Hylo co-founders Aaron Fenwick (left) and Mark Fullerton won two awards at the Australian Hair Fashion Awards in April.
Hylo co-founders Aaron Fenwick (left) and Mark Fullerton won two awards at the Australian Hair Fashion Awards in April.
A salon chair chat between Rotorua schoolmates has become a multi-award-winning product challenging one of the hair industry’s oldest staples.
Hylo, co-founded by Mark Fullerton and Aaron Fenwick, won Best New Hair Essential and Best New Colour Innovation at the Australian Hair Fashion Awards last month.
The product is areusable alternative to aluminium foil for professional colouring.
Fullerton went to the awards and “felt like royalty” walking into Sydney’s “incredibly beautiful” Town Hall.
He told Fullerton he couldn’t believe salons still used aluminium foil.
“Foils were never invented for highlighting hair ... it slips ... it’s hard to get close to the root”.
It was made for food. And it was also unsustainable, Fullerton said. Despite being recyclable, it was made for single use.
Fullerton did not come from the hair industry. He had worked in telecommunications, investment banking and as a sheep and beef farmer, among other roles.
But he “always had a passion for entrepreneurship”.
Hylo co-founder Mark Fullerton at the Australian Hair Fashion Awards in Sydney.
He wanted a product that was “easier ... elevated ... but also better for the environment”.
Fullerton used being an industry outsider to his advantage – asking “silly” questions, challenging assumptions and observing closely.
Their product uses a heat-stabilising film, a control clip and a flexible comb for a “softer blend at the roots” – which Fullerton said made application quicker and easier. It could be reused hundreds of times.
The name Hylo came from the ancient Greek word “hylozoism”, meaning everything in the universe is alive and interconnected.
It was launched in Sydney in July.
Fullerton said bringing Hylo to life was a collaborative New Zealand effort, involving universities, engineers, polymer experts, product designers and stylists from around the world.
“I feel like I’m the conductor of the orchestra.
“It’s not me, it’s not Aaron – it’s a community of people that have come together to help make Hylo,” Fullerton said.
Hylo in use during a professional hair colouring session.
Hylo claimed silver at New Zealand’s 2025 Best Awards in the non-consumer product category and won the Commercial and Industrial Product category at the 2025 Australian Good Design Awards.
“I just love that it’s kind of a celebration of tiny New Zealand [and putting] Bay of Plenty on the world stage,” Fullerton said.
Some salons were “sceptical” about adopting the product.
Fullerton said it was “difficult” shifting mindsets when challenging one of the industry’s oldest standards.
“It takes a while for people to change, to understand it.
“Stylists are really tactile people, so they need to kind of see it and touch and feel it,” he said.
The product was about having the courage to replace something the world had accepted for too long.
Stacey Rangitakatu, senior stylist at Blow Hair and a Hylo educator, said Hylo appeared to leave clients’ hair in better condition than foil, while still delivering strong lift and a clean, even result.
Hylo is being tested by the University of Auckland’s chemistry department to validate those results. It is available at some salons in Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Annabel Reid is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke’s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.
