Why These Summertime Braids Cost $450 (and Can Take About 5 Hours)
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Why These Summertime Braids Cost $450 (and Can Take About 5 Hours)
Ms. Charles’s first memory of getting braids, at age 4, was painful. She was at home in Tobago, and she recalled her sister pulling her hair. As an adult, she visited salons that were cluttered and dirty — it made her dread going.
It did not have to be that way, she thought. In September 2021, Ms. Charles opened her salon in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, offering a variety of braid styles, including straight back feed-in braids and braided updos.
Her reach grew to include braiding hair for the rapper Cardi B and the reality TV star Tanisha Thomas. Ms. Charles was also part of the hair-braiding team for Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” visual album.
“Black people that get braids can be afforded luxury as well,” said Xia Charles, who owns Braided New York, a salon in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.Credit…Naima Green for The New York Times
In New York City, knotless braids — which are faster to braid, feel lighter and have grown in popularity — can vary from $200 to over $650, said Safiya Warner, a celebrity stylist. Pricing depends on the length and size of the individual braid and color blend, as well as whether the packs of hair used for the dangling curls in the boho style are human or synthetic.
Ms. Charles said she requires customers to bring in their own packs of hair for boho knotless braids if they prefer human hair or a human hair blend over synthetic hair, because of the cost. A pack of human hair ranges from $50 to $200 depending on quality, she said.
