Abstract: An improved portable hair braider is provided which makes use of a plurality of hair grabbing members that extend transversely to the path of movement of the device over the top of the head. The invention hereof relates to the device described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,996, issued Aug. 2, 1977, to Eronini et al. The improvement hereof is specifically directed to a mechanical means for driving the ends of a plurality of grabbing members along a path in a plane perpendicular to their axes, wherein the path is defined as that of a figure eight. The hair grabbing members are caused to traverse or pass through a cross-over region formed by the intersection between two circular sections of the body of the device which is in the form of the figure eight.

Abstract: A portable hair braider which makes use of a plurality of sets of hair parters that are arranged in a row which extends transversely to the path of movement of the device over the top of the head. These hair parters will divide the hair over a predetermined width of the scalp into three separate portions, extending across this width, and then feed these three portions of hair into hair grippers which will clamp and rotate these strands for weaving them together to form a braid. In this manner the hair covering a predetermined width of the scalp is divided into three parts and formed into a single braided strand. The grippers will release the braided hair and immediately repeat the process as the device is moved over the scalp to form a plurality of braides covering the head.