Aisata Diallo, 24, has founded Tressfecta, a company building products for textured hair. Its first project is a tool called Plait Pilot, which aims to help braiders with the initial process of separating hair from packs before braiding begins.
Diallo, who calls herself a lifelong braider, said braiding is a manual task that can take eight hours for a single style. Many professionals deal with issues like cramping and carpal tunnel syndrome after long days standing behind a chair weaving hair into patterns.
The Plait Pilot is designed so a stylist places braiding hair on top of it, sets the desired size, and the device separates the pieces and dispenses them back to the stylist. Diallo said building such a tool is challenging due to the nuance and complexity of braiding styles and different types of textured hair. "It's not a one-size-fits-all solution," she said.
Tressfecta is still technically pre-launch and is working on the prototype of Plait Pilot. Diallo has been bootstrapping the company while drawing on funding from grant and accelerator programs. "I am preparing to fundraise," she said, noting how hard it can be to raise money for hardware, especially beauty hardware.
Diallo said she is connecting with stylists and braiders who can test the technology. She spent this week in San Francisco as one of TechCrunch's Battlefield 200 companies. "It feels like a great opportunity," she said.