FLEXIBLY RESILIENT HAIRBRUSH

Abstract: A hairbrush comprises a head (1), provided with bristles (10), and a handle (3) which are connected together via an interconnecting portion (2). The interconnecting portion (2) comprises two open-ended hollow cylinders (21, 22) which extend from the head (1) and handle (3) respectively and telescopically overlap to provide a journal bearing arrangement. A resilient flexible member (25) is located within the overlapping hollow cylinders (21, 22), and is attached at both ends (27) to the head (1) and handle (3) respectively and acts to bias the head (1) and handle (3) into a particular rotational orientation with respect to one another.

Description: FLEXIBLY RESILIENT HAIRBRUSH The present invention relates to hairbrushes and in particular to a hairbrush for use when blow-drying. Blow-drying is a method of styling hair whereby a brush is held in one hand and a hairdryer in the other. The hairdryer and the brush may also be combined to form one elongated instrument. The operator rotates or pulls or just holds the mass of hair or a section of hair on the brush, . usually by a rotating movement under tension, and at the same time applies warm air from the hairdryer, thereby drying and shaping the hair into a style. It is important, especially when blow-drying shorter hair, to ensure that the head of the brush stays close to the scalp so that the warm air is directed towards the roots of the hair rather than just to the ends of the hair. When blow-drying longer hair, one would in most cases start by directing the air firstly towards the ends of the hair and then move towards the roots. However, it is at all times important that the operator has close control over transverse movements of the brush head, for example, to enable it to be held close to the scalp when necessary. The action of rotating, pulling or just holding the hair in place is sometimes carried out in a heavy-handed way such that too much tension is applied. This risk is especially great amongst apprentices or less experienced operators. Excessive tension may also occur where an operator is trying to straighten curly or permed hair and may result in overstretching of the hair, in particular where the hair has already been made sensitive by perming, colouring or bleaching, or a combination of all of these. GB 2172196 describes a hairbrush in which a rigid head portion is connected to a rigid handle portion by means of a flexible portion which allows the head portion to deflect resiliently transversely to its length. This helps to lift hair in a controlled arc away from the scalp in a transverse movement in order to let it fall in a soft and casual style, so giving it fullness. The present invention seeks to provide a hairbrush for use in blow-drying which helps to overcome at least one of the problems associated with the prior art discussed above. In accordance with the present invention there is provided a hairbrush for use in blow-drying comprising a handle , an elongate head having bristles extending outwardly therefrom for engaging a user's hair and an interconnecting portion connecting the handle and the head, wherein said interconnecting portion includes transverse stiffening means and resilient means, whereby a torsion acting to rotate the head about a longitudinal axis extending along the length of the head, will cause the head to rotate, relative to the handle, about said longitudinal axis. Preferably, the hairbrush takes the form of a substantially cylindrical device, said handle, said interconnecting portion and said head all being connected together along said longitudinal axis which is common to all three elements. The transverse stiffening means may take the form of a pair of telescoping, open-ended cylinders, of which an inner cylinder extends from the handle and an outer cylinder extends from the head, or vice- versa, the telescoping cylinders overlapping such that all relative movement between the head and handle is restricted except for translational movement along the length of the longitudinal axis and rotational movement about the longitudinal axis. The resilient means may take the form of a resilient flexible member attached to both the handle and the head whereby the head and handle are biased towards a fixed rotational orientation, relative to one another. The resilient flexible member preferably has much greater torsional flexibility than longitudinal flexibility, and may conveniently take the form of a wire spring or a solid cylinder of elastomeric material such as rubber. In order to prevent over twisting of the resilient member, the interconnecting portion preferably includes some form of engagement means which prevents rotation of the handle relative to the head beyond a predetermined angle in either direction. Where the interconnecting portion includes telescoping open-ended cylinders the engagement means may take the form of one or more axially extending projections formed on the axially outer end of the inner cylinder and one or more radially inwardly projecting surfaces formed on the outer cylinder which engage with said projections if the outer cylinder is rotated through said predetermined angle relative to the inner cylinder in either one or both directions. In order to prevent longitudinal movement of the cylinders relative to one another, the interconnecting portion may further include co-operating longitudinal engagement means such as a circumferential groove formed in one of the cylinders and a co-operating projection formed in the other cylinder. The circumferential groove may have some longitudinal play or give to allow for change in the longitudinal length of the resilient member resulting from twisting of the interconnecting portion and hence the resilient member itself, where no provision has been made in the resilient member to prevent longitudinal size changes. Alternatively, in such situations, the circumferential groove may curve slightly, in an axial direction, to account for this effect. However, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a longitudinal stiffening means is provided within the resilient means which substantially prevents any change in the longitudinal length of the resilient means. The interconnecting portion preferably acts both as a shock- absorber to soften the abrupt resistance which hair applies to the head when in use, and as a warning to a user that too much tension is being applied to the hair when the head is noticeably rotated away from its equilibrium point with respect to the handle The resilient means may be made from steel in any shape as will be recognised by those skilled in the art, or any other metal in any shape or form capable of absorbing shock Alternatively, it may be made in natural or synthetic rubber, elastomeric or plastics material or any other material which has a memory and comes back to its original form after having been deformed In order that the present invention may be better understood an emDodiment thereof will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which - Figure 1 is a diagrammatical, cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is an end on view indicating the rotational movement of the head relative to the handle permitted by the interconnecting portion, Figure 3 is an exploded view of a part of Figure 1 showing the resilient means in greater detail, Figure 4 is a diagrammatical, cross-sectional view of an alternative construction of a resilient means suitable for use in the present invention, Figure 5 is