Nigerian-American engineer and Harvard graduate Yinka Ogunbiyi has explained the motivation behind HaloBraid, a patent-pending robotic system designed to assist professional hairstylists by significantly reducing the time and physical strain involved in braiding hair.
Ogunbiyi, the founder of HaloBraid, said the innovation was inspired by the long hours, high costs and physical toll associated with hair braiding, a service used regularly by millions of people.
The explanation, drawn from a presentation she delivered at the 2025 Harvard Innovation Challenge, resurfaced on Friday after the United States Mission in Nigeria highlighted her achievement in a post on X.
According to the mission, HaloBraid has secured $7 million in seed funding and attracted more than 7,000 salons to its waiting list.
The funding round was led by Seven Seven Six, the venture capital firm founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, with additional investment from AlleyCorp and Bling Capital.
Speaking during the innovation challenge, Ogunbiyi said the idea stemmed from her own experiences of wearing braided hairstyles throughout her life and the lack of technological advancement in the industry.
“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. 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.
She recalled that the first time she braided her own hair during the COVID-19 pandemic, the process took four days, prompting her to explore how technology could simplify the experience.
Ogunbiyi said she later realised that millions of people faced similar challenges.
“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.
She subsequently partnered with co-founder David Afolabi to develop HaloBraid, an automated system designed to work alongside professional stylists rather than replace them.
“That’s why we’re building HaloBraid, the first patent-pending hair braiding robot that saves time for stylists and their clients.
“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 said.
The system is designed so that the stylist prepares the client’s hair by parting the scalp, sectioning the hair and creating the initial anchor knot before attaching the HaloBraid device to complete the repetitive braiding process. The stylist then removes the unit to finish, trim and seal the hairstyle.
According to Ogunbiyi, the machine uses machine-learning technology to achieve professional-quality braiding while completing the repetitive work at around five times the conventional speed.
“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.
Responding to concerns that automation could diminish the cultural significance of traditional hair braiding, Ogunbiyi said the technology was intended only to assist with repetitive movements that consume the most time and place the greatest physical strain on stylists.
She added that industry research cited by the company found that nearly 95 per cent of surveyed Black women said they would choose protective hairstyles more often if salon appointments were less time-consuming and physically demanding.
“Our mission is to save billions of hours spent braiding hair each year and transform an industry that hasn’t changed in thousands of years,” Ogunbiyi said.
Ogunbiyi holds joint Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Harvard Business School. Before founding HaloBraid, she worked on the development of connected smart home appliances and consumer electronics.
