When your significant other visits your home for the first time, your mother will probably embarrass you by showing off photo albums from your childhood and maybe even one of your baby teeth that she has saved for you.

Think that's bad? Well, a Chinese mother-in-law may take out her collection of your baby hair and umbilical cord. Stay calm - this creepy scene doesn't mean you've married into a family of serial killers. It's a common practice here in Beijing to keep those kinds of things as babyhood souvenirs. Lately, it's even become a major commercial endeavor, too.

Novel keepsakes

Many regions in China hold the tradition that when a baby turns one month old, they get their first haircut to celebrate their first manyue (full month). The lock of hair is then wrapped up in red paper and thrown on the roof.

Wang Ya'nan, 25, put her own spin on tradition and had a calligraphy brush made from her baby boy's first hairs. When her son turned one month in January, she ordered a baby keepsake package online for 299 yuan ($48), which included the brush and a crystal memento of his tiny hand and footprints.

"I just wanted a souvenir for him to cherish in the future," said Wang, a stay-at-home mom based in Chaoyang district.

Employees from the online retailer came to her house to collect the baby's hair and copies of his hand and footprints, and in about two months' time, she received the finished products in the mail.

A search on Taobao, China's largest online retailer, for "baby hair pen" brings up about 6,000 different items, with prices ranging from 8 yuan to more than 10,000 yuan.

Besides the fineness of the craftsmanship, the key factor that determines the prices of the brushes is the material of the brush stem, which could be of bamboo, buffalo horn, redwood, jade, animal bones or others.

The top-selling brush, which costs 10 yuan, has a record of about 600 successful sales. According to its product description, the history of the brushes of baby hairs "goes way back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907)," though experts Metro Beijing contacted disagree with this practice's historical ties.

In the face of this booming new industry, Wang admits she has her doubts over whether the brush is really made from her son's hair, not someone else's, despite the manufacturer's guarantee.

In addition to writing brushes, baby hairs can also be preserved in crystal and worn as necklaces and bracelets or put in name seals. Odder still, the infant hair can be transformed into a picture of the baby, a dragon, a phoenix or the baby's zodiac animal.

Not so into baby hair art? Other choices include coins engraved with the baby's image or birthdate, crystal footprints and gilded handprint casts.

Products crafted from umbilical cords have also been making a splash. The top-selling umbilical cord seal on Taobao, costing 48 yuan, secured about 500 customers in the last month.

To make these products, parents hand over the umbilical cord that naturally comes off of the baby about one or two weeks after birth. Time is of the essence, though, since the companies must receive the umbilical cord within two months, when it becomes completely dried out. Local company AngelBaby, for example, sends someone to the family's home as soon as possible to pick up the piece of umbilical cord, which is then cleaned and processed in the factory.

Industry in its infancy

The demand for manufactured baby keepsakes in Beijing started to pick up around 2006. Now more than 20 manufacturers in the city cater to this niche, said Lu Yening, manager of AngelBaby, a Beijing-based manufacturer of customized souvenirs founded in 2008.

The prices of AngelBaby's products range from 30 yuan to thousands of yuan. For example, compared to the brushes made of plastic, wood or bronze, a gilded one will set parents back about 3,000 yuan.

Since many customers like Wang remain skeptical whether they can trust the manufacturers to use their babies' real hair or umbilical cords, Lu's company has launched a new service. The hair can be cut and made into a brush right on the spot. Other products like the handprints and footprints, though, still have to go to the factory.

"It's important that the souvenirs are made of good materials with delicate workmanship so they will last for a long time," said Lu. She noted that her company has also taken orders from foreign customers, including the Japanese, Koreans and Americans.

Aggressive marketing

Fiona Zhou, 26, a public relations officer living in Chaoyang district, just gave birth to a baby girl at the end of 2012.

Ever since the baby was born, she's been pestered by calls from companies selling baby-hair brushes. She thinks the hospital shared her contact information with brush manufacturers.

"They even keep a record of the baby's age, and call much more frequently during the days before the baby is 30 or 100 days old (when it's traditional to cut the baby's hair)," said Zhou. "Two or three different companies called me each day during that time."

They usually start casually, discussing the hair cutting services they provide for babies, and then tactfully mention the brushes, Zhou said. The marketer told her that the cheapest was 168 yuan. Zhou gave in. But when they arrived at Zhou's apartment last Saturday, she found out that they charge extra for the brush pot and other accessories.

"Their average price is 2,000 yuan. One model even costs 8,888 yuan," Zhou said, noting that she chose the cheapest set for 506 yuan. "If I had known earlier that it would cost so much, I wouldn't have decided to do this."

New tradition

Marketing for these companies makes brushes made of babies' hair or name seals of umbilical cord seem like an ancient custom.

But it's not, said Gao Wei, a folklorist and secretary-general of the Beijing Folklore Society.

"It's just a result of commercial marketing in recent years," Gao told Metro Beijing, noting that there is no written record indicating it used to be a tradition in history.

Along with the lack of historical significance, Gao said, a brush crafted with babies' hair would be too soft to write well.

"What's more, most Chinese families now have only one child. They won't spare any expense when it comes to the kids," Gao said.