By Prosper Mene
Nigerian-American engineer and Harvard graduate Yinka Ogunbiyi has shared a new demo of HaloBraid, an automated salon device designed to help professional braiders work up to five times faster.
The innovation is not about replacing stylists, but making their work easier and less physically demanding.
How It Works
HaloBraid is built to handle the most repetitive and time-consuming part of braiding. The process still starts with the stylist sectioning the hair, applying products, and beginning the braid by hand.
The stylist then feeds the braid into the HaloBraid device, which takes over the weaving along the length of the hair. Once done, the stylist returns to finish and seal the ends.
It is a collaboration between human skill and machine speed, cutting down hours in the chair while reducing strain on the stylist’s hands and back.
The Inspiration Behind It
For Yinka, the idea came from a personal place. She shared:
“My braid story starts at age four, sitting between my mum’s legs as she braided my hair for the first time. Since then, I’ve spent thousands of hours getting my hair braided and heard the same story from stylists and clients again and again: braiding is beautiful, but it takes too much time and too much strain.
As a biomechanical engineer, I knew there had to be a better way, so we built HaloBraid with stylists from the beginning. HaloBraid was built for my mum, my stylists, my aunties, and people around the world who know what it means to spend hours in the chair.”
The device was developed alongside professional braiders and a team of inventors and designers behind some of the world’s most loved beauty products.
The project is already gaining serious attention. HaloBraid recently secured $7 million in seed funding, led by Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
With its new demo out, HaloBraid is showing the future of protective hairstyling — faster, less painful, and still rooted in the artistry of the braider.
