layout for the salon.

The building is now painted in a vibrant turquoise with red and white trim and accents that, Hewitt said, show they’re all about style, from the building to the way they cut hair. 

Many of the items that decorate the salon are new and reproductions. “My personal favorites are the blow dryers that hang from the ceiling and I’m really pumped about the car desk that’s seen when you first walk in,” she said, referring to the Chevy grille.

Prior to this endeavor, Hewitt worked as a cosmetologist at another hair salon. She’s joined by another cosmetologist, Jamie Beauparlant, who also worked at the other hair salon.

“There are a lot of awesome hair salons in this area, so we knew we had to do something different to stand out,” Hewitt said.

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