Tressfecta wants to make braiding a less difficult task for stylists

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Aysata Diallo, 24, calls herself a lifelong scissor. "I always braided my own hair growing up and at some point in college I started braiding other people's hair," she said. At Northeastern University in Boston, she found limited access to braiders and hair weavers, so she decided to fill the gap by starting her own small business.

"During that experience, I was very close to some pain points in the styling process and complained about it constantly," she said. Braiding is a manual process and one style can take up to eight hours to complete. Many professionals experience issues like cramping and carpal tunnel syndrome after spending long days behind the chair braiding hair.

At first, Diallo said he didn't know what to do about it. I stopped knitting and one of the reasons I stopped knitting was because of the physical effects it takes on your body. He wanted to find a way to make weaving less of a hassle, and wondered if new AI technology could automate part of the process. Hardware for looms is expensive, difficult, and complex to make, which is one reason there has been little innovation in the space. The weft hair market has also long been ignored by the mainstream.

Then, last year, he had an idea: Tressfecta, a company-made product for textured hair. Its first project is a tool called Plait Pilot, which helps braiders with the initial process of separating the hair from the plaits before they begin braiding. This process alone can take hours, especially when the client wants small textures. Diallo said the machine is designed to work like this: A stylist places the braided hair on it, determines the size at which they want the hair parted, and the machine separates the pieces and hands them to the stylist so they can hold them while they weave.

Referring to the nuances and complexity of the weaving style process, he said: "Making this type of tool in this space is very challenging. Different types of textured hair should also be considered, especially when length and density are considered. "It's not a one-size-fits-all solution."

Tressfecta is still technically pre-launch and is working on a Plait Pilot prototype. Diallo launched the company, while also using funding from grant and accelerator programs. "I'm preparing for a fundraiser," he said, noting how hard it is to raise money for hardware, especially beauty hardware. Currently, Diallo said she is reaching out to stylists and weavers who can test the technology. He also spent this week in San Francisco as one of the TechCrunch Battlefield 200 companies.

He doesn't remember exactly where he first heard about Disrupt, probably on LinkedIn or in a founder resource group, but when we spoke beforehand. At the show, which ended Thursday, he was looking forward to connecting with people and showing off his product. He was especially excited to connect with people and have others see his product. "It sounds like a great opportunity," he said.

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Dominique-Madhuri Davis is a senior venture capital and startup reporter at TechCrunch. He is based in New York City.

You can contact or confirm Dominic by sending an email to [email protected] or by encrypted message to +1 646 831-7565 on Signal.

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