A robot that can reduce the time it takes to braid hair from hours to minutes won the 2025 Presidents Innovation Challenge, Harvard Innovation Labs’ startup competition for students and alumni.
Yinka Ogunbiyi and David Afolabi, two Nigerian Harvard alums, invented Halo Braid to save time and money for both braiders and clients, per Black Enterprise.
- One salon estimates the average time required for boxer braids is 4 to 12 hours, depending on the stylist’s skill and the type and size of the braid.
- Ogunbiyi said that getting her hair braided, something she’s done all her life, takes six hours and costs $200-$300.
And while Ogunbiyi noted that braids are a popular hairstyle that many have redone every eight weeks, the practice “hasn’t seen innovation since braiding was invented” thousands of years ago.
Ogunbiyi and Afolabi built 450 prototypes over 18 months, completing thousands of braids, including with Ogunbiyi’s own hair.
“The tricky thing is creating a braid, doing it on a human’s head, and doing it with hair, which is one of the hardest things to work with,” she said.
How it works
Braiders start each braid, but Halo Braid — which looks nothing like a humanoid bot but more like stand dryers already seen in some salons — finishes it. This results in a process that Halo says is 5x faster, not to mention much easier on braiders’ hands.
- A study of African hair braiders in Oklahoma City and Dallas Fort/Worth found that hair braiders may experience work-related musculoskeletal disorders due to the repetitive hand motions they perform.
What’s next?
Halo Braid won a $75k prize in the competition, which it will use to open a Boston salon where it’ll pilot the machine and various hairstyles before scaling manufacturing. There is currently a waitlist for braiders and salons interested in the machine when it launches.
Though not everyone may use it: While some responses on social media were overjoyed at the potential time savings, others balked at letting a bot get involved in a cultural and communal activity passed between generations.
