Patent Application
20190274386
This invention relates to a personal grooming devices and showers, and in particular relates to a shower cap for accommodating common African American hair styles.
The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
Typical shower caps include hair-protecting polymeric caps adapted to protect hair from getting wet while showering or bathing. Although the art teaches shower caps which are functionally efficient for short, closing cropped hair, the art is lacking with respect to many African American hair styles which commonly have more volume than non-African American styles and require uniquely purposed hair caps. Not only does voluminous hair fail to fit into traditional hair caps, voluminous shield the head of shower cap wearer from sensing hot and cold, wet and dry, and high pressure and low pressure water streams. There is a need in the art for a shower cap which remedies these inefficiencies and it is an object of the present invention to provide the same.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for a shower cap adapted to accommodate African American hair styling. Beneficially, such a shower cap would provide means of curing the deficiencies in the prior art described above.
The present invention has been developed in response to the present state of the art, and in particular, in response to the problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fully solved by currently available shower caps. Accordingly, the present invention has been developed to provide a shower cap for voluminous hair, the shower cap comprising: a concave waterproof polymeric dome; a brim circumscribing a lower edge of the dome, the brim comprising one or more flexible elastomeric straps; and a knot affixed exteriorly to the brim, the knot adapted pull at the brim when water pressure is applied thereto.
The shower cap may further comprise a plurality of knots. The brim may fold over the dome.
A second shower cap for voluminous hair is provided, the shower cap comprising: a concave waterproof polymeric dome disposed above a plurality of annular concentric tiers; a plurality of annular, concentric tiers telescoping into one another to add volume to the shower cap; a brim circumscribing a lower edge of a tier, the brim comprising one or more flexible elastomeric straps; and a knot affixed exteriorly to one or more of the brim and the dome, the knot adapted pull at the shower cap when water pressure is applied thereto.
The shower cap may further comprise a plurality of knots. The tiers may telescope into one another.
The tiers may be configured to take on the appearance of a wrap.
Reference throughout this specification to features, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of the features and advantages that may be realized with the present invention should be or are in any single embodiment of the invention. Rather, language referring to the features and advantages is understood to mean that a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, discussion of the features and advantages, and similar language, throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, refer to the same embodiment.
Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the invention.
These features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.
In order that the advantages of the invention will be readily understood, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings, in which:
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment.
Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided, such as examples of programming, software modules, user selections, network transactions, database queries, database structures, hardware modules, hardware circuits, hardware chips, etc., to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.
The dome 102 comprises a concave flexibly polymeric pocket which partially envelopes the head of a wearer 108. The dome 102 may comprise any waterproof or water-repellant material known to those of skill in the art, such as neoprene, Sonobond®, nylon and the like.
In various embodiments, the dome 102 is crunched at a distal or rearward end to conjoin with a knot 106. The knot 106 may be formed by folding the dome 102 back on itself and thus as a single integrated piece with the dome 102 or alternatively the knot 106 may be separately formed and affixed permanently or detachably to the dome 102 using means known to those of skill in the art, including adhesive, clips, snaps, lashing and the like.
The brim 104 may comprise an elastomeric strap or ring which circumscribes the forehead of the wearer 108 and allows the dome 102 to flex to fit various sizes of heads.
The dome 102 stretches around the forehead of a wearer 108 or bather to join with the knot 106 in the back in the shown embodiment.
In various embodiments, the knot 106 is positioned or disposed forward of the dome 102 as shown. The knot 106 may, or may not, enclose hair of the wearer 108. In various embodiments, the knot 106 may be folded around hair of the wearer 108 though in the primary embodiment the knot 106 encloses no hair.
The knot 106 serves both aesthetic and functional purposes. Even in those embodiments in which the knot 106 does not enclose the hair, the knot 106 pulls or pushes on the forehead of a wearer 108 when water pressure is applied to the knot. The pressure is typically imperceptible to the wearer 108 when voluminous hair styles pad the head of the wearer 108 to the point the wearer 108 cannot feel the water pressure from the shower nozzle. In this manner, the knot 106 allows the wearer 108 to sense where the wearer 108 is positioned within the shower relative to the water stream. For this reason the dome 102 may be affixed directly to the brim 104 and/or elastomeric strap.
As shown.
In various embodiments, the dome 102 is tubular as shown to accommodate extra long and/or voluminous hair. The dome 102 may comprise various tiers 504a-c as shown to add extra volume to the dome 102. The annular tiers 504a-c may telescope as they travel proximally toward the head of the wearer 108 such that the lower edge of each tier 502 inserts within the upper edge of the tier 502 below. The tier may be concentric from a top perspective view. The cap 500 may comprise any number of tiers 502, which may collapse into one another for more compact storage.
The tiers 504 may be configured to take on the appearance of a wrap or turban around the head of the wearer 108.
The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