a diagrammatical perspective view of a fork-style brush head suitable for use in the present invention, Figure 6 is a diagrammatical perspective view of a loop-style bristle brush head suitable for use in the present invention, and Figure 7 is a diagrammatical perspective view of a brush head suitable for use in the present invention having protruding moulded bristles and a pivotable member for trapping hair against the brush head Referring to the drawings, the hairbrush includes a head 1 , an interconnecting portion 2 and a handle 3 Outwardly, all three elements 1 , 2, 3 have the appearance of co-axial cylinders connected end to end, with bristles 10 extending radially outwardly from the head. The bristles 10 extend along the entire length and approximately half of the circumference of the head. The handle is made of a rigid plastics material and may be moulded so as to be easily grippable with, for example, small ridges or rounded projections formed thereon. The interconnecting portion 2 includes an inner open-ended cylinder 21 and an outer open-ended cylinder 22 which together form a transverse stiffening means. The interconnecting portion 2 also includes a resilient member 25 having shock absorbing properties, and being in the form of a substantially cylindrical, solid piece of elastomeric material or rubber. The resilient member has a central member 26, in the form of a relatively long cylinder of elastomeric material having a relatively narrow diameter so as to have a correspondingly small torsional resistance, and two end caps 27, in the form of short, solid cylinders formed on both ends of the central member 26, each end cap 27 having a greater diameter than the central member 26 to provide a larger surface area for attachment to both the head 1 and handle 3 of the hairbrush. The solid central member 26 of elastomeric material may, of course be replaced with a metal spring or other body having torsional resilience. Figure 4 shows an alternative construction of the resilient member 25 which includes a substantially non-extendible central axle 30 formed of, for example, wire. The central member 26 has tapered ends 35 and a narrow waist 36. End caps 27, having internally tapering surfaces corresponding to the tapered ends 35 of the central member 26, are adhered or moulded onto the tapered ends 35 of the central member 26 and are attached to the respective ends 31 of the axle 30. The narrow waist 36, created by an inwardly reducing circumference of the central member 26, allows fine-tuning of the torsional resistance to respond to the average torque applied by the average operator by choosing the exact grade of elastomeric material required. The resilient member 25 in this case has the end caps 27 moulded on to the preshaped or moulded elastomeric central member 26. The resilient member may again be connected to the brush-head 1 and brush- handle 3 by any suitable means such as, for example, ultra-sonic welding or other methods depending upon the materials used. Suitable such methods are well known to those skilled in the art. The end caps are conveniently attached to the inner and outer cylinders 21 ,22 by their curved, side surfaces rather than their flat, end surfaces. Figure 2 shows how the head 1 may rotate relative to the handle 3 in either direction. The arrows 50 show how the head rotates about the central axis of the hairbrush. In use, the interconnecting portion 2 acts as a shock absorber and a hair-stretch absorber which functions as the operator's wrist or arm movement applies tension to the hair on the brush, whether rotating in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction. The shock absorbing effect softens the abrupt resistance which the hair presents on the brush. When the operator applies too much pressure or pull to the hair, the interconnecting portion twists resiliently. The operator is likely to notice this twisting within the hairbrush and consequently knows to apply less pressure; this in turn relieves the pressure on the hair, thereby reducing the danger of causing overstretch damage to the hair shafts. Figures 5, 6 and 7 show alternative possible arrangements of the brush head for use in the present invention. The bristles formed on the brush head may conveniently be made of pig's bristle, pony tail or other natural material such as jute; alternatively, the bristles may be made of moulded plastic, or any other suitable material.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A hairbrush for use in blow-drying, said hairbrush comprising a handle, a head having outwardly extending bristles and an 5 interconnecting portion connecting the handle and the head, wherein said interconnecting portion includes transverse stiffening means and resilient means, whereby a torsion acting to rotate the head about a longitudinal axis extending along the length of said head, will cause the head to rotate away from a neutral position, relative to the handle, about said longitudinal 10 axis, and whereby, when said torsion is removed, said resilient means acts to return the head to its neutral position. 2. A hairbrush as claimed in claim 1 wherein said handle, said interconnecting portion and said head are all connected together along said longitudinal axis. 15 3. A hairbrush as claimed in either one of the preceding claims wherein said head is elongate. 4. A hairbrush as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said transverse stiffening means is provided by first and second co-operating members, said first member having a radially outwardly facing 2.0 surface of substantially circular cross-section and said second member having a radially inwardly facing surface of substantially circular cross-section which bears against said radially outwardly facing surface. 5. A hairbrush as claimed in claim 4 wherein said co-operating members comprise telescoping, open-ended tubes each of which extends 25 longitudinally away from the interconnecting portion to form either said handle or said head. 6. A hairbrush as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said resilient means takes the form of a resilient flexible member attached to both the handle and the head whereby the handle and head are biased towards a particular rotational orientation relative to one another. 7. A hairbrush as claimed in claim 6 wherein said resilient flexible member has much greater torsional flexibility than longitudinal 5 flexibility. 8. A hairbrush as claimed in any one of the preceding claims further comprising at least one engagement means which prevents rotation of the handle relative to the head beyond a predetermined angle in at least one direction. in 9. A hairbrush as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said interconnecting portion is adapted to act as a shock absorber or a hair-stretch absorber and wherein said interconnecting portion is adapted to prevent rotation of the handle relative to the head beyond a predetermined angle in both directions and to return to its neutral position 15 in a resilient manner. 10. A hairbrush as claimed in claim 6 and any one of the preceding claims when dependent thereon, wherein said resilient flexible member includes a longitudinal stiffening means. 11. A hairbrush substantially as hereinbefore described with 20 reference to Figures 1 to 3, Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6 or Figure 7.

Inventors: BERNING BERNARD, BERNING, BERNARD
Applicants: BERNING BERNARD, BERNING, BERNARD
Application year: 1997
Main classification: A46B5
IPC codes: A46B5