The key facts
- Plait Pilot separates kanekalon strands of a set size before braiding
- Braiding a single hairstyle by hand can take up to eight hours, and stylists suffer from cramps and carpal tunnel syndrome
- Tressfecta is at the prototype stage: bootstrapping, grants, and preparation for a funding round
From Hand Pain to a Startup
Aissata Diallo, 24, calls herself a braider since childhood: she braided her own hair from a young age, and while studying at Northeastern University in Boston she began braiding for others. There was little access to textured hair specialists at the university, so she started a small business. According to her, one hairstyle can take up to eight hours, and many braiders develop cramps and carpal tunnel syndrome. Diallo herself stopped braiding for a time because of the physical toll on her body.
The Idea of Plait Pilot
Last year she came up with the idea for Tressfecta, a company creating products for textured hair. Its first device, Plait Pilot, helps stylists at the initial stage — separating hair from packs before braiding, which in itself can take hours, especially with small braids. The stylist places kanekalon on the device and sets the strand size; the device separates the strands and feeds them back to the stylist while they work.
Development and Funding Challenges
Diallo notes that creating such tools is difficult because of the nuances of the braiding process: different types of textured hair, their length and density must be taken into account — 'this is not a one-size-fits-all solution.' Hardware development in this field is expensive and complex, so there is little innovation here, and the textured hair market was long ignored by the mainstream.
Current Status
Tressfecta is formally pre-launch and is working on the Plait Pilot prototype. Diallo is building the company with her own funds and grant and accelerator programs, and is preparing to raise investment, noting the difficulty of attracting money to hardware, especially beauty hardware, projects. She is currently looking for stylists and braiders to test the technology. This week she took part in Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, which ended on Thursday, and called it a great opportunity to showcase the product.
