Abstract:
A hair styling device with a stretchable, relatively long body portion extending between two ends thereof having a first end clasp member and a second end clasp member each provided at a corresponding one of the opposing ends thereof capable of being at least in part positionable about at least a part of the other. The first and second end clasp members each have a passageway therethrough into which a corresponding body portion end extends with the body portion ends each having a passage blocking object thereon, and being sufficiently narrow to prevent the body end extending therethrough with a blocking object thereon from passing through that narrow part. The blocking member can be a spherical shaped solid wedging the body portion ends into a tapered sides portion of the passageway in each clasp member.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) 
     This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 60/549,846 filed on Mar. 3, 2004 for “ELASTIC HAIR STYLING DEVICE”. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to hair styling devices, namely devices for forming French knots, buns and the like, and in particular, to stretchable hair styling devices. 
     Long hair styles are popular with people of all ages, particularly with women. Because of the popularity of long hair styles, several devices have been invented for styling long hair. Examples include barrettes, hair ties, combs and ornamental hair pins. 
     Concerning hair styling devices that are currently known, there are included a few devices which are useful for styling long hair into a bun, a French knot, or similar style. 
     One such device is a soft sponge-like ring. The ring is covered with a fine netting material, which can be used by drawing the hair through the opening in the sponge, wrapping the