Toilet – Hair device – Having hair shaping surface or form
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-12
2002-03-12
Wilson, John J. (Department: 3732)
Toilet
Hair device
Having hair shaping surface or form
C132S269000, C132S207000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06354305
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a hair styling appliance with a handle portion, a heating portion with a preferably dome-shaped heating zone for heating and styling, especially curls or waves of hair, and a cooling portion with a cooling zone for cooling the styled hair. Further, the present invention relates to a method of styling hair, especially by means of the hair styling appliance of the present invention.
Appliances and methods of the above-mentioned type are known from the state of the art. German patent application No. 32 15 232, for example, discloses a method of styling a strand of hair by heating and a hair styling appliance for this purpose. In this arrangement, the air supplied by an air blower is conducted partly via a filament winding to a heated air chamber of a cylindrical curler member and exits through radial heated-air discharge openings. Cooling air enters into a cooling air chamber of the curler member through a bypass channel which is passed by the heating filament. The hair strand to be styled is wrapped around the curler member which is then moved away from the scalp, with the hair strand initially sliding over the outside wall of the heated air chamber and subsequently over the outside wall of the cooling chamber. The hair strand is heated and cooled thereafter. However, a tool of this type does not permit achieving satisfying results, because the waves and/or curls thereby produced in the hair are not sufficiently permanent.
A similar appliance and a method is also described in non-published application PCT/EP97/02064 of the applicant which, by express reference, is herewith included in the disclosure of the present patent application. The said application discloses a hair styling appliance with a handle portion, a heating portion with a heating zone for heating the hair, a cooling zone and a styling element for styling the hair. The styling element is configured as a styling edge, with this styling edge being arranged subsequent to the heating zone and the cooling zone following the styling edge so that a hair strand being styled can be heated at the heating zone, the heated hair strand can be styled at the styling edge, and the so restyled hair strand can be cooled in the cooling zone. This application further includes a method of styling hair, especially implemented in a hair styling appliance according to the previous description.
On the one hand, it is not possible with the hair styling appliances known from the prior art to produce a permanent curl or wave in a strand of hair. On the other hand, a complicated construction is necessary, or handling of the appliance is intricate for the user, especially when curling or waving hair.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a hair styling appliance which is improved compared to the state of the art and a method of employing the hair styling appliance so as to ensure a maximally permanent set for a hair strand which is styled by way of the appliance, more particularly, a curl or wave in a hair strand which is produced by way of the appliance and, respectively, the method. On the other hand, an additional objective of the appliance is to render possible simple handling by a user, with the handling necessitating only few and simple manipulations.
According to the present invention, this object is achieved, on the one hand, by a hair styling appliance which includes a handle portion, a heating portion with a preferably domeshaped heating zone for heating and styling, especially curls or waves of hair, and a cooling portion with a cooling zone for cooling the styled hair, wherein the difference in temperature between the surface temperatures of the heating zone amounts to at least 80 kelvin, more particularly, 100 kelvin, or more. This object is achieved, on the other hand, by a method which suggests using the appliance of the present invention. An object of this type provides for a hair styling appliance which requires little effort and structure and is easy to handle due to its simple design. Favorably, the object of the present invention achieves an improved permanence of the curls or waves of a hair strand is reached because “freezing” of the styled hair, especially the curls or waves in a hair strand, occurs only with a temperature difference of at least 80 kelvin between the heating and cooling zones, which is essential for the present invention, with the result of permitting an improved permanence of the curls. Thus, the object of the present invention discloses a hair styling appliance which is advantageously adapted for treatment of straight, curled, or waved hair.
In a favorable aspect of the present invention, the heating and cooling portions together provide a styling member for hair treatment, with the styling member generally having a circular, elliptical, or similar cross-sectional surface. This provides a simple handling with the heating and cooling portions incorporated in one single styling member. In addition, an essentially symmetrical arrangement of the cross-sectional surface of the styling member for the heating and cooling portions, for example, in two semicircular cross-sections, permits achieving a heating zone and a cooling zone of generally equal size. This has proved advantageous for a sufficient heating and subsequent cooling.
In an improvement of the present invention, the heating and cooling zones are arranged on the outer surfaces of the heating and cooling portions, which are dome-shaped in particular, so that favorably the maximum possible surface for heating and/or cooling is made available. The especially plane inside surfaces of the heating and cooling portions are arranged so as to be opposite and spaced from each other, with the result that a minimum possible temperature influence of the heating portion on the cooling portion and vice-versa occurs. Preferably, the distance between the two inner surfaces amounts to 1.5 to 3 mm approximately.
Advantageously, a thermal uncoupling element, for example, an insulator, is provided between the heating portion and the cooling portion so that it is almost ruled out that the temperatures of the two components will influence each other.
In a particularly favorable embodiment of the present invention, a pressing means, for example, a hair retaining clip for exerting a pressing force on the hair being styled is provided. Strands of hair can be placed between the heating portion and the pressing means. A good heat contact of the hair with the heating portion is thereby achieved, on the one hand, and a tension force acting on the hair can be produced, on the other hand, which must be exerted by a user when the hair styling appliance, starting from the hair roots, is pulled over the strand of hair.
The pressing means, more particularly, the clip, is movably attached to the handle portion or the heating portion of the appliance. Especially, one end of the clip is coupled by a pivot to the handle portion or the heating portion and urged by a spring element against the heating portion. Also, the clip may be so fixed that a uniform gap is produced between it and the heating portion when it in its unloaded inactive position, i.e., when no hair is placed between clip and heating portion. The tension force can favorably be set to the desired amount by an appropriate selection of the spring element and the gap size. Preferably, the tension force that is necessary to pull the hair styling appliance from the strand ranges between 1 and 2 Newton.
The present invention further discloses manufacturing the clip from a heat-conducting material so that it favorably also heats the hair strand.
In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the heating portion comprises a member made of an appropriate heat conducting material, for example, metal, or a similar material. The surface temperature of this member in the area of the heating zone amounts to at least 120° C., preferably however about 145° C., in order to reach the styling temperature of roughly 120° C. required in the hair with a relative moisture of rou
Janouch Peter
Kern Heinz
Ruppert Peter
Schaefer Norbert
Braun GmbH
Doan Robyn Kieu
Fish & Richardson P.C.
Wilson John J.
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