Written by: Sandra E. Garcia
Hair can be agitated, uncooperative, moody. When it doesn’t bend, bend, or sit on command, it can be frustrating. Hair can be a punch, a time sink, a money pit, a drag. Perhaps no one knows this better than black women.
Enter, stage left: braid.
And not just any the braids. Many black women are going with a style that is gaining popularity: so-called knotless braids, which differ significantly from traditional box braids.
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In the old style—notably worn by Janet Jackson in the 1993 film “Poetic Justice,” which helped preserve the style in American beauty culture—hair is parted into discrete sections and strands of synthetic hair are knotted into root. Hairstylists who create knotless braids also start by sectioning the hair, but then they braid 1 1/2 inches or more of the natural hair itself and feed the synthetic strands bit by bit into the newly created braid.
Since hair extensions are not knotted in root, those who choose this style will feel very little tension on the scalp. The lack of knots also means there is no bulk that can appear with box braids. And the newer style leaves the braids flatter. No-knot braids also feel lighter.
“It’s so easy to handle,” said Jamilla Dick-Quashie, 42, director of health and safety at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, who is also the mother of a 6-year-old.
“When I put my hair in a bun or try to do a knotless braid style, it’s so much easier. And I know I’m not feeling the tension in my head — and that’s a big difference.”
A customer is styled with knotless braids at Braided, a salon in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, on July 1, 2022. (Makeda Sandford/The New York Times)
Until three years ago, the style was not very common, according to hairdresser who specialize in braids for black women. Now, at salons like Aminata African Hair Braiding in Harlem, most clients are knot-free.
Astou Fall, who has worked at Aminata since 2000, said she and her colleagues watched YouTube tutorials to learn how to create the style after customers began asking for knotless braids in 2020. They practiced on the head of a mannequin for about two months until they cut it, she added.
“No-knot braids, at first, were more difficult for us because it’s something we’re not used to,” said Fall, 37, who is from Senegal. “When we got used to it, we noticed that it was actually a little easier on us than regular braids.”
Without the hassle of creating tiny knots at the roots, stylists found they could braid faster, which meant more customers and more income. At Aminata, box braids, knotless or not, cost $140 for back-length hair and $180 for waist-length hair.
The new style also boosted demand. In the days before no-knot braids launched the Explore Instagram page, a client could show up at an African hair braiding salon without making an appointment. Now many hair braiders require customers to make online appointments. Some require a $30 deposit to protect against no-shows. (Aminata African Hair Braiding is still first come, first served.)
Meagan Louis, who braids hair at her salon, Soignée BK, in Brooklyn, said knotless braids have been good for her business, which she started when the new style was taking off.
Knotless braids have been good for Louis’ business, which Louis started when the new style was coming into vogue. (Makeda Sandford/The New York Times)
She said she hadn’t decided to braid her hair full-time. After graduating from the University at Albany in 2012 with a degree in biology, she worked as a technologist in a medical lab and braided hair after shifts to supplement her income.
“I’d do a 9 to 5 and then when I get home I’ll probably knock out two clients,” Louis said. “I’d probably do that any other day.”
She would do a woman’s knotless braids and that person would refer her to another client and soon she had more work than she could handle.
“It was becoming more full-time than actual Full time job” said Louis.
But she was hesitant, in part because her parents, who immigrated from the Grenadines, hoped she would become a doctor.
“I was getting ready to apply to medical school,” Louis said, “and it was just a moment where you decide, ‘Is it worth it to go 11 more years to be a surgeon, or just braid this hair and Can you make the same amount?”
In the end, Louis quit her job at the lab. Being able to set her own schedule and spend more time with her daughter and son, now 8 and 4, played into her decision, she said.
“I make more money braiding hair and I have more creativity,” Louis said. “Science is very strict. It works or not. It is scientific, it is mathematical. But here you can be creative, you can do whatever you want.”
Louis worked out of her home until she opened Soignée BK in February 2020. Then the pandemic hit, which left him unable to see clients for months. During those first months of isolation, she increased her salon’s presence on social media. She said that when she announced she was ready to see clients again, she had an entire month of appointments booked in two minutes.
She now begins accepting new appointments on the 16th of each month at noon, and the month fills up almost immediately. Louis attributes her success to her speed and regularity. The braids she creates have a uniform, almost machine-made look.
A scientist at heart, Louis is particular about making sure one side of a client’s head doesn’t end up with more braids than the other, a common pitfall. She also requires that her clients have at least 4 to 5 inches of hair and arrive with it freshly washed and blow-dried. (With the old style of braids, there was almost no limit to how short a customer’s hair could be.) Louis initially charged $150 for medium-sized braids. Now the price is $350.
She says she prefers to do knotless braids in part because the process is faster. Another advantage of the new style is that it is less likely to damage hair, according to customers and stylists. With traditional box braids, tied tightly and close to the scalp, some women experienced hair loss.
Dick-Quashie, of the medical examiner’s office, said she chose the knotless style because it is known to be gentle. She started seeing Xia Charles, 29, owner of Braided, a salon in Brooklyn.
Charles, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, said she learned to braid hair from her grandmother starting at age 3. Her ability came in handy when she was a graduate student in economics at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill in Barbados.
“When I got tired of eating ramen, I would braid a few extra heads just to make money,” Charles said. “When I finished university, I came home to Tobago and couldn’t find a job, so I started doing hair in my sister’s clothes shop on a cooler chair.”
After immigrating to the United States in 2017, she started braiding hair at a barbershop across the street from where she lived in Brooklyn.
“The barber shop wasn’t the best environment,” Charles said, “but I appreciated it for what it was, and it was a cornerstone, basically. I learned how they did things in America.”
After five months at the barbershop, she rented a booth in a salon. To build a clientele, she started posting photos of her work on social media. Clients came for one of her specialties: seam braids, which are frames where the hair is parted horizontally, down the spine of the braid. Like knotless braids, sew-in braids start with natural hair and include synthetic hairs that are inserted into the braid, causing less tension. Charles’ method is unique because she splits the stitch with the ring finger as she weaves down.
“Sew-in braids take care of your hair,” Charles said. “Nowadays, they would start with a big lump of synthetic hair and that would remove the follicles from the scalp. Now start with your hair. Black hair, we tend to have a lot of attractive alopecia; we have our problems.”
After having some success in her rented cabin, she started braiding hair in it two bedroom apartment.
“I acted like it was a salon,” Charles said.
Knotless braids are a new style that has grown in demand in salons in Harlem and Brooklyn. (Makeda Sandford/The New York Times)
In 2018, she had a breakthrough after braiding the hair of reality TV star Tanisha Thomas, who posted the result on Instagram and tagged Charles. Soon, the rapper Cardi B was among Charles’ Instagram followers – and then became a customer. Charles said she still braids Cardi B’s hair on occasion.
“Cardi B tends to get the fishbowl, which is generally just the frame with your natural hair, and then the extension,” Charles said. “It doesn’t pull your hair at all.”
In 2020, Charles was part of the hair braiding team for Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” visual album, in which the megastar wore braids longer than her body.
“The biggest influencers are celebrities,” Charles said.
In September 2021, she opened Braided, a spacious salon with white paper walls and large bay windows. She also offers weaving classes and occasionally hires her students. With business booming, Charles has bought her first home — within five years of arriving in the United States, she noted.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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