Patent Application
20170290385
None.
This invention relates to wig bases, and particularly to an improved wig base having an opening through which the wearer of a wig can pass a portion of her natural hair for blending with the hair attached to the wig base.
Many wigs are composed of a wig base of flexible material shaped to fit an individual's head, and composed at least in part of net material. Natural hair is attached to the wig base by a process known as weaving, in which wefts of hair are sewn to the net material. A problem with conventional wigs is that they are easily detected because they present an artificial-appearing hairline.
This problem is addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,537,014 granted May 26, 2009, which describes a wig base of net material having an omega-shaped metal element to which a detachable wig portion can be attached. The omega-shaped metal element defines an opening through which the wearer's natural hair, at the location of the natural part of the hair, can be pulled if the detachable wig portion is not used. In the wig base of U.S. Pat. No. 7,537,014, the omega-shaped element can be provided either at the center of the wig base for a wearer having a center part, or to a side of the center for a wearer having a side part. However, different wig bases are needed to accommodate wearers having different part locations.
The invention provides a wig base that enables a wig maker to form an opening through which a wearer's natural hair can be passed and blended with the hair on the wig to achieve a more natural-appearing hairline. This opening can be formed at any selected one of a plurality of locations along the border of the wig base simply by cutting away net material. Even though net material is cut away, the opening is reinforced by a fabric strip so that the integrity of the wig base is maintained.
The wig base in accordance with the invention comprises a sheet of material having a dome shape adapted to fit a human head. Because of its dome shape, the sheet has a peak and a bottom opening. The bottom opening is defined by a loop-shaped border of the sheet. To allow for weaving of hair to the wig base, it is preferable that nearly all of the area of the sheet of material be composed of net material. In the wig base of the invention, the sheet at material should at least include an area composed of net material that forms an anterior portion of the sheet and that is positioned to fit over an anterior portion of a human head above the forehead.
Reinforcements, for openings that can be formed in areas of the net material near the border, are provided by a plurality of strips of fabric attached by sewing, adhesive, or other suitable means, to the surface of the net material, and conforming to the shape of the surface of the net material. Each of these strips has a pair of opposite ends spaced from each other and located adjacent the border of the sheet, and a U-shaped intermediate portion connecting one of the ends to the other and extending from the border toward the peak of the sheet of net material. Any one of the plurality of strips of fabric can become a part of a reinforcement of a gap adjacent the bottom opening of the wig base formed by removal of net material from within its U-shaped intermediate portion.
The loop-shaped border has a front part shaped to fit the anterior part of a human head, and the wig base preferably comprises three U-shaped strips of fabric, one being located between the other two strips at a location in the middle of the front part of the loop-shaped border. The three strips are preferably disposed in uniformly spaced relation to one another, and each of the three strips has its ends adjacent the front part of the loop-shaped border. Net material can then be removed from within the strip that corresponds to the location of the natural part in the wearer's hair so that the natural part is exposed when the wearer's hair is passed through the gap formed by removal of net material.
A strip of reinforcing fabric extending along, and attached to, the loop-shaped border of the sheet of net material can include parts that span the spaces between the opposite ends of each of the U-shaped strips. Thus, the parts of the border other than the part at which net material is removed to form a gap can remain reinforced by a section of strip material extending along the loop-shaped border.
Another aspect of the invention is a process for making and applying a wig using the wig base. The process comprises removal of net material from within the U-shaped intermediate portion of a selected one of the plurality of strips of fabric to form a gap. The selected strip forms a reinforcement for the gap. Wig hair is attached to the net material to form a wig. The wig can then be placed on a wearer's head, and a portion of a wearer's natural hair is passed through the gap, and blended with the wig hair woven to the net material.
As shown in
The sheet of net material can be a continuous mesh. Alternatively, it can be made up of plural sections of mesh sewn to one another. Optionally, a strip 20 of reinforcing fabric extends along, and is attached to, the loop-shaped border 18. The size of the bottom opening of the wig base can be adjusted by means of a strip 22 of stretchable fabric attached at one end to a side of the sheet adjacent the loop-shaped border and having at its opposite end a metal or plastic hook 24 removably engageable with a selected one of a series of loops or openings (not shown in
Three strips of fabric 26, 28 and 30, are attached to the surface of the sheet of net material, preferably to the outer surface, by sewing, by the application of adhesive, or by another suitable method such as fusing. These strips conform to the surface of the sheet of net material. As shown in
The strips 26, 28 and 30 are positioned on the front part of the sheet of net material, i.e., the part that fits the anterior part of the wearer's head, and are preferably spaced uniformly, with the central strip 28 located in the middle of the front part of the loop-shaped border, and with strips 26 and 30 located respectively where a right-side and left-side natural part in the wearer's hair would meet the forehead. Preferably, parts of reinforcing strip 18 span the spaces between the opposite ends of each of strips 26, 28 and 30.
Scissors 31 are shown cutting through reinforcing strip 20 at a location between ends 27 and 29 of U-shaped strip 26 adjacent its end 27. The scissors 31 are used to remove some or all of the net material within the U-shaped strip 26 to form a gap 34 as shown in
Although the part of reinforcing strip 20 that spans the distance between ends 27 and 29 of the U-shaped strip 26 is shown cut away, in some instances it may be desired to cut away only the net material, leaving strip 20 intact. However, when the user's objective is to expose the natural part in the user's own hair, the spanning portion of the reinforcing strip 20 will ordinarily be removed. The U-shape strip then serves as a reinforcement of the gap formed by removal of the net material and the spanning part of reinforcing strip 20, maintaining the shape of the wig base.
Net material can be removed in a similar manner from within either of the other two U-shaped strips, and the portion of reinforcing strip 20 that spans the distance between the ends of the U-shaped strip can also be removed.
As illustrated in
As shown in
Various modifications can be made to the wig base described herein. For example, the positions of the inverted U-shaped reinforcing strips can be different from the positions in which they are depicted in
This application is a divisional application of U.S. Non-Provisional Application No. 14/277,086 entitled Wig Base filed May 14, 2014. The subject matter of the prior application is hereby incorporated in its entirety herein by reference thereto.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 14277086 | May 2014 | US |
| Child | 15632472 | US |
