If posts on the account she shares with mother Kim Kardashian is any indication, the 9-year-old typically reaches for two products in the process: an edge control brush and hair gel. Eco Styler is her brand of choice for hair gel, and Baby Tress’s Edge Styler is a favorite edge control brush. On Jan. 24, North posted a 3-minute video featuring her younger sister Chicago that showed the two doing each others’ edges. It’s drawn almost 41 million views, and Eco Styler and Baby Tress were front and center in it.

The video isn’t the first time the young TikTok star has drawn attention to Baby Tress. She posted a hyper-speed video in November last year laying her edges with the Baby Tress brush and Eco Styler hair gel. North doesn’t usually tag brands in her videos, but Baby Tress co-founder Hannah Choi spotted her brand’s product immediately. She says, “What’s so special about our product is that it has a unique design patented shape, so it’s very easy to recognize. I know when it’s my product, and I know if it’s a fake.”

Baby Tress’s sales increased by 70% for three weeks following video with North and Chicago, but Choi isn’t sure whether the increase was due to the sisters or her ensuing efforts. Choi remixed the video and posted it to her personal TikTok account the next day and tagged Baby Tress. That video has racked up 1.9 million views.

Tttrinity is another company that’s received North’s stamp of approval. Its Baby Hair Edge Pro has a brush comb on one end and a refillable gel on the other, and West posted a video using the product on Dec. 26 with the caption, “Merry Christmas to me.”

Founder Tia Hollis, who goes by Mee-Chee the mentor, says the brand’s website crashed the day the video went live due to an explosion of orders. A week later, Kim Kardashian highlighted the brand in an Instagram Stories post, stating that it was all North wanted for Christmas. Tttrinity sold a Baby Hair Edge Pro per second on average in the 24 hours after the shout-out.

Styled baby hairs have been a staple of Black and Latinx hair for decades. Josephine Baker shaped her baby hairs in the 1920s. Rozonda Thomas, aka Chilli from the music group TLC, and Jennifer Lopez popularized stylized baby hairs in the 1990s and early 2000s. Since then, the category of edge control products has evolved with brands like Baby Tress providing updates to the toothbrushes consumers traditionally reached for to sculpt their baby hairs, and a diversity of baby hair styles has emerged in tandem with the new products.

Brooklyn hairstylist Susan Oludele’s brand Hair By Susy offers a $20 strong hold edge control, and it’s one of its bestsellers. In pop culture today, Oludele has detected a mounting number of examples of women showcasing various ways to wear baby hair. She points out artist FKA Twigs has fun with her baby hairs, and singer Normani and rapper Cardi B play with their baby hairs in the art and video for the song “Wild Side.”

“There are so many ways you can style them and so many ways you can wear them,” says Oludele. “There are long baby hairs, short baby hairs, puffy baby hairs, laid baby hairs.”

According to data from Mintel, 62% of Black women aged 18 to 34 years old purchase edge control products. The market research firm identifies hair oil and hair gel as edge control products that have experienced growth in the past few years. In a report, Mintel says, “The popularity of edge control products among women who shop the category points to an opportunity to expand the market with edge styling tips, tricks, and tools.”

Mintel multicultural analyst Courtney Rominiyi elaborates, “Consumers with more coarse textures are getting creative. Many are branching out by mixing other products to get the job done such as setting sprays and gels.”

Interest in branching out to a myriad of edge control products tracks with Mintel’s findings that 71% of Black haircare shoppers go beyond the basics of shampoo and conditioner to purchase multiple products. A third of the group purchase five or more haircare products on average.

Mintel suggests brands can capitalize on the consumer behavior by extending existing assortments to popular product types and “using brand cache in one product to encourage trial of other necessary elements of a haircare routine.” In its report, the firm says, “Expanding product options provides convenience for the shopper, saving them time otherwise spent on decision making.”

Some brands have already done that on the edge control front. Textured haircare brand Mielle Organics has two edge gels as part of its Rosemary Mint and Honey & Ginger collections. Pattern added edge control glide and an edge control tool to its lineup in 2020, while Curls touts what it calls Control Paste that comes in passionfruit and blueberry bliss options.

