Eco Style

Eco Style is an American haircare brand specialising in styling gels, owned by the Jacksonville, Florida company Estyle Corp LLC. The brand built its name on a single product type — the styling gel — and on the claim that its original formula was the first alcohol-free hair styling gel to reach the market [8]. It is best known within the natural-hair and Curly Girl Method communities, where its affordable, water-based gels became a routine staple for people with textured hair.

The brand remains active. Its website carries current promotions and a 2026 copyright, and its gels are sold through major US retailers including Walmart, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walgreens and Kroger. On its own site the company describes Eco Style as "The #1 Styling Gel Brand," citing more than 100 million units sold [1].

The brand traces back to Aaron Tiram, who had run beauty supply stores in Miami in the early 1980s before moving north to Chicago to start his own hairstyling-products manufacturer. The corporate entity behind the brand, Ecoco Inc., was founded in 1983 [5]. According to a trade profile in Beauty Store Business, Tiram then worked with a chemist to introduce the first Eco Style gel in 1985 — described as the first alcohol-free hair styling product to hit the market [8].

Sources differ on which of these years marks the brand's founding. A corporate database lists 1983, the year Ecoco Inc. was incorporated [5]; Beauty Store Business ties the origin to 1985, when the first gel launched [8]. The two dates describe different events — company formation versus first product — rather than a genuine dispute.

The company began as a two-person operation and grew into a manufacturer with more than 200 individual products sold in over 30 countries, according to Beauty Store Business. It remained a family business: Aaron's son Jonathan Tiram joined to lead sales and marketing and later served as a senior executive.

Eco Style is owned by Estyle Corp LLC, the corporate name now used by the business formerly known as Ecoco Inc. In 2020, the company was acquired by the private-equity firm Clarion Capital Partners; the buyout was backed by a $70 million senior secured credit facility [7]. Clarion Capital describes the business as "a manufacturer and marketer of multicultural haircare products" and lists it among its portfolio holdings [6]. Following the acquisition, the company's headquarters moved from Chicago, Illinois, to Jacksonville, Florida; a pre-acquisition corporate listing still records the earlier Chicago address.

The company positions Eco Style as a brand built around alcohol-free, naturally-derived styling products for textured hair, pairing styling performance with what it calls environmental consciousness. Its stated mission is to "unleash your individual style through quality products that care for your hair and the world we live in." The brand's marketing leans on the slogan "Defy Definition" and on formulation claims such as "No Parabens. No Sulfates. No Compromises."

On its FAQ page the company states that Eco Style products are cruelty-free and not tested on animals, that many are vegan with no animal-derived ingredients, and that most formulas contain no added alcohol and are intended to be gentle on the scalp and suitable for colour-treated hair. The gels are positioned at the budget end of the market, typically priced at a few dollars per tub.

Eco Style's range is organised around styling gels sorted by hold strength and by hair type, from wavy to tightly coiled. Its best-known products are oil-themed gels — the Olive Oil, Argan Oil, Black Castor & Flaxseed Oil and Coconut Oil styling gels — alongside the high-hold Krystal gel and a Curl & Wave gel formulated for textured hair. A newer Extreme Gels line extends the range toward longer-hold formulas.

The Olive Oil Styling Gel is the brand's signature product and its most visible in the natural-hair community, where it is closely associated with the Curly Girl Method and wash-and-go styling on type 3 and type 4 hair. It won NaturallyCurly.com's Best of the Best Award in both 2019 and 2020 [9]. Reviewers have noted that the formula is free of silicones, sulfates and drying alcohols, which makes it compatible with the Curly Girl Method.

Coverage has not been uniformly positive. A detailed review by Curls and Beauty Diary observed that olive oil appears near the end of the ingredient list, argued the gel provides limited hold relative to its marketing, and concluded the formula behaves more like a light refreshing gel than a firm-hold styler [10].

The Olive Oil Styling Gel's back-to-back NaturallyCurly.com Best of the Best wins in 2019 and 2020 are the brand's principal awards. The company and its history have been profiled by the trade publication Beauty Store Business, and its 2020 acquisition was covered by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The brand has also surfaced in mainstream beauty editorial: The Everygirl cited an "Eco-Styler gel" as a wash-and-go staple in a discussion of natural-hair routines.

Eco Style is an active brand. Its website is current, carrying 2026 copyright, ongoing promotions and a new Extreme Gels collection, and it maintains Instagram, TikTok and Facebook accounts. The gels are distributed through major US grocery, drug and mass retailers and, per trade reporting, sold internationally [8]. The brand continues to describe itself as the leading styling-gel brand in its category.