Clouds of hairspray were being shot every which way, cameras were flashing and frantic girls and boys were scrambling around a tightly-packed room to line up for preliminary judging.

This was the scene in the backroom of Barcode Nightclub at the finale round of the Hair Games 2009 charity fundraiser last night.

The chosen recipient of funds for this year is Auburn-based Village Care International (VCI), an organization focused on empowering African widows and around 30,000 orphans that have become victims of the AIDS/HIV pandemic.

Beginning on April 25 and continuing for four consecutive Saturdays, 12 top salons from around the Sacramento region have been competing in four separate semi-final rounds, leading up to last night’s grand finale.

Repeating the Marie Antoinette doll theme that deemed them winners in the first semi-final, downtown Sacramento’s Space 07 was crowned “style champion” with their high energy mixture of break-dancing and ballet-style dance moves.

Contributing to their talented team and impressive choreography was Kevin Brewer, a member of the dance group Jabbawockeez, made famous by reality show “America’s Best Dance Crew.”

It was a close call, with only a few points between each of the salons competing in the finale round, which included Rio Linda’s Hair Gone Wild, Auburn’s Visions Salon, Sacramento’s Bellara Salon and Spa, and winners Space 07.

Hair Gone Wild rocked the stage with a Total Knock Out theme, staging a “girl fight” between several female “fighters.” Black light effects, neon hair extensions and scantily-clad male refs came together for a wild performance.

Visions Salon used skin to their advantage as well, with shirtless boys acting as lifeguards and sun-bathing girls shimmying around with a mermaid, sharks and “kelp”-covered dancers for their “Visions of Summer” theme.

Bellara salon went all out with an angels and demons-themed performance in a flurry of pleather, fishnets and halos and horns sculpted out of hair.

The salon competition, started in 2007, was the brainchild of Patty Nehrer, beauty supply chain Maly’s Salon Product Distributor, and Jo Ann Baumert, the owner of Granite Bay’s Bella Toscana.

They decided it was a fun way not only to unite the salon industry but to have a good time despite dark economic times.

For each semi-final round, salons were given free rein to choose a theme and five minutes of stage time to put their best hair-styling and performance efforts on display for the crowd. The same rules applied for last night’s show.

Judges mainly focused on technical aspects of the performers’ hair but the salons were also scored on their theme’s creativity and overall performance, including lights and music.

The competition has been sponsored by hairstyling empire CHI/Farouk, who provided hair color, shampoo and tools for the competition.

Each salon paid an initial entry of $500, which went directly to VCI, along with 100 percent of ticket sales sold at participating salons.

All participating stylists from Space 07 will receive airfare and hotel accommodation to the CHI/Farouk Academy in Houston (the company’s headquarters).

For contact information on how to participate in next year’s competition, visithairgames2009.com.

Images taken by Anthony Bento

For more photos by Anthony from Hair Games 2009 Finale visit http://www.hatlesslincoln.com/photography/v/bento/hairgames/