Toilet – Hair device – Including means to isolate or part a tress of hair for...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-04
2002-08-13
Wilson, John J. (Department: 3732)
Toilet
Hair device
Including means to isolate or part a tress of hair for...
C132S208000, C132S054000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06431181
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to hair coloring devices, and more particularly to a hair coloring cap for use in selectively changing the color of multiple strands of hair of a user.
2. Description of Related Art
In the hairdressing art it is often desired to cause the hair to exhibit two colors, a process called by several names such as coloring, tinting, frosting, or highlighting. This invention comprises a novel and useful cap to be used by the hairdresser to expedite the process of coloring localized strands or bunches of hair in an orderly pattern so as to enhance the overall effect on an observer of hair which has been subjected to localized re-coloring.
There are three caps currently used for what hairdressers call highlighting or frosting, to assist the hairdresser in producing the desired effect.
One product is a full cap to be tightly fitted over all the area from which hair grows. Holes are provided essentially all over the surface of the cap, which is placed over combed-back hair. The strands to be colored are drawn through the holes with a tiny hook inserted in each hole, capturing a tiny lock of hair which is then pulled through the cap and becomes the strand to be colored. This type of cap allows the treating chemical to be applied at the same time, approximately, to all the strands to be colored—avoiding both under-coloring and excessive exposure to the chemical which can damage the hair. It's principal disadvantage is that the strands pulled through the cap need not extend to their roots. Depending on the time, patience and skill of the hairdresser's blind manipulation of the tiny hook, the hair pulled through can come from any depth and/or a location on the scalp dependent on the parallelism of individual hairs generated by the pre-combing and, in theory, retained during installation of the cap. Hairs from an upper layer might originate an inch or more distant from the hole, or a smaller distance sideways. Moreover, backsliding the length of a strand of hair against the combed direction of adjacent hairs may disturb the orderliness of hair “downstream” from the hole being worked on. The result in any case is some discomfort to the customer, more discomfort and disorderliness than my invention provides.
Another device for doing the same localized strand-coloring is a stack of special-purpose self-adhesive wraps in the form of sheets and a “helper,” a rectangular flat made of plastic on which one sheet is to be laid for each line of strands to be colored. A substantially horizontal line is created in the hair mass, with the helper's narrow end close to the scalp and the hair above temporarily directed upward except for the strands to be treated, which lie in the long direction of the helper on which one sheet of the self-adhesive wrap lies. The chemical is applied, the wrap doubled over enclosing chemical and hair strands and sealed to itself, and the helper removed. The entire process is then repeated a fraction of an inch higher on the head, and again and again to cover the back and sides of the head. The duration of manipulation is a serious drawback to this method, since exposure of hair strands to chemical varies so much at various placed on the head. It is a slow process with considerable danger of over-processing or under-coloring local regions. Damage to the hair, or variability of result over the head are the principal drawbacks to the use of wraps to color hair locally. My invention accomplishes the same end without such drawbacks, as the hair preparation time is divorced from the time span in which the hair is exposed to chemicals.
The third device is a one-piece cap to go on a head of hair to be partially re-colored in isolated strands. The cap covers the head in the manner of a bathing cap. The cap includes a framework of support bands which divide the head into roughly rectangular zones which are independent and can be treated one by one. Spanning from side to side of the roughly rectangular zones are narrow strut members carrying wing members. Both have a row of perforations along the length direction; both are of chemical-resistant plastic. The strut members are narrow and thin ribbons spaced roughly parallel to each other, attached at their ends to framework members. The wing members are attached to the strut members and consist of double sheets of thin plastic film on which, between the doubled sheets, the hair strands to be colored lie (separated and isolated from the rest of the hair). These strands are pulled through the perforations and lie between the halves of one folded wing, ready for application of the chemical to the strands alone. The hairdresser uses a comb with short teeth to reach between strut members and part the hair beneath each strut member, one part at a time, to ensure all chemical reaches as close as feasible to the hair roots.
The prior art teaches caps that are useful for facilitating the process of highlighting or coloring a person's hair. However, the prior art does not teach a hair coloring cap that allows the hair to be separated into multiple sections and spread upon an upper surface of a plurality of wing members, the wing members being foldable to contain a coloring agent with the hair. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages as described in the following summary.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention teaches certain benefits in construction and use which give rise to the objectives described below.
The present invention provides a cap for use in selectively changing the color of multiple strands of hair on a head of a user. The cap includes a support frame means for supporting a plurality of strut members in a spaced apart positions around the head of the user. Each of a plurality of wing members are attached to one of the plurality of strut members and extends therefrom to a length approximately that of the multiple strands of hair to be colored. The cap is positioned on a head of the user and multiple strands of hair to be colored are pulled between the strut members so that the hair is positioned on an upper surface of each of the plurality of wing members. A coloring agent is applied to the upper surface of each of the plurality of wing members and the wing member is folded, thereby trapping the hair and the coloring agent within each of the plurality of wing members such that the coloring agent functionally coats each of the multiple strands of hair to be colored.
A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a hair coloring cap having advantages not taught by the prior art.
Another objective is to provide a hair coloring cap that allows the hair to be separated quickly and easily, without requiring the hair to be pulled through small holes or perforations in the cap.
A further objective is to provide a cap having a plurality of wing members, each of the wing members being shaped to contain the coloring agent to prevent the unwanted transfer of the coloring agent to other surfaces.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3304945 (1967-02-01), Anderson
patent: 3586009 (1971-06-01), Sirmons
patent: 4165754 (1979-08-01), Di Pasque
patent: 4750500 (1988-06-01), Allen
patent: 5042511 (1991-08-01), Haddad
patent: 5562111 (1996-10-01), Torres
patent: 5979462 (1999-11-01), Jones
patent: 5988177 (1999-11-01), Bate
Doan Robyn Kieu
Karich Eric
Wilson John J.
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