Electric resistance heating devices – Heating devices – Concentrated heated air stream
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-23
2001-09-04
Jeffery, John A. (Department: 3742)
Electric resistance heating devices
Heating devices
Concentrated heated air stream
C392S410000, C034S097000, C034S266000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06285828
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to hair dryers and, more particularly, to a hair dryer having a heating source that emits heat and light having wavelengths in the visible spectrum.
When hair is wet, it becomes densely packed. As such, it is difficult for heat to penetrate wet hair to dry it. Ironically, hair that is wettest is most inefficient to dry through conventional means.
Traditional hair drying systems that rely on fan-forced convection heat are unable to get heat into the underlying hair fibers within tresses of densely packed wet hair. It is a well known and documented problem that hair dryers often damage the outermost hair fibers before the inner fibers are even dry. This damage is caused by the over heating and over drying effects of hot air.
Several attempts have been made to increase the rate at which under-lying wet hair is dried. These include coupling of the dryer to a brush or comb attachment that mechanically separates the hair fibers as hot air is blown at the hair. Various hot air injection attachments have also been devised for blow dryers in an attempt to address this problem, which include hollow tines that feed hot air directly into the wet tresses. In general, these attachments and accessories have improved the problem, but caused the hair dryer to be more complicated than desired in both design and use, and rendered the hair dryer more specifically dedicated to a particular hair style, which reduced its versatility and value. Also, the physical disturbance of the hair tresses by such attachments and accessories tend to “fluff” the hair and provide a style that may not be desirable.
Additional attempts to heat and dry the underlying hair fibers with infrared heat have been made with limited success. Although the infrared rays do penetrate the wet hair tresses more effectively and dry the hair more efficiently, excessive exposure to infrared rays can be damaging to the skin, scalp, and hair follicles, and its invisibility does not provide for a very effective indicator of its presence. It is found that users do not respect the danger of invisible infrared heat until they feel the heating of the scalp, after the hair is already damaged and the scalp has been overexposed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention alleviates to a great extent the disadvantages of the hair dryers of the prior art by providing a hair dryer including a traditional fan-forced heating system which is enhanced with light radiant heat having wavelengths in the infrared and visible spectrum, respectively. It is found that the coupling of visible light with infrared radiation is as effective in heating and drying the underlying fibers of wet hair as is purely invisible infrared radiation, while providing the user with an obvious indicator of the invisible infrared radiation's otherwise dangerous presence. It is further found that use of such a combined heating system results in less damage to the hair and skin, which is most likely the result of the added caution a user employs in the presence of heat with visible light.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved hair dryer.
It is another object to provide an improved hair dryer that can thoroughly dry densely packed wet hair.
It is another object to provide such an improved hair dryer that can thoroughly dry such densely packed wet hair without damaging the hair or scalp.
It is another object to provide such an improved hair dryer that can be easily used without the attachment of accessories or use of auxiliary devices.
It is another object to provide an improved hair dryer with the foregoing advantages and that is less likely to disrupt the hair during drying.
It is a further object to provide an improved hair dryer which emits heat that is coupled to visible light to provide an indicator of the heat's presence prior to the sensation of a temperature rise on the scalp.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from the following description and drawings, which illustrate two embodiments of the invention.
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Helen of Troy
Jarcho Harold G.
Jeffery John A.
Toupal John E.
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