Close Your Eyes, Take a Deep Breath
Bars come and go on Knoxville’s Cumberland Avenue near the UT campus, but one new bar is like a breath of fresh air—literally. O2 Airheadz is an oxygen bar.
A busy night at Airheadz looks a lot like a medical treatment center. Folks lie on Shiatsu massage chairs, eyes shut, with oxygen tubes in their noses. But looks deceive.
“I was really sleepy when I came in and now I feel great,” says Rebecca Lodge, 21, UT fourth-year student in sociology. “The massage chair is wonderful. I want to take one of these home.”
Lodge breathes an “uplifting” scent, 80- to 90-percent pure oxygen laced with the faintest hint of mint and other herbs. She has a test later and needs to be alert, she says. With her shoes off and a smile on her face, Lodge looks like the epitome of relaxation.
Co-owner Derek Winters, a former UT student, says oxygen is a natural remedy for migraines, headaches, and hangovers. It’s also said to calm and stabilize the nervous system. Ask him about the five men who came in one Saturday morning after a bachelor party so they could be alert for the wedding that afternoon, or the two men who came in directly after being in a wreck. All left feeling refreshed and calmed, Winters says.
“Some people do it for energy,” he says. “Some scents relax you for the first five or ten minutes, and then the energy kicks in.”
Lodge agrees.
“It’s relaxing, but at the same time, my brain feels really alert.”
Airheadz is riding the crest of a wave started in cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago in the late ’90s, although some of the first oxygen bars opened in Mexico and in Japan and other Asian countries. More and more oxygen bars are popping up in mainstream America, particularly in college towns.
Customers pay for a set number of minutes on the oxygen machine, a generator that filters oxygen through a cylinder of water and into a nasal tube. Scenting the oxygen prevents air passages from drying out and enhances the overall experience.
Oxygen at Airheadz costs around a dollar a minute, although less expensive packages are available. Students get significant discounts. Sessions last from five to twenty minutes. Patrons sit at the bar or pay a little extra to stretch out on the massage chairs. Different scents elevate the mood in different ways, Winters says. Peppermint and wintergreen energize, while lavender and tangerine calm. As many as 30 scents are available.
Winters is quick to point out that he and his business partner Sonya Eldridge are not making any medical claims.
“I honestly don’t know how it works,” he says, but anecdotal evidence indicates customers leave breathing easy.
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