Why I built hair braiding robot — Nigerian-American engineer

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A Nigerian-American engineer and Harvard graduate, Yinka Ogunbiyi, has explained why she built HaloBraid.

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She described it as a response to the six hours of pain, 300 cost, and long-term physical damage that hairstylists absorb for a process 20 million Americans rely on every eight weeks.

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Ogunbiyi is the developer of HaloBraid, the world’s first patent-pending braid-assist robot.

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She has raised $7m in seed funding for the device, drawing more than 7,000 salons to its waiting list, the US Mission in Nigeria disclosed in a post on X on Friday.

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Her explanation, drawn from a pitch she delivered at the Harvard Innovation Challenge in 2025, resurfaced and began trending online on Friday after the US Mission in Nigeria posted about her on X.

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The funding round was led by Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, with additional backing from AlleyCorp and Bling Capital.

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Speaking on her journey, Ogunbiyi said the idea was rooted in a lifetime of wearing braids and a hairstyling industry that had not changed in 5,000 years.

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“Imagine if every time you got your hair cut, it took six hours, cost $200 to $300 and gave your hairstylist arthritis at age 29.

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“This is what it’s like to get your hair braided. And I know this firsthand because I’ve worn braids all my life,” she said.

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She said the first time she braided her own hair, it took her four days, an ordeal she later learned was shared by millions of others.

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“Hair braiding is now the most popular hairstyle for 20 million Americans who experience this miserable process every eight weeks. And yet braiding hasn’t seen innovation since braiding was invented 5,000 years ago,” she said.

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Ogunbiyi holds a joint Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Engineering School and Harvard Business School.
nShe had previously worked on connected smart home appliances and consumer electronics.

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The idea for the company traces back to the COVID-19 pandemic, when she spent four days installing her own protective knotless braids and began exploring how technology could ease the process.

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She partnered with co-founder David Afolabi to design an automated system built to work with stylists, not replace them.

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“That’s why we’re building HaloBraid, the first patent-pending hair braiding robot that saves time for stylists and their clients,” she said.

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“Stylists start the braid, Halo finishes it, and we reduce braiding time from hours to minutes, making braiding joyful, not painful, and allowing a stylist to grow their business without destroying their hands,” she added.

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Under the process, the hairstylist parts the scalp, sections the hair and creates the initial anchor knot by hand.

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The HaloBraid unit is then attached to carry out the repetitive braiding sequence before the stylist removes it to finish, trim and seal the ends.

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She said the device, which uses machine learning to match professional-quality braiding, had completed thousands of braids over the past year at five times the usual speed.

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“Our devices have done thousands of braids and braided full hairstyles like mine for the past year, and we use machine learning to match professional quality but to do it five times faster,” she said.

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Addressing concerns that automation could dilute the cultural essence of heritage hairstyling, Ogunbiyi said nothing would be lost from the experience, since the technology only assists with the repetitive movements that consume the most time and place the greatest strain on the body.

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According to industry data cited by the company, nearly 95 per cent of surveyed Black women said they would opt for protective styling more frequently if salon visits were less exhausting and time-consuming.

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“So now we’re excited to realise our mission of saving billions of hours spent braiding hair each year and transform an industry that hasn’t changed in thousands of years,” Ogunbiyi said.

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