7 Next-Gen Braiders Turning Hair Into Art
They're making their mark and finding joy in the hair braiding tradition.
As a coily haired girl who often leans on protective hairstyles for support, I always have an eye out for braiders and artists making their mark on the scene. To the Black community, braids are more than just a hairstyle: they're history, they're a craft, they're a cultural language, and they're a nurturing practice. They represent patience and love for hair that was historically deemed difficult and unruly but, in reality, just needs extra tender loving care to thrive. With that, Black hair is limitless.
These hair braiders are caring for the hair of some of our favorite stars, from Teyana Taylor to Beyoncé to Ari Lennox. They find joy in the transformation that happens at their hands, feel empowered by the resilience of the hair braiding practice, and plan on passing the tradition down as it was to them.
Ahead, seven culture-shaping hair braiders that we highly recommend following.
Natalia Moses
Name: Natalia Moses, @braidme._
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Experience: Natalia Moses has been braiding hair professionally for about six years and claims that it all happened by accident. "It wasn't something I ever anticipated becoming a careers," she says. "But once I began, it felt natural, and the demand grew so quickly that it evolved into something much bigger than I expected." She learned through assisting her friend who braided hair as summer job, watched her work, absorbed the environment, and that's where her foundation began. "From there, I kept practicing, refining my technique, and eventually developed my own style and approach," she says.
Expertise: Moses has a lot of experience with boho braids, but, more recently, the half-Fulani front with weave in the back has been in high demand. "The style has been around, but you know how fashion repeats itself: it came back around and everybody’s loving how cute and effortless it looks," she says.
Afro Ele
Name: Ele @afro_ele_
Location: Benin, Africa
Experience: Ele started braiding hair while in high school in 2014, but her professional journey began in 2018 while in university in Ghana. "Braiding, for me, actually started long before I ever touched hair; it started with drawing," Ele says. "Through drawing, I learned to express myself, to let my creativity flow freely, and to never limit what I could imagine or achieve in hairstyling." She would sketch hairstyles, illustrate exactly how she wanted them to look, and learned how to embrace her creative side She has been practicing the hair braiding craft for seven strong years now. "[It was] first born on paper and now lives in my hands."
Expertise: Ele's expertise and style is simple and clear: hair artistry. Through this artistry, she reinvents hairstyles by adding a personal heritage touch. "For the past seven years, these artistry-based styles have been the ones people request the most," she says. These looks carry flair, personality, flair and, most importantly, are a reflection of African heritage and tradition. "These are the looks booked by celebrities, public figures, and women who aren’t afraid to express their hair heritage, women who fully embrace their identity and aren’t scared to be themselves," she says.
Helena Koudou
Name: Helena Koudou @slayedinbraids
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Experience: Originally from Africa's Ivory Coast, Helena Koudou is a celebrity hairstylist who has been featured in Vogue , Elle, Essence, and more. She spent a lot of time in her family's Brooklyn salon Alima's Hair Braiding, watching the hair braiding tradition unfold before her eyes. Her family taught her the value of hard work, which resulted in her taking on her first hair clients at the young age of 13. What was initially work grew into a creative passion, an intro point to a community, and a way of paying homage to her culture.
Expertise: Koudou is known for creating intricate freestyle patterns, incorporating color, and using embellishments such as beads and shells. She is skilled at cornrows, box braids, crochet, goddess boho braids, knotless braids, and twists. She also loves doing the fingerwave hairstyle and swirl braids.
Susy Oludele
Name: Susy Oludele @hairbysusy
Location: New York City & Los Angeles, California
Experience: Susy Oludele is a hair artist who takes the time to pay homage to the history of the braiding traditions and what it meant to our ancestors. She works out of her salon, Hair By Susy, in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Long before taking on Beyoncé and Solange as clients, she began by braiding her own hair. Then, she proceeded to work on friends' hair before ultimately starting her own business. Everything arguably changed when she received an email from Solange asking Oludele to braid her hair. They soon began to collaborate on a variety of looks, including weaves, sew ins, and an iconic beaded braided look for the cover of Surface Magazine. She's also worked with Zoë Kravitz on her signature micro-braids.
Expertise: Her work leans detailed, heavily inspired by the way braid patterns told stories and communicated messages throughout slavery. Her Instagram feed is filled with her work which ranges from classic, to heavily designed, and often featuring accessories. Clients turn to Susy time and time again for their kinky twists, knotless braids, and bantu knots. And, of course, to recreate Beyoncé's lemonade braids and Zoë Kravitz's micro-braids.
Tre'Nae Bynum
Name: Tre'Nae Bynum @trenaebraids
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Experience: Tre'Nae Bynum was introduced to the hair braiding tradition as a child at the Boys and Girls Club—she recalls watching girls cornrow each other's hair in the bleachers. She started braiding her own hair and her friends' hair for school and eventually people started taking notice and requesting her services. From here, she realized that she could make a living by servicing others. Now, her work can be seen in I-D Magazine, 10 Magazine, Vogue, and more.
Expertise: With an artistic approach to hair braiding, she he has a strong affinity for free-styling: asking clients for a few inspiration photos, trusting her gut, and proceeding from there. Her work is notably whimsical and unique; no two looks are exactly the same. She often leans on structural elements and artistic intuition to create swirls, curves, and twists.
Xia Charles
Name: Xia Charles @braided_
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Experience: Xia Charles started braiding hair in her mother's New York kitchen, where she would work on the hair of family and friends. When she would return to Tobago, where her family is originally from, she would braid her grandmother's hair, too. It took Charles a while to consider hair braiding as a career path, though. When it felt like she had run out of options and money was tight, she decided to turn to hair braiding, which she was naturally talented at. Now, she owns her own salon, Braided NY in Brooklyn. Her work can be seen on the likes of Beyoncé, Teyana Taylor, Mary J. Blige, Madonna, Nia Long, Gabrielle Union, Cardi B, and more.
Expertise: Her work ranges from lemonade braids to bantu knots to cornrows with a zig zag pattern. While Cardi B relies on Charles to cornrow daughter Kulture's hair, her other work tends to reference legendary hair magazines (Hype Hair, for example) and African tribes. Charles is known for being able to read a client's vibes in minutes and, from there, use her creative skill to execute a style representative of that.
Kam
Name: Kam @i_be_braiding
Location: New York City
Experience: Her work can be spotted on runways, red carpets, tennis courts, and basketball courts. For New York Fashion Week in February 2025, she braided sculptural styles for Tia Adeola's runway show, did Alycia Parks hair for the U.S. Open, and cornrowed Detroit Piston's player Cade Cunningham's hair for his game against Charlotte.
Expertise: Her work ranges from braided patterns to sculptural looks, but she is also highly skilled at the classics and basics. For Alina Liu's Spring/Summer 2026, she worked on bantu knots, and her Instagram feed is filled with endless cornrow inspiration, from classic to heavily designed.
