Patent Application
20180077985
This invention relates to wig clips, and particularly to improvements in wig clips used to secure a wig base to a wearer's natural hair.
A typical toggle-action wig clip is described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,631,804, granted on January 21, 2014, and the disclosure of that patent is incorporated by reference. The wig clip is composed of a U-shaped frame member having legs extending from opposite ends of an intermediate portion of the frame, a set of comb teeth disposed between the legs and also extending from the intermediate portion, and a connecting portion connected by rivets from one leg to the other, and overlapped by the comb teeth.
The frame is made from metal, a synthetic resin, or another material having spring properties, and the distance between the rivet holes in the legs of the U-shaped frame member is different from the distance between the rivet holes in the connecting portion when the frame member and connecting portion are apart from each other and in a relaxed condition. Consequently, when the connecting portion is riveted to the frame, the wig clip tends to bend out of a planar configuration, and can be manually shifted from one stable condition to another by a toggle action. In a first stable condition, the comb teeth are spaced by a short distance from the connecting portion, and in a second stable condition, the comb teeth are in contact with the connecting portion.
Usually, several of these wig clips are attached to a wig base. The wig base is a flexible net-like structure to which wig hair is attached by a process known as “weaving.” The wig clips can be sewn to the wig base by passing yarns through holes formed in the U-shaped frame. Alternatively, the wig clips can be secured to the net material of the wig base by the use of barbs formed on the frame or on extensions of the frame structure, or by various other means.
The wig clips are used to attach the wig base to a wearer's natural hair. When the wig clip is in its first stable condition, i.e., with the comb teeth spaced from the connecting portion, the comb teeth can be engaged with a lock of the wearer's natural hair close to the scalp. Then by manual bending, the wig clip can be toggled to its second stable condition, and the wearer's natural hair is clamped between the comb teeth and the connecting portion so that the wig base is secured in place.
The connecting portion can include a compressible covering that yields when contacted by the comb teeth, while the wig clip is in its second stable condition, to enhance friction between the wig clip and the natural hair. The comb teeth are also usually formed with bulbous ends to avoid discomfort to the wearer that would otherwise be caused by sharp comb teeth.
Other wig clips, such as the wig clip described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,689,807, granted on Apr. 8, 2014, utilize a spring-urged, pivoted comb to secure the wearer's natural hair to a frame. The comb teeth are formed with an array of projections to ensure that the wig clip is securely attached to the wearer's natural hair.
In some of the embodiments of the wig clip in U.S. Pat. No. 8,631,804, converging comb teeth assist in binding the clip to the wearer's natural hair.
A typical wig base, provided with six to eight wig clips, ordinarily provides adequate support for the wig. However, if wide and heavy hair extension wefts are woven to the wig base, the ability of the wig clips to grip the wearer's natural hair diminishes, and loosening of one or more of them can cause discomfort. More secure attachment has been achieved by various measures. However, these measures often make the structure of the wig clip overly complex, and make manufacture of the wig clips difficult.
The wig clip assembly according to the invention essentially comprises first and second wig clips connected to each other by a connecting member. The wig clips can be conventional, toggle-type, wig clips comprising frames and having comb teeth that can be brought into a first stable state in which the comb teeth are resiliently urged against an elongated part of the frame and a second stable state in which the comb teeth are maintained out of engagement with the elongated part of the frame.
Each frame comprises first and second elongated parts each having first and second opposite ends, a first connecting part connecting the first end of the first elongated part to a first end of the second elongated part, and a second connecting part connecting the second end of the first elongated part to a second end of the second elongated part. A set of comb teeth extends from the first elongated part, and past the second elongated part, of each frame. The comb teeth of each frame are disposed between the connecting parts. A connecting member is secured to each of the first and second frames, and extends from the first frame to the second frame.
In a preferred embodiment, the connecting member is secured to the first and second frames by a pair of fasteners, such as rivets, that allow relative rotation of each of the frames relative to the connecting member.
Each of the fasteners is preferably located at one of the first and second opposite ends of the first elongated part of each of the frames.
The wig clip assembly 10 illustrated in
In the wig clip shown in
A comb 30 is secured by rivets 32 to the first elongated part 14, and its comb teeth, e.g. teeth 34, are disposed between the connecting parts 18 and 24. The teeth of comb 30 extend past the second elongated part 16 and are movable, by a toggle action, into and out of contact with an elastomeric sleeve 36 which fits onto part 16. The toggle action, which can be achieved by fastening the two parts of connecting part 24 together by a rivet 37 extending through holes in the respective parts of connecting part 24, the holed being positioned so that elongated part 14 is under longitudinal tension, thereby maintaining elongated part 16 in longitudinal compression. Bent one way, part 16 has a first stable condition in which its sleeve 36 is out of contact with the comb teeth, and a second stable condition in which its sleeve 36 is urged toward the comb teeth.
The wig clip is secured to a wig base by stitches 38, which extend through holes formed in the wig clip and through hollow parts of the several rivets of that secure parts of the wig clip together.
Returning to
Connecting member 44 is secured at one of its ends by rivet 46 to wig clip 40 and, at its opposite end, by rivet 48 to wig clip 42. In the embodiment shown in
Rivets 46 and 48 preferably allow rotation of the wig clip frames relative to the connecting member 44 about the rivet axes. The connecting member 44, however, keeps the wig clip frames at a fixed distance from each other along the direction of the connecting member, and also affords some resistance to twisting of the assembly about an axis extending along the direction of the connecting member.
When the wig base is in place on the wearer's head, with its wig clip assemblies secured to the wearer's natural hair, even if one of the wig clips of a given wig clip assembly becomes detached from the wearer's natural hair, the connecting member, e.g., connecting member 44 in
Modifications can be made to the embodiments described. As mentioned, the wig clip assemblies can be inverted so that the comb teeth protrude toward the peak of the wig base. The number of wig clip assemblies secured to a particular wig base can be varied. For example, a given wig base can be provided with two or four wig clip assemblies, each composed of two wig clips connected by a connecting member. Alternatively, a given wig base can be provided with one or more wig clip assemblies and also with one or more individual wig clips.
