by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
October 21, 2025
Deemed the “Halo Braid,” the braiding instrument helps stylists by decreasing the time wanted to finish the favored model.
The invention of a hair-braiding robotic has gained a startup competitors at Harvard Innovation Labs.
The 2025 President’s Innovation Problem Winner topped Halo Braid as its newest winner. The competitors, carried out at Harvard, challenges alumni and college students from its 13 colleges to current progressive concepts that might remodel industries. In its Alumni + Associates Open Monitor, the highest prize went to the game-changing Halo Braid.
Halo Braid’s inventors, Harvard Enterprise Faculty’s Yinka Ogunbiyi and David Afolabi, hope to chop braiding time by half. With the introduction of the braiding robotic, they intention for braiders and their shoppers to save lots of money and time, boosting effectivity and rushing up the prolonged course of.
@harvardinnovationlabs
Meet 2025 President’s Innovation Problem Winner: Halo Braid. Halo Braid is decreasing hair braiding time from six hours to minutes, empowering hair stylists to double their enterprise. Watch to see how innovation is reworking an business that hasn’t modified in hundreds of years.
♬ authentic sound – Harvard Innovation Labs
The pitch instantly garnered consideration by mentioning the struggles of conventional hair-braiding at the moment.
“What if each time you bought your hair minimize, it took six hours, value $200 to $300, and gave your hair stylist arthritis at age 2? That is what it’s wish to get your hair braided. And I do know this primary hand as a result of I’ve worn braids all my life,” shared Ogunbiyi.
She continued, “Hair braiding is now the most well-liked coiffure for 20 million Individuals who expertise this depressing course of each eight weeks. And but, braiding hasn’t seen innovation since braiding was invented 5000 years in the past.”
The patent-pending hair braiding robotic assists braiders by ending the braids they begin. This helps not solely lower styling time by hours, but in addition ensures each events can scale back time within the salon for the protecting model.
“Stylists begin the braid. Halo finishes it. We scale back braiding time from hours to minutes, making braiding joyful, not painful, and permitting a stylist to develop their enterprise with out destroying our palms,” added Ogunbiyi.
Based on Customized Market Insights, the worldwide hair braiding market is anticipated to succeed in a market valuation of over $625 million by 2032. Now, Halo Braid hopes to capitalize on this rising development by serving to stylists scale back braiding time whereas not forsaking high quality.
Ogunbiyi defined, “Our gadgets have performed 1000s of braids and braided full hairstyles like mine for the previous 12 months, and we use machine studying to match skilled high quality, however to do it 5 occasions quicker.”
At the moment, Halo Braid has a waitlist for professionals and novice braiders to raise their providers. With this win, Halo Braid can use this funding to deliver their concept to fruition, eternally altering the varied hairstyling panorama.
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