Yinka Ogunbiyi Just Built a Hair Braiding Robot

Published: July 30, 2026 Last Updated 37 minutes ago by Esther Ejoh

Many women have spent entire weekends in salon chairs, missing important events or using personal time off, simply to complete a braiding appointment.

For millions, this is not an exaggeration but a longstanding ritual. However, it is also a problem that has persisted for five thousand years.

Yinka Ogunbiyi, a Nigerian-American biomechanical engineer and Harvard graduate, recognized that this longstanding issue required a solution. During the COVID-19 lockdown, unable to visit her salon, she spent four days braiding her own hair.

By the second day, she began to view the process as an engineering challenge rather than an unavoidable inconvenience. This insight led to the creation of HaloBraid, the world’s first patent-pending braid-assist robot. The startup has already raised $7 million in seed funding.

HaloBraid is designed to assist, not replace, professional braiders. As a collaborative robot, or “cobot,” it works alongside stylists to manage the most repetitive and physically demanding aspects of braiding.

With HaloBraid, stylists retain full control over the creative and technical aspects of the service. They part the scalp, section the hair, and weave the foundational anchor knot by hand to ensure proper tension and comfort.

Once the foundation is secure, HaloBraid completes the repetitive mid-shaft braiding. The stylist then seals, trims, and styles the ends according to the client’s preferences.

Yinka Ogunbiyi explains that each braid is started by hand and finished by the braiding robot, which can work up to five times faster than a human stylist.

The device completes a classic three-strand braid, covering most knotless and box braid styles. As a result, sessions that usually take six to eight hours could be reduced to approximately two and a half to three hours.

HaloBraid addresses more than just convenience; it tackles a significant industry health issue. Professional braiders face high risks of carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic arthritis, and severe back pain due to repetitive hand motions.

As Ogunbiyi noted in her winning pitch at the Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge, she illustrated the problem with this statistic: “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”.

By handling the physically demanding portion of braiding, HaloBraid aims to extend the careers of professional stylists. It also addresses an economic challenge: hairstylists limited to one or two appointments per day face restricted earning potential.

HaloBraid could enable salons to double their daily client volume and significantly increase revenue.

The impact on clients is substantial. A Halo survey found that 95 percent of Black women would choose protective styles more often if salon visits were not so time-consuming.

The startup estimates that people spend eight billion hours annually braiding hair. This technology aims to give women back their time, which Ogunbiyi describes as “the ultimate luxury.”

The global braiding market, valued between $42 billion and $270 billion depending on the segment, has attracted major venture capital interest, resulting in a successful $7 million seed round.

The funding was led by Seven Seven Six, founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, with additional support from AlleyCorp and Bling Capital.

Ohanian, who has experienced lengthy braiding sessions with his daughter and wife, explained his investment thesis: “I look for founders that see something broken that everyone else has accepted as fixed… It’s shocking someone hasn’t built this business yet.”

The startup has demonstrated strong market potential, with over 7,000 professional salons on its waitlist ahead of launch.

Yinka Ogunbiyi’s braiding hair robot, HaloBraid is set to launch in salons this fall. The company will make the device accessible to stylists at no upfront cost, instead taking a percentage of the appointment fee.

Having developed over 600 prototypes, the team is also exploring a device to undo braids, a process that can be as time-consuming as braiding.

For Ogunbiyi, the mission is both personal and meaningful. “I’m really interested in cultural technology and solving problems, but the most important thing is I’ve had braids all my life. I’ve probably spent thousands of hours getting my hair braided, and so a lot of what we’re doing here was inspired by that experience.”

With HaloBraid, she aims to create a future where this beauty ritual is no longer a test of endurance, where women regain their time, and where innovation finally reaches an industry that has waited five thousand years.

Photo: Instagram/halo.braid