A braider who quit over physical strain is now building a machine to ease it
Aisata Diallo, 24, stopped braiding hair because of the toll it took on her body, and then founded Tressfecta to build hardware for textured hair. Its first device, Plait Pilot, splits braiding hair from packs into sizes the stylist chooses. A single style can take eight hours. Tressfecta is still prelaunch, funded by Diallo herself plus grants and accelerator programs, and was a Startup Battlefield 200 company in October 2026.
The cost behind Tressfecta never showed up on a balance sheet: cramping, carpal tunnel syndrome and long days on her feet behind a chair. That cost was enough to make Diallo close the braiding business she started in college. Her new company takes on another unpriced burden: hardware that is expensive and hard to build, in a beauty segment that has long been overlooked, with fundraising still to come.
Source: TechCrunch Startups · October 16, 2026