Brush for straightening hair

A hair brush useful for temporarily straightening curly or wavy hair is provided having first and second brush heads hinged to one another at their handles. The first and second brush heads are biased away from one another so that the hair brush is normally in an open position. The hair brush is used by grasping the handles and squeezing the heads together to grip a portion of a person's hair. The brush is moved through the hair to hold the hair straight so that it can be blow dried.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
This invention is directed to a hair brush that can be used with a blow 
dryer to temporarily straighten curly or wavy hair. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Various methods for temporarily straightening curly or wavy hair are well 
known. One method often employed by professional hair stylists includes 
the use of a brush to slowly pull wet hair straight while blow drying the 
hair straight. Typically a hair stylist will do this by first grasping a 
portion of the customer's hair near the scalp with a typical hair styling 
brush and slowly pulling the hair through the brush while simultaneously 
blow drying the hair. The hair is grasped by first placing the brush's 
bristles in the hair and then giving the brush a slight twist in order to 
secure the hair within the bristles. The process is repeated over various 
portions of the customer's hair until the desired straightening effect has 
been achieved. 
Such a technique has certain drawbacks. First, while a professional hair 
stylist's technique of grasping a customer's hair with a simple twist of a 
styling brush can look effortless, in practice it is a fairly difficult 
skill for a typical person to master. Often the person trying to grasp 
another's hair by such a technique will grasp the hair too securely in the 
brush and pull the hair unnecessarily. Furthermore, while the technique is 
difficult to master on another's hair, it can be almost impossible to do 
on one's own hair. Even a professional hair stylist can have difficulty 
using this technique to straighten his or her own hair. 
Another drawback to such a technique is that a portion of the hair must 
remain grasped by the twisted hair brush for the method to be effective. 
Consequently, the inch or two of hair most distal from the scalp can be 
difficult to straighten by this technique. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An improved hair brush useful for straightening hair is provided by the 
present invention. According to the invention, a pair of brush heads are 
provided, each having a plurality of bristles. The two brush heads are 
joined to one another at their handles with the bristles facing one 
another by a biased hinge such that the two brush heads are biased away 
from one another. A person who wishes to straighten another's hair or even 
his or her own hair can use the hair brush to grasp the hair to be 
straightened by simply squeezing the hinged handles together in order to 
capture the hair between the facing brush heads. A portion of wet hair is 
first grasped near the scalp and then slowly pulled away from the scalp 
while the hair is blow dried. The strength of the grip in the person's 
hair can be easily adjusted by the pressure placed on the handles. 
Consequently, there is no unnecessary pulling of the hair. The process is 
repeated with different portions of hair until the desired straightening 
effect has been achieved. 
In order to provide optimal gripping ability while permitting the brush to 
be comfortably moved through the person's hair, the first brush head is 
provided with a plurality of bristles that are provided in a grid 
configuration with each bristle spaced apart from the other bristles. 
These bristles are fairly rigid and are about 3/4 inches long. The second 
brush head, rather than including rigid individually spaced bristles, 
preferably includes shorter, more flexible bristles that are more densely 
spaced. Preferably, these bristles are about 1/2 to 3/4 inches in length 
and are in tufts that are arranged in a grid pattern on the lower brush 
head. 
This combination of bristles on the two brush heads provides excellent 
gripping ability with hair. Yet, the hair brush can be easily moved 
through the hair without unnecessary discomfort. Furthermore, the hair 
brush can be moved almost the entire length of the hair so that there will 
not be an end portion of the hair that has not been straightened.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
Referring to FIGS. 1 through 4, first and second brush heads 10, 12 are 
provided. The first brush head includes a generally planar face 14 having 
a plurality of individual bristles 16 extending from it in a direction 
generally perpendicular to the face. A first handle 18 is provided 
extending from the first brush head in a direction generally parallel to 
the plane of the face. In effect, the first brush head is configured 
similar to a typical hair brush. 
Each of the bristles of the first brush head preferably comprises a fairly 
rigid shaft 19 with a small bulb 21 at its end. Such a bristle design is 
often used for comfort to prevent the shaft from irritating the scalp and 
for preventing the bristles from wearing out. The shaft can be made of 
various materials such as lengths of metal that are flexibly mounted to 
the face of the brush head. The shafts can also be made of a more flexible 
plastic material. The shafts should be rigid enough to to be able to be 
moved through the hair without losing contact with the hair, yet flexible 
enough to slide through the hair comfortably. The preferred bristles are 
generally about 3/4 inch long and provided in a grid arrangement with 
about 25 to 36 individual bristles per square inch. 
