Aisata Diallo, 24, calls herself a lifelong braider. “I’ve always braided my hair growing up and, at some point in my college career, started braiding other people’s hair,” she said. At Northeastern University in Boston, she found limited access to braiders and textured-hair specialists, so she decided to fill that gap by starting a small business of her own.
“Throughout that experience, I was very close to some of the pain points in the styling process and complained about it constantly,” she said. Braiding is a manual task, and a single style can take eight hours to complete. Many professionals deal with issues like cramping and carpal tunnel syndrome after spending long days standing behind a chair weaving hair into patterns.
