Issue date: 12/5/05 Section: Campus News

Oxygen Bar rates: 10 minutes: $8 15 minutes: $12 20 minutes: $15

The door opens around 1:15 a.m. Sunday. At first, it's difficult to determine senior Justin Greuel's motivation for stepping into the establishment.

He's hesitant, slowly shifting his feet closer to the bright blue and white lights. Once in the chair, his eyes look on while he nervously shifts his weight.

"I was a little skeptical," Greuel said. "I mean, it's just oxygen."

After agreeing to try it, the next 10 minutes turn out to be better than anticipated.

"I felt more energized, more awake, more reactive than I was when I first started it," he said. "The strawberry tasted good."

This reaction is one Oxygen Bar owner Jason Dean has come to expect out of first-time customers. Dean, an Eau Claire resident, opened the city's first-ever Oxygen Bar Thursday at 434 Water St., and already has seen a variety of customers venture into his establishment.

"A lot of (residents) don't know what an oxygen bar is," Dean said. "It fits in with the college atmosphere."

An oxygen bar provides users with the ability to inhale 92 to 95 percent oxygen through cannulas (plastic tubes), which are inserted in the nose. Because of pollution and other contaminates, the air we breathe contains about 21 percent oxygen, said Steve Blaustein, owner of AirHeads Oxygen Bars in Coral Springs, Fla.

The oxygen also comes in a variety of aromas, such as Strawberry Fields, Appletini, Sex on the Beach and Fuzzy Navel. Each provides customers with a different feeling, Dean said. For example, the aroma Chillin' can effectively open a person's sinuses during a cold.

"The experience is different for each person," Dean said.

Each bar needs an oxygen concentrator, which filters present oxygen into its purer form. Next, that oxygen flows into aroma containers to give the oxygen a certain scent. Customers then breathe in the oxygen.

Continued...

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