The second brush head similarly includes a generally planar face 22 with a 
plurality of bristles 24 extending from it in a direction generally 
perpendicular to the face. Like the first brush head, a handle 26 is 
provided extending from the face in a direction generally parallel to the 
plane of the face. The second brush head is also similar to a conventional 
hair brush. 
Unlike the bristles of the first brush head, the bristles of the second 
brush head are more densely packed. Preferably these bristles are also 
shorter and of a more flexible material than the bristles of the first 
brush head. The bristles of the second head are preferably about 1/2 to 
3/4 inches in length. In the preferred embodiment, the bristles of the 
second brush head are provided in tufts 27 arranged in a grid on the face 
of the brush head. Preferably, each tuft includes about 20 bristles. The 
tufts are preferably spaced with about 16 tufts per square inch. 
The first and second brush heads are hinged to one another at their handles 
by a hinge 28 formed by the handles. A first pair of hinge tabs 32 on the 
handle of the first brush head interlock with a second pair of hinge tabs 
34 on the second brush head. A pin 36 is inserted through apertures 38 
provided in each of the hinge tabs to pivotally join the two brush 
portions together. 
The brush heads are biased away from one another in an open position by a 
spring 41 such as is illustrated in FIG. 5. According to this embodiment, 
the spring comprises a coil 44 with a pair of arms 46 extending 
tangentially from the coil in a configuration such as the springs commonly 
used for safety pins or clothes pins. Referring back to FIGS. 3 and 4, 
each pair of hinge tabs defines a slot 42 for receiving the arm of the 
spring. The spring is held in place by the pin which in addition to being 
inserted through the apertures of the hinge tabs is also inserted through 
the hole defined by the coil. 
As is best illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, when the first and second brush 
portions are assembled to one another, a two-headed hair brush is provided 
that is normally biased in an open position with the two heads apart from 
one another as illustrated in FIG. 1. By lightly grasping the handles and 
squeezing them together, the bristles on the first and second brush 
portions can be pressed toward one another to grasp a portion of hair. 
Using this brush, a person can easily straighten another person's hair or 
even his or her own hair by merely wetting the hair, grasping a portion of 
hair near the scalp with the brush as described above, and slowly pulling 
the brush through the hair while simultaneously holding the hair straight 
and blow drying the hair dry. This process can be repeated over various 
sections of the person's hair until the desired result has been achieved. 
Advantages of the present invention include its ease of use. While 
professional hair stylists can easily grasp a person's hair with a 
conventional brush using techniques described above, virtually anyone can 
achieve a professional result using the hair brush of the present 
invention. Furthermore, even a professional hair stylist may have 
difficulty using a conventional brush technique with either hand. In 
contrast, the hair brush of the present invention can be simply used with 
either hand without any special dexterity. A professional hair stylist can 
also use the hair brush of the present invention on his or her own hair. 
In the past, even a professional hair stylist might have difficulty in 
such an endeavor. Consequently, the present invention is not only useful 
for amateurs, it is also useful for professional hair stylists. Moreover, 
the hair can be straightened right up to the ends with the hair brush of 
the present invention. Using a conventional brush, there is generally a 
portion at the end of the hair that is difficult to straighten. 
An alternate embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 6. 
As in the previous embodiment, the brush includes first and second brush 
heads 110, 112. A first face 114 is provided with individually spaced 
bristles 116 and a handle 118. 
A second face 122 is provided with shorter, more closely spaced tufted 
bristles 124 and a handle 126. The handles of the two brush portions are 
joined to one another by a biased hinge 128. However, rather than a coil 
spring as provided above, the spring in this embodiment is merely a 
resilient and springy length of metal ribbon provided in a 
U-configuration. According to this embodiment, the ribbon of metal is 
fastened or otherwise adhered to the handles, or can even be molded within 
the handles of the first and second brush heads. Rather than a metal 
spring, a similar configuration can be used with a durable, resilient 
plastic material and the brush heads can even be molded from plastic in a 
single piece with an integral spring section. As with the previous 
embodiment, this brush can easily be grasped in one hand and the first and 
second brush heads can be pressed toward one another in order to grasp a 
person's hair. 
Having described the preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is 
apparent that several modifications may be made while keeping within the 
spirit and scope of the following claims.