Box. Boho. Knotless. Most Black women understand exactly what those words refer to: braided hairstyles. The thousand-year-old ritual is practically a rite of passage, and many Black women and girls even today sit in salon chairs, up to 12 hours at a stretch, as a stylist weaves patterns into their hair.
But that’s also the problem. For thousands of years, hair braiding has been a manual task. Until recently, that is. Speaking to TechCrunch, Yinka Ogunbiyi recalled when she was stuck alone in her London apartment during the COVID-19 pandemic and tried braiding her own hair: “It took me four days,” she said.
