Moha Hairdressing owner Kylie Hayes won the Hairdresser of the Year award in Auckland on Sunday.
She had been eligible to compete in the awards six times, but won the top prize for the first time on Sunday, she said.
The four judges saw her styles as being current or ahead of the trend, she said.
As well as the award for styling hairdresser of the year, she was second in the Oceanic cut award and third in the Patrick Cameron challenge.
The entry for the styling award was a "modern-day tribal" cut, she said.
In the Oceanic cut section, she was was up against Australian hairdressers.
Her entry was "strong and geometric", with the hairstyle and model dressed in leather and chains, she said.
It was a "bit of bondage" and inspired by the novel Fifty Shades of Grey, Mrs Hayes said.
The style for the Patrick Cameron challenge was 1920s inspired, "a really beautiful sculptured wave", she said.
She gained inspiration by reading a multitude of magazines and spending hours on the internet, she said.
Long-standing clients Alice Williams, from Dunedin, and Carey Scott, from Wellington, modelled her entries, she said.
A St Clair, Dunedin, hairdresser won another category at the awards. Zaibatsu Hair Art owner Jaimee Smith said she submitted photographs and won the overall award for editorial stylist of the year.
The style captured in the winning entry was a simple but beautiful cut, she said.
"Sometimes, less is more."
Heidi McGill, from Klone Hair in Dunedin, was third in the cutting category.
- Shawn McAvinue.
