Tressfecta wants to make hair braiding a less arduous task for hairstylists

Aisata Diallo, 24, calls herself a lifelong braider. “I’ve always braided my hair growing up and, at some point in my college career, started braiding other people’s hair,” she said. At Northeastern University in Boston, she found limited access to braiders and textured-hair specialists, so she decided to fill that gap by starting a small business of her own. “Throughout that experience, I was very close to some of the pain points in the styling process and complained about it constantly,” she said.

24 岁的 Aisata Diallo 自称是一名终身编发师。“我从小就一直给自己编头发，在大学期间的某个阶段，我开始为其他人编发，”她说。在波士顿东北大学就读时，她发现当地很难找到编发师和纹理发质专家，于是她决定通过创办自己的小企业来填补这一空白。“在整个经历中，我非常清楚造型过程中的一些痛点，并不断为此抱怨，”她说。

Braiding is a manual task, and a single style can take eight hours to complete. Many professionals deal with issues like cramping and carpal tunnel syndrome after spending long days standing behind a chair weaving hair into patterns. At first, Diallo said she didn’t know what to do about it. “I stopped braiding, and one of the reasons that I stopped braiding was due to the physical toll it has on your body.” She wanted to find a way to make braiding less painful and wondered whether new AI technology could automate some part of the process.

编发是一项手工活，完成一个发型可能需要八个小时。许多专业人士在椅子后站立一整天，将头发编织成各种图案后，往往会面临抽筋和腕管综合征等问题。起初，Diallo 说她不知道该怎么办。“我停止了编发，而我停止编发的原因之一就是它对身体造成的伤害。”她想找到一种让编发不那么痛苦的方法，并想知道人工智能新技术是否能使部分流程自动化。

Building hardware for braiding is expensive, difficult, and complex, which is one reason there have been few innovations in this space. The textured hair market has also long been overlooked by the mainstream. Image Credits:Aisata Diallo Then, last year, she had an idea: Tressfecta, a company building products for textured hair. Its first project is a tool called Plait Pilot that helps braiders with the initial process of separating hair from packs before braiding begins. That process alone can take hours, especially when a client wants small braids.

制造编发硬件既昂贵又困难且复杂，这也是该领域创新寥寥的原因之一。纹理发质市场也长期被主流所忽视。图片来源：Aisata Diallo。去年，她产生了一个想法：成立 Tressfecta，一家为纹理发质制造产品的公司。其第一个项目是一款名为 Plait Pilot 的工具，旨在帮助编发师在开始编发前完成从发包中分离头发的初步工序。仅这一过程就可能耗费数小时，尤其是当客户需要细小的辫子时。

Diallo said the device is designed to work like this: A stylist places the braiding hair on top of it and sets the size they want the hair separated into, and the device separates the pieces and dispenses them back to the stylist so they can grab them while braiding. “It’s very challenging to build this kind of tool in this space,” she said, citing the nuance and complexity of the braiding style process. Different types of textured hair also need to be accounted for, especially when length and density are considered. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.”

Diallo 表示，该设备的工作原理如下：造型师将编发用的头发放在设备顶部，设定好想要分离的头发尺寸，设备便会自动分离发束并将其分配给造型师，以便他们在编发时抓取。“在这个领域制造这种工具非常有挑战性，”她说，并提到了编发造型过程的细微差别和复杂性。此外，还必须考虑到不同类型的纹理发质，尤其是当涉及长度和密度时。“这不是一种万能的解决方案。”

Tressfecta is still technically prelaunch, and it is working on the prototype of Plait Pilot. Diallo has been bootstrapping the company, while also 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. For now, Diallo said she’s connecting with stylists and braiders who can test the technology. She also spent this week in San Francisco as one of TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200 companies.

Tressfecta 在技术上仍处于发布前阶段，目前正在研发 Plait Pilot 的原型机。Diallo 一直在通过自筹资金运营公司，同时也利用了来自补助金和加速器项目的资金。“我正在准备融资，”她说，并指出为硬件，尤其是美容硬件筹集资金有多么困难。目前，Diallo 表示她正在与可以测试该技术的造型师和编发师建立联系。本周，她作为 TechCrunch“创业战场 200 强”（Startup Battlefield 200）企业之一在旧金山参加了活动。

She doesn’t remember exactly where she first heard about TechCrunch Disrupt, possibly on LinkedIn or in a founder resource group, but when we talked ahead of the show, which wrapped up on Thursday, she was looking forward to connecting with people and showing off her product. She was especially excited to connect with people and for others to see her product. “It feels like a great opportunity,” she said.

她记不清最初是在哪里听说 TechCrunch Disrupt 的了，可能是通过 LinkedIn 或某个创始人资源群，但在周四结束的展会前我们交谈时，她非常期待与人们建立联系并展示她的产品。她特别兴奋能与人交流，并让其他人看到她的产品。“这感觉是一个绝佳的机会，”她说。