Mane, the sustainable (and attainable) hair care brand created by celebrity hairstylist Jen Atkin, has uncovered a way to break through the noise of the cluttered hot tools category.

The brand, which launched one year ago on DTC site heymane.com, will become the only hot tools brand available in 670 freestanding Sephora locations across the U.S. and Canada with one of the most affordable hair tools collections. Items will also be sold on Sephora.com.

Mane’s entry into brick-and-mortar brings a new price point to the category, about $100 per tool (which includes an interchangeable base and an attachment), a sweet spot in targeting the beauty obsessed Gen Z and Gen Alpha shopper. Also exciting for Sephora is what Mane brings sustainability-wise: in April 2023 Mane established a brand-agnostic hot tool recycling and donation program in partnership with Pact Collective and Project Glimmer.

Mane’s hot tools collection includes an interchangeable base, The Power Bottom ($50) and three different attachment options, a 1.25” Waver Styling Attachment, a 1” Curling Iron Styling Attachment, and a 1.25” Curling Wand Styling Attachment, each of which sells for $50. Items are packaged in pulp trays made from 100% recycled materials. Sephora stores will feature gondolas stocked with the collection, as well as pastel-hued Mane hair care and hot styling brushes, Mane’s This Totally Blows! Ionic Compact Hair Dryer ($125), and the brand’s quintessential hair clips.

When compared to hot tools competitors sold on Sephora’s website, hot tools items can retail for between $279 and $499.

“It’s a really exciting next step and next chapter for the brand,” says Bernice Merlini, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and E-Commerce at Mane. “We’ve spent the last year in brand-building phase, and we’re excited to expand upon that with distribution and to be able to get products into the hands of consumers so they can touch, feel, and try them.”

Understanding the learning curve often associated with maneuvering hot tools and getting a desired look, the brand has developed products and brand-building strategies around the concept that it can take less 30 minutes to create a hair style. Support includes educational content across Mane’s social channels featuring Atkin’s expertise and how-to’s.

As the conversation around Gen Alpha remains fresh, Merlini shares that Mane’s educational approach can especially resonate with this younger demographic as they embark on the start of their hair styling journey. “The thing about beauty and the beauty about beauty is that it is always changing, right? I know there are a lot of conversations around Gen Alpha, for example, right now, so we want to be thoughtful about how it is that we are speaking to and approaching all consumers.”

On TikTok, Mane currently has 20.7K followers and harnesses successful engagement with consumers in the 18- to 24-year-old age range, and secondarily with the 25- to 34-year-old age group.

“While we work with high-tech tool brands and have much respect for the technology, we saw a major divide between what people want versus what was being offered in this category. Many of the product offerings out there aren’t suitable to manipulate all hair types and are out of budget for many consumers. My passion is updating industries that need it,” Atkin shared in an email to CEW.

“If you think back to the legacy of Mane, it started off as a real digital community, and we’ve wanted to build and grow upon that,” Bernice notes, who was one of the first hires brought on to scale the brand at the start of 2022. Eleven new hires have been added since Mane launched.