Book the braids. Skip the DMs.
What BraidSquad Is
BraidSquad is the directory and marketplace for braiding – 400+ braiders and braiding shops across North New Jersey and New York City, searchable by style, neighborhood, and real reviews, plus a marketplace where shops sell the braiding hair clients need.
One site for the whole appointment: find the braider, see the work, book the chair, get the hair.
Why It Exists
Because booking braids through Instagram DMs is broken.
You find a stylist you love. Her booking link is dead. You DM – no answer for two days. You finally get a price, but not for your length. Somebody in the comments is asking the same questions you are. Meanwhile, the shop two neighborhoods over with a chair open Saturday has no idea you exist, because she’s invisible to search and her whole business lives in an inbox.
Braiders lose clients they never knew about. Clients lose hours to conversations that go nowhere. Everybody loses except the algorithm.
BraidSquad fixes the boring part so the good part – the braids – can happen: real listings clients can actually search, profiles braiders actually control, and a Style Wanted board where a client posts the style, the photo, and the budget, and braiders come to her.
How It Works
For clients: Search 21 style categories – box braids, knotless, cornrows, twists, locs, and more – filter for what matters (mobile braiders, hair included, kid-friendly, weekend appointments), read reviews from people who sat in the chair, and message the shop right on the site. Or skip the search entirely: post a Style Wanted ad with your inspiration photo and let braiders reply. Accounts and wanted ads are free.
For braiders: Your shop is probably already listed – claim it free, put up your best work, set your services and hours, and earn the reviews that make the next client an easy yes. Browse the Wanted board for clients who are ready to book, not just browsing. Go Featured when you want the top spot. And when you’re ready, open a store and sell the hair your clients were going to buy somewhere else anyway.
Rooted Here
BraidSquad started in North NJ and NYC – Newark to Brooklyn, Harlem to Plainfield – because this metro’s braiding scene is deep, talented, and weirdly hard to find online. We built the map we wished existed. Free to join, free to claim, free to post a wanted ad: the door is open to every real braider in the region.
Where It’s Going
More listings, more neighborhoods, more shops claiming their pages and stocking their stores – a directory that gets denser and a marketplace that gets fuller, until “where do I get my braids done?” has one obvious answer.
That’s the squad. Join it.
Book the braids. Skip the DMs.
