You'll need to take apart the OBJ into Groups first. 

Again it depends on how it's organized.  If each braid has only one
material zone, then you're totally out of luck.  But if each segment of
each braid has its own material, then the job is worth trying.

You can use Poser's grouping tool to transform material zones into Groups.
Create a New Group, give it a name for the material you're looking at,
then hit Add Material and find this material.
Create another New Group, give it a name for the next material, and hit
Add Material and find this material.
Finally resave the OBJ.

After all this, you can take the OBJ into the Setup Room and organize
the joints.

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This is a lot of work, and I suspect you'll find it a lot easier to keep the
whole thing as a prop, and use magnets to set up a curve morph for
each braid.

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