What consumers are looking for in an edge control product depends on their hair type and texture, according to Rominiyi, who identifies the main need as hold. “Soft holds versus strong holds are important to allow for styling flexibility,” she says, continuing that consumers are seeking buildable edge control merchandise “that offers different levels of hold without causing terrible build-up.” Popular brands are Lotta Body, Design Essentials and Edge Booster. Humidity resistance is another draw. She says, “Consumers report an edge control that can retain moisture while continuing to smooth during a hot day will win them over.”

Along with hold, Rominiyi remarks consumers seek products with strengthening ingredients to keep edges strong and intact. That desire is the inspiration behind Bask and Bloom’s Watermelon Seed Edge Pomade. After losing her hair following the birth of her three children, founder Candera Thompson launched the haircare brand in 2017 to focus on women suffering from postpartum hair loss. Its reach has since swelled to encompass women with general hair issues hunting for dryness and breakage remedies.

Prompted by demand from customers, Bask and Bloom introduced the Watermelon Seed Edge Pomade in 2019. Thompson emphasizes it’s packed with vitamins to assist with hair loss prevention. “A lot of the women that we cater to said that products on the market were drying their edges out or breaking their hair off,” she says. “They told us it would be great to have a product that we can still use on our edges or to slick back flyaways, but not have to worry about is it too hard, is it too strong or is there too much alcohol that’s drying out an already delicate area?”

Bask and Bloom’s customers turn to the product to aid with creating high buns and knotless box braids, and re-twisting locs. Thompson says, “We wanted it to be a moisturizing edge pomade that’s also formulated to be buildable with our hair mousse or twirly gel. For women who want a stronger hold, they can use it with one of those products and it’ll last longer, but for the ones that just wants the sleek look, they can use it on its own, and they get to control how strong the product can be.”

Samantha Cutler, founder of Petite ‘n Pretty, noticed her tween beauty brand’s Featherlight Clear Mascara and Brow Gel was being used for baby hairs in “get ready with me” videos on social media. Her daughter picked up the trick from TikTok and YouTube, and Cutler notes it speaks to the versatility of the products.

“Petite ‘n Pretty was started as a way to bring clean, age-appropriate makeup to the tween crowd by creating products for kids to be creative and experiment,” she says. “Through trends and social media, it brings us joy to see the innovative ways customers are interpreting and using the Featherlight Clear Mascara and Brow.”

Choi has been pleasantly surprised to learn that Baby Tress’s customers are using its Edge Styler outside of the hair line. Some of her friends use it for their brows; others use it to tame flyaways; and the brand has a growing base of men using it to style their hair into waves.

Choi discovered men’s usage of the edge control brush because a barber known as 360Jeezy used it in one of his videos on YouTube. Unlike North, 360Jeezy mentioned the product in the video and linked to it. Choi estimates that the brand received 238 orders from the mention. He’s posted more videos incorporating the product, and the brand encouraged him with a discount code allowing him to garner a percentage of sales facilitated by his content.

When Beyoncé put Baby Tress in a roundup of Black-owned brands, it saw its biggest sales jump of 600% for two days. Shannon Kennard, a Black woman, is a co-founder at the brand. Choi is Asian American.

With a marketing budget close to zero, Baby Tress relies on organic press placements and word of month to raise awareness. It’s gifted products to celebrity hairstylists like Lacy Redway, Mario Dedivanovic, Vernon Francois. Ash Co Tran and Chris Appleton, who works with Kim Kardashian. Choi figures North West got a hold of Baby Tress’s Edge Styler due to the brand gifting it to Appleton. The product has also popped up in the background on the Hulu reality show “The Kardashians.”

Choi has spotted Edge Styler copycats and deals with them on a case-by-case basis. They don’t anger her. Instead, she views them as an indication of growth in a category that’s been considered niche, and a nod to the product’s functionality and cool aesthetics.

“We had a vision for a future where modern hair tools were designed with functionality as well as form in mind, particularly for women of color, who have historically been underserved in the beauty space,” says Choi. “By identifying this gap in the market, we’ve not only created a one-of-a-kind product, we’ve also established a brand story that really resonates with our customers.”