Toilet – Hair device – Hair fastener
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-28
2001-02-20
Manahan, Todd E. (Department: 3732)
Toilet
Hair device
Hair fastener
C132S135000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06189544
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hair grip having two elongate jaws connected by a spring-loaded hinge, which can be placed in the hair to preserve the hairstyle.
The jaws have two respective first longitudinal edges, generally connected by the spring-loaded hinge, and two respective other longitudinal edges each of which has a plurality of longitudinally spaced teeth.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In some hair grips, such as those described in document U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,127 in particular, these spaced teeth are curved and substantially aligned with the jaw on the side opposite the first edges and the teeth of a first jaw have their concave side facing the teeth of the other jaw.
To hold the hair correctly, the teeth of the two jaws are generally shaped so that they can penetrate the hair and cross over therein, close to each other, and thereby grip locks of hair to be held in position.
The teeth are generally close together, and in practice there is a relatively large number of teeth, at least around a half-dozen teeth on each jaw, which provides a large number of closely spaced hair gripping areas. It has become apparent that the hair is heavily loaded in these hair gripping areas, which leads to the risk of damaging the hair, and this risk is more accentuated if the adjacent hair gripping areas are close together.
Furthermore, a good hold on the hair requires relatively thin teeth which penetrate the hair without significantly deforming it. As a result hairs in the vicinity of the hair grip are not significantly displaced, and the esthetic effect of the hair grip is limited to the area it occupies.
Hair grips for holding locks of hair in place during permanent waving are described in document FR 557 331 A or in document FR 934 493 A. The teeth are elongate, only slightly curved, aligned with each other, and do not provide an effective permanent hair grip on the hair.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 1,819,667 A describes a device for waving hair having two toothed jaws each having a toothed secondary member movable longitudinally to wave the hair forcibly. The teeth of the secondary members are divergent and only slightly curved, and the device is not suited to an effective permanent hold in the hair.
An object of the invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art hair grips by enabling a permanent firm hold on locks of hair by a hair grip which minimizes the hair gripping loads likely to break hairs and advantageously has an improved esthetic effect.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To this end, the invention proposes a hair grip including two elongate one-piece jaws connected by a spring-loaded hinge and delimited by two respective first longitudinal edges and two respective other longitudinal edges, the two respective other longitudinal edges each carrying a plurality of spaced curved penetrating teeth substantially extending the jaw on the side opposite the first edge and concave sides of which face toward the teeth of the other jaw to penetrate the hair, said pluralities of penetrating teeth conjointly forming a longitudinal succession of pairs of teeth of each respective plurality of teeth, the longitudinal succession of pairs of teeth including at least one pair of bearing teeth whose end areas are disposed and oriented to rest on or slightly below the surface of the hair.
The invention stems in particular from the observations that, to hold locks of hair effectively in place, and going against what might be expected, it is not necessary to use penetrating teeth to clamp the hair tightly (and preferably at multiple closely spaced places) in order to hold the hair effectively, provided that the hair grip has other means to maintain its orientation relative to the hair.
Consequently, it can suffice to provide on the jaws additional curved bearing teeth whose end areas bear on the hair to maintain the orientation of the hair grip relative to the hair satisfactorily: because these bearing teeth are offset along the lengthwise direction of the jaws, they maintain the orientation of the hair grip, and the hair grip on the locks of hair may be sufficient. It has also become apparent that these bearing teeth, in addition to maintaining the orientation of the hair grip in the hair, produce attractive waves in the hair around the area occupied by the hair grip. This first esthetic effect is complemented by the fact that the bearing teeth, which penetrate less deeply into the hair than the prior art penetrating teeth, can be wider than the latter (which reinforces the holding effect of the hair grip) and so can, if desired, be readily visible in the hair to provide a hair ornament effect in addition to the holding effect.
The longitudinal succession of pairs of teeth includes at least one pair of penetrating teeth offset from each other along the other longitudinal edges of the jaws and which extend a greater distance toward the other jaw perpendicularly to the associated jaw than the bearing teeth, so that they can cross over. Accordingly, the presence of such penetrating teeth, providing a clamping effect as in the prior art hair grips referred to above, is advantageous because, with the bearing teeth, they assure optimum retention without applying excessive loads to the hair, especially if the penetrating teeth do not need to be too close together, and can advantageously be separated from each other by a pair of bearing teeth (see below).
The longitudinal succession of pairs of teeth preferably also includes at least one pair of penetrating teeth which are shorter than the bearing teeth, and which are more strongly curved than the bearing teeth. Thus the two types of teeth hold different locks of hair with two different forces, which avoids excessively loading the same lock of hair.
In both cases, it is clearly advantageous for the pairs of bearing teeth and the pairs of penetrating teeth to alternate within the longitudinal succession of pairs of teeth to assure a good spacing between the pairs of teeth loading the same lock of hair in the same manner.
At least the pairs of teeth at the ends of the longitudinal succession of pairs of teeth are preferably bearing teeth, which improves how the bearing teeth maintain the orientation of the hair grip. If the penetrating and bearing teeth alternate (see above) the number of penetrating teeth (liable to load the locks of hair heavily) is less than the number of bearing teeth.
The penetrating teeth can have a simple curvature, but they can also have an undulating shape, for example with undulations parallel to the jaws, which strengthens their hold on the hair.
As mentioned above, the bearing teeth are advantageously wider than the penetrating teeth. As a general rule, the bearing teeth advantageously have a massive section (i.e. they are not tapered anywhere along their length), which encourages a good hold on the hair (see above). In a simple first embodiment of the invention, which in particular makes the hair grip clearly visible in the hair (when the hair grip is required to have an ornamental function) the bearing teeth are solid. However, in one beneficial embodiment the bearing teeth are apertured, in the form of a closed loop or fork. Clearly a forked shape strengthens the holding effect. As for the closed loop shape, it can be circular, oval or polygonal (triangular, rectangular, etc.). By analogy with the above remarks concerning the penetrating teeth, the bearing teeth can themselves have an undulating shape to strengthen the effect of the waves produced in the hair. They can have many other shapes, for example that of a twist or a braid, possibly with the same effects.
The spring-loaded hinge connecting the two jaws is advantageously situated on the first longitudinal edges thereof (and thus transversely opposite the toothed longitudinal edges). The invention nevertheless applies equally to a hair grip whose jaws are connected by transverse edges. Depending on the location of the spring-loaded hinge, bearing areas are advantageously formed on the jaws to enable the jaws to b
C.S.P. Diffusion
Manahan Todd #E.
Ratner & Prestia
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