Sugar Daddy’s offering a sweet treat for your hair

Need extensions? Highlights? Or maybe a mullet?

Sugar Daddy’s is on the case.

The salon, run by James Harris, a 1988 South Kitsap High School graduate, and Megan Hetrick, a 2002 graduate, opened in September 2005 and focuses on haircuts, extensions and color.

Harris said he got into the business after working as a receptionist in another salon.

“It just seemed like they stood and gossiped all day,” he said. “I was like, ‘I can do that.’ I didn’t realize it was a little more than that, but that’s how it started out.”

For Hetrick, it was about realizing her creative potential.

“I really didn’t know what I wanted to do when I graduated from high school and my parents were like, ‘You need to do something.’ I decided to try this and I really loved it.”

Harris said the salon, located on Bay Street, stands apart from your run-of-the-mill bargain cuts, namely because of the attitude.

“It’s pretty casual,” he said. “I kind of modeled it after a tattoo shop, but without the drugs.

“We’re really music-oriented,” Harris added. “We do local bands. We’re the official salon for Hell’s Bells. We really support the music. We’re quite into the local scene of things.”

Sugar Daddy’s haircuts range from $20 for children to $65 for women.

Color treatments include paint box ($20) high- or lowlights ($85) and one- and two-step color ($65-$85).

“We do the colors that aren’t in the normal color spectrum, basically,” Harris explained.

Extensions run from $500 to $3,000 depending on what the customer is looking for, and the salon also offers removal and replacement services.

The type of extension we do are exclusive, we’re the only ones in this area who are allowed to do them. They’re the ones you see done on the red carpet in Hollywood ... they’re high-end.”

And as for the mullets?

“I’m in the neat position where I’m starting to see the pendulum swing back,” Harris said. “We’re actually seeing mullets come back. Of course they’re called Cowboys Axes, not mullets, but they’re back. Next, it will be perms that are huge again.

“You see kids now — it’s just like punk and new wave when we were in the ’80s,” Harris said. “It’s kind of a trip.”

Hetrick said Sugar Daddy’s attracts local artists and craftsmen — and more.

“All our clients range across the board,” she said. “We have an older side and younger kids who normally would be resistant to getting haircuts somewhere else.”

While maintaining a business in a small town can be difficult, Harris says he has had no such problems.

“I found this spot and everything just seemed to fall into place. I love how downtown is going. We turn people away because we’re so busy.”

He added that customers often expect such a salon to be in Seattle.

“I love that,” he said. “I wish more people would be creative in their spaces and not just do white walls. Funk it up.”

And Sugar Daddy’s does employ some funky decorating, including a “rockin” work area and a wall musicians and other local celebrities have signed.

“It’s not about pomp and circumstance,” he said. “It’s about looking like a rock star when you leave.”

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