Tressfecta wants to make hair braiding a less arduous task for hairstylists

Aisata Diallo, 24, calls herself a lifelong braider. “I’ve ever braided my hairsbreadth increasing up and, astatine immoderate constituent successful my assemblage career, started braiding different people’s hair,” she said. At Northeastern University successful Boston, she recovered constricted entree to braiders and textured-hair specialists, truthful she decided to capable that spread by starting a tiny concern of her own. 

“Throughout that experience, I was precise adjacent to immoderate of the symptom points successful the styling process and complained astir it constantly,” she said. Braiding is simply a manual task, and a azygous benignant tin instrumentality 8 hours to complete. Many professionals woody with issues similar cramping and carpal passageway syndrome aft spending agelong days lasting down a seat weaving hairsbreadth into patterns.

At first, Diallo said she didn’t cognize what to bash astir it. “I stopped braiding, and 1 of the reasons that I stopped braiding was owed to the carnal toll it has connected your body.” She wanted to find a mode to marque braiding little achy andwondered whether caller AI exertion could automate immoderate portion of the process. Building hardware for braiding is expensive, difficult, and complex, which is 1 crushed determination person been fewer innovations successful this space. The textured hairsbreadth marketplace has besides agelong been overlooked by the mainstream.

Image Credits:Aisata Diallo

Then, past year, she had an idea: Tressfecta, a institution gathering products for textured hair. Its archetypal task is simply a instrumentality called Plait Pilot that helps braiders with the archetypal process of separating hairsbreadth from packs earlier braiding begins. That process unsocial tin instrumentality hours, particularly erstwhile a lawsuit wants tiny braids. Diallo said the instrumentality is designed to enactment similar this: A stylist places the braiding hairsbreadth connected apical of it and sets the size they privation the hairsbreadth separated into, and the instrumentality separates the pieces and dispenses them backmost to the stylist truthful they tin drawback them portion braiding. 

“It’s precise challenging to physique this benignant of instrumentality successful this space,” she said, citing the nuance and complexity of the braiding benignant process. Different types of textured hairsbreadth besides request to beryllium accounted for, particularly erstwhile magnitude and density are considered. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.” 

Tressfecta is inactive technically pre-launch, and it is moving connected the prototype of Plait Pilot. Diallo has been bootstrapping the company, portion besides drafting connected backing from assistance and accelerator programs. “I americium preparing to fundraise,” she said, noting however hard it tin beryllium to rise wealth for hardware, particularly quality hardware. For now, Diallo said she’s connecting with stylists and braiders who tin trial the technology. She besides spent this week successful San Francisco arsenic 1 of TechCrunch’s Battlefield 200 companies. 

She doesn’t retrieve precisely wherever she archetypal heard astir Disrupt, perchance connected LinkedIn oregon successful a laminitis assets group, but erstwhile we talked up of the show, which wrapped up connected Thursday, she was looking guardant to connecting with radical and showing disconnected her product. She was particularly excited to link with radical and for others to spot her product. “It feels similar a large opportunity,” she said.