f Xuchang, known as China’s wig capital, who expects his sales to grow 40 per cent this year, driven largely by US buyers drawn through the apps TikTok and Instagram. China’s US exports of hair products rose 12.4 per cent year-on-year to US$1.3 billion in the first half of 2026, customs data shows, with shipments on track to beat 2025’s full-year figure of US$2.3 billion. It is one of the fastest-growing export categories alongside more conventional ones, such as computer parts, scooters or plastic goods. While customs data for artificial nails is limited because they’re categorised as plastic products, producers say business is booming. Zhang Da, the owner of a 200-worker press-on nail factory in the eastern county of Donghai, says exports climbed to 7 per cent of total revenue this year from per cent late in 2025, with US sales making up a large chunk. A problem for the world? The trend demonstrates that Beijing occupies “a unique historical position” in using scale and product upgrades to dominate global markets in both advanced and lower value-added goods, said Dan Wang, the China director of Eurasia Group. “It is not just competing with the industrial products of one or two countries, it is competing with all industrial products globally,” Wang said, a scenario that presented a problem for other countries, rather than China. “It is going to be very difficult to see China’s advantage replaced for many years to come.” Chinese exporters of beauty accessories have capitalised on the proliferation of influencers and celebrities on social media who frequently change wigs and manicures. To do so, Chinese manufacturing centres have relied on labour forces that would be hard to replicate elsewhere – in Xuchang alone, for example, about 300,000 of a population of 4.4 million work in the hair industry, state media said. Donghai, a county of 1 million people in the eastern city of Lianyungang, had nearly 25,000 press-on nail businesses. Wu, in Xuchang, said its producers can outcompete rivals in places like Southeast Asia through efficiencies gained from large output capacity. They mostly outsource the labour-intensive process of tying individual hair strands to laces used in wigs to North Korea, while sourcing some of the hair domestically from rural areas. “The hair industry is just like any other sector – it relies on economies of scale, coupled with upstream and downstream supply chain integration,” Wu added. Tiktok sales Hair products took 17 of the top 20 spots in Tiktok sales revenue rankings for US fashion accessories in August, according to data analytics platform Fastmoss. The top-selling item was a glueless, pre-bleached straight-hair wig. Ranked seventh was a men’s bracelet with Bible verses, in 13th place was a hand-sized stitching device, and 20th was a pair of sunglasses. Another hair product seller from Xuchang, who gave only his surname, Tian, said his US sales rose 1 per cent to 1 per cent over last year. “Customers there really value personalisation,” Tian said, citing a feature that lets him charge higher prices for lower volumes. US clients account for a monthly revenue stream of US$10,000, said a Tiktok livestreamer from a nail shop in Donghai who sought anonymity. Producers are unfazed by any prospects of further US trade curbs, saying US demand is strong and supply cannot easily scale up outside China. “Tariffs have an impact, but they are not the decisive factor,” Wu added. Reporting by Claire Fu in Singapore and Nicoco Chan and Chenxi Yang in Lianyungang. Editing by Marius Zaharia and Clarence Fernandez. All courtesy of Reuters.