When clients tip their heads back into the shampoo basins and gaze at the ceiling at Luxe, they might think they're back in an early 20th-century factory rather than an elegant and modern hair salon and day spa.

Luxe, which opened in July at 824 First St., retains a bit of its heritage as part of the former Slaymaker Lock factory through the rough open beams of its ceiling, now painted white and complemented by silvery ductwork and lighting fixtures.

At eye level, suffused in the soft, flattering light from a wall of north-facing windows, the salon is all high-fashion decor, complete with Italian furniture and fixtures.

The contrast is intentional. It's part of the green, eco-friendly concept that is the foundation of the salon's design, says Luxe co-owner Ana Kitova, who did much of the planning and finishing work with her partner, Lani Benner, and their husbands, Jonathan Bucher and Ryan Benner.

Even more of the former factory is in evidence next door at Jeremy Hess Photography, which occupies the other end of the building and was the other half of the restoration project.

One of Ana and his specific requests was to keep the original look of the factory, Hess said.

In addition to the beamed ceiling, Hess retained the unpainted concrete floor, graffiti-marked posts and brick walls for his studio, and incorporated one of the massive metal factory doors for the entrance to a meeting room.

"We're raw open space," Hess said of the studio itself, which occupies more than half of the 2,000 square feet of his business.

It's the classic concept of reusing "the space in a way that would complement the old factory, but with new technology," he said.

Genesis of a project
Last year, the long-vacant one-story building that stretches along First Street behind the main three-story Slaymaker Lock building on South West End Avenue was distinctive for its crumbling sidewalks, grated windows and leaking roof.

Hess' photo studio was still in the three-story Slaymaker building on the corner, and Kitova was fruitlessly searching for a building to buy to house the salon she and Benner wanted to start.

Then the whole Slaymaker Lock complex changed hands with the purchase of the property by South West End Inc., whose president, Brad Clark, was a friend of Kitova's.

Clark said he doesn't know when the building now occupied by Luxe and Hess Photography was built.

His records indicate the three-story building dates to 1904, and he said he believes the one-story extension along First Street was added "a little later, but not a lot later."

The Slaymaker Lock company, which dates to 1888 and operated over the years under a number of different names, was originally on Water Street and moved to South West End Avenue after World War I, when its business was booming, according to information on Slaymaker Heritage Law's Web site.

After the lock factory closed in 1986, a partnership of five Lancaster businessmen took over the run-down factory, renovated a large portion of it, renamed it Slaymaker Business Park and rented space to a number of businesses.

The entire complex includes five buildings totaling about 88,000 square feet. Clark said there are 24 tenants. They represent a diverse assortment of enterprises such as the Lancaster County Conservancy, Body & Soul Fitness Studio, Providence Engineering Corp. and BrentMore home improvement.

The building that now houses Luxe and Hess Photography was the one part of the complex that had remained vacant.

A shared vision
Clark said he was interested in redoing the vacant areas of the former Slaymaker property when he bought it and intends to do more restoration projects on other parts of the complex.

Luckily, Clark said, he, Hess, Kitova and Benner had very similar visions of what the vacant building along First Street could become.

The row of north-facing windows were what attracted Hess, who said he had thought of moving his studio to that portion of the complex before but didn't have the wherewithal to do the reconstruction himself.

"What distinguishes this from every other studio is the natural light," Hess said. With the floor of the building below street level the indirect light from the wall of windows comes in at an angle that "mimics the sun," he said.

Before the restoration, those windows had been covered with deteriorating metal grates.

The grates were removed during the work and the old multiple-pane windows replaced with large, single, thermopane windows.

The roof and sidewalks were also replaced. New wiring, ducting, plumbing and wall partitions were installed to fit the designs that Hess, Kitova and Benner had developed for their businesses.

Then, the tenants took over.

Snapshots of the work
Hess began about a month before Kitova and Benner, and opened in June. In addition to the studio, his space includes a large production room, meeting room, office, kitchen and restroom.

Hess said he designed the fixtures, such as the built-in work areas for the production room, and had a contractor build them.

The photography is all digital with cameras, computers and displays all tied together on a wireless network, which will allow clients to see portraits as they're being taken or review the proofs from a wedding on a large-screen plasma TV.

Hess Photography employs seven photographers doing a full range of wedding, portrait and commercial photography. Hess himself took most of the photographs in the One Lancaster guide to downtown businesses and is wrapping up work on the photography for the 2009 edition.

Like Hess, Kitova and Benner designed the interior of Luxe themselves, but the women also ended up doing a lot finishing work, too.

Kitova said she and her husband had become experienced in doing that kind of work by buying residential properties, fixing them up and "flipping" them for a profit.

The proceeds from one of those projects was intended for an addition to the couple's home but went instead into financing a portion of Luxe.

A partition runs lengthwise down the space to divide the hair salon, which looks out the wall of windows, from the day spa, which includes a separate waiting area, hallway, massage suite and aesthetics room with shower.

A break room and restroom round out the floor plan at each end of the space.

Kitova said she and Benner started by laying out the rooms with blue painter's tape on the open concrete floor.

"We changed it about 10 times before we finalized it," she said.

Benner's husband, who is an engineer, did the preliminary drawings for the work, turning them over to Clark, who had an architect render them as blueprints for the building permits.

The two couples built the cabinetry, laid the bamboo floor, installed the equipment and did the painting themselves.

"We really splurged on the equipment," Kitova said.

"It was like, if we're going to do it, we better do it right," Benner added.

That upscale approach, along with the green concept, which includes everything from the bamboo flooring to energy-efficient lighting to all-organic products, paid off by attracting the attention of American Salon magazine, which published a full-page article about Luxe in its November issue.

It's the kind of professional attention that people wait their whole careers for, the women said, and was unexpected for a startup like theirs.

Neither woman had operated a salon before, although both had worked in the beauty industry, Kitova as a professional model and Benner as a stylist and make-up artist for catalogs.

However, Kitova had run a previous business about 10 years ago, a vintage clothing store called Retro Chic on North Queen Street.

She functions as the main receptionist at Luxe while Benner focuses on the artistry side.

"It's hard to be a business owner and an artist at the same time," Kitova said. "She does hair. I run the business. We all have our own talents."

The co-owners also lined up a number of employees before they opened, holding interviews in the Starbucks on Columbia Avenue.

In just five months, the staff has grown from around half a dozen to 14, including nine hair stylists.

Kitova and Benner expected a steady trickle of new clients after they opened. Instead, it poured.

"We're really amazed at the success. Our projections were only half of what's happened," Kitova said. "It's really an incredible feeling when you work really hard and it pays off."

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Dennis Larison is editor of the business section and can be reached by telephone at 291-8753 or by e-mail at dlarison@lnpnews.com.