Patent Application
20130312783
The hair styling system relates to hair styling devices and more especially to a hair styling system that provides for adding body, straightening, curling, and adding fullness to hair.
One challenge facing hair styling is that home efforts can seldom duplicate salon results. Such failure to duplicate is quite often the result of equipment used. One problem in styling hair is the use of rollers that typically must begin having a relatively high level of heat, and left in hair until cooled. The typical approach to this problem has historically been the use of a plurality of pre-heated rollers. Again, typically, rollers are installed, allowed to cool, removed, and hair then brushed and finished with various tools. Chemical additions of sprays and other enhancements may be used at any stage.
Any reduction in these described steps results in time savings. Any improvement in the equipment used in these steps results in time savings also, as well as improved results and results that more closely mimic those achieved by a hair stylist.
Additionally, hair stylists can represent a significant cost; therefore, any hair stylist benefits that can be duplicated in personal efforts can result in significant cost savings.
A further comparison between the present system and other devices presently used, a typical roller set is designed to be used after hair is dry, to add volume, to straighten or to curl for example. Such procedure usually results in a temporary volume and curl set, followed by collapse, as the hair is not set when damp and allowed to dry in the desired condition. Hair must complete drying in a condition of curler or roller retention to accomplish desired set, the premier advantage provided by the current system. This is termed a thermal set and provides best, long lasting results. In attempts to mimic a correct thermal set, some have suggested the use of a thermal brush, which the user or stylist then attempts to leave in the hair until cooled. These efforts are prone to failure due to the brushes' extreme difficulties in staying in the hair. The handles, after all, provide great resistance to hair retention due to weight and bulk. The present system hereby provides the solutions to the above noted problems.
The general purpose of the hair styling system, described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a hair styling system which has many novel features that result in an improved hair styling system.
To attain this, the hair styling system provides several advantages over other devices in that styling steps can be eliminated, time savings result, whether used by a professional or directly by a user on their own hair, and users also learn from the product in personal use, especially after observing a professional employ the system. The handle provides for releasable hold of the plurality of sizes and numbers of perforated tubular sleeves, which will be termed rollers. One advantage of the system is that the rollers may be provided in several material compositions, with a ceramic, ionic material being favored. The releasable locking system between handle and rollers is critical to the system's function and ergonomic ease of use.
Rollers are also provided in various shapes, such as triangular, conical, hour glass, rectangular, square and cylindrical, allowing a stylist and a user to more accurately accomplish a given hair appearance. Each roller has a plurality of perforations for providing a vented core to allow drying air to pass freely therethrough and may be provided with and without brushes. The handle may be produced in a variety of materials, including those that resist heat transfer from the rollers to the handle.
Importantly, the system provides a positive and easily used design for engagement and disengagement of rollers with the handle. Three rather than two locking balls are provided to permit the user to extend a sleeve by selectively and externally pushing outwardly on a cylindrical extension on the handle second end to engage each of the rollers and to retain the roller by means of bias of a compression spring. An easy movement of retracting the sleeve by sliding the sleeve rearwardly on the handle disengages each roller from the handle. This design provides positive engagement that prevents roller wiggle, rotation or poor fit to the handle. A concave sleeve importantly provides for a user to easily grip and slide the concave sleeve rearwardly as desired. Any number of rollers, whether with or without brushes, can be engaged in and left in hair until the desired thermal set occurs.
In its broad aspect, the hair styling system of the invention comprises a handle having a first end spaced apart from a second end; a constant diameter of the handle disposed adjacent to the second end and having a chamber disposed centrally within the handle defining a sidewall, said sidewall having a pair of diametrically-opposed slots formed therein; a compression spring disposed axially within the chamber; a sleeve slideably surrounding the constant diameter for axial reciprocal travel; a transverse bridge joined to the sleeve extending through the slots into the chamber and abutting the compression spring whereby the sleeve is biased axially outwardly; a connector attached to the bridge and depending axially outwardly; a collar connected to the end of the constant diameter at the second end, means for joining the extension to the collar; a trio of locking balls disposed circumferentially equidistant within openings in the cylindrical extension adapted to be biased radially outwardly; a shaft having a proximal end and a distal end, means at the proximal end adapted to be engaged with the connector depending from the bridge, the shaft thereby axially disposed within the chamber and the cylindrical extension, said shaft having a bulb formed at the shaft distal end; a circumferential recess formed on the bulb for receiving the balls, the bulb and circumferential recess configured to force the locking balls to a radially outward position in a one condition, and to permit the locking balls to retract to an inward position in a second condition; a roller, said roller having a cylindrical orifice disposed centrally at an end within the roller adapted to receive the handle extension therein; and an annular recess for receiving the trio of locking balls disposed within the cylindrical orifice, the annular recess having equispaced notches adapted to receive the balls therein to prevent axial separation of the roller from the handle and to prevent rotation of the roller on the handle, wherein the locking balls are configured to release the roller from the handle with an axial retracted position of the sleeve, and the locking balls are configured to retain the roller on the handle with an extended axial position of the sleeve.
A principal object of the hair styling system of the present invention is to provide a hair styling device comprised of a handle and a plurality of rollers easily detached from the handle.
Another object of the hair styling system is to save steps and time in hair styling and to achieve a long lasting set of hair in a desired style.
A further object of the hair styling system is to provide a variety of vented rollers detachably connected to a handle in order to allow a user to achieve virtually any desired result.
These together with additional objects, features and advantages of the improved hair styling system will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following detailed description of presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiments of the improved hair styling system when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Embodiments of the process of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, in which:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular
Referring to
Referring to
A collar 30, connected to the free end of constant diameter 23 has a shoulder 30a adapted to be abutted by sleeve 27 in its extended position, as viewed in
A trio of equispaced locking balls 33 circumferentially disposed within sockets in the distal end of the cylindrical extension 32 are shown in an inwardly, radially retracted position in
Referring now to
Referring again to
Referring to
Referring again to
In use, and with reference to
Referring now to
The handle 20 preferably is formed such as by injection moulding from a plastic such as heat-resistant polycarbonate to prevent heat transfer from the rollers, preferably in a concave ergonomic shape for a comfortable grip. Rollers 40 preferably are formed from a ceramic or a ceramic-coated metal for optimum heat transfer and rapid heating and cooling of hair treated by the system.
In use, damp hair to be curled is engaged by the bristles of a roller 40 or 50 and the handle 20 rotated to collect and roll the hair about the roller. Heat is provided by a flow of heated air from a conventional hair dryer in proximity to the roller whereby the ceramic material of the roller is quickly heated for rapid transfer of heat to dry the air. The plurality of perforations formed throughout the hair-engaging surface of the roller allows the hot air to flow into the interior of the roller and exit uniformly along its length for uniform heating and drying of the user's hair. The user then quickly detaches the roller 40 or 50 from the handle 20, leaving the roller 40 or 50 in the user's hair to complete cooling and shaping, permitting the user to select another roller 40 or 50 and continue the procedure with additional rollers of a desired size and shape.
It will be understood that other embodiments and examples of the invention will be readily apparent to a person skilled in the art, the scope and purview of the invention being defined in the appended claims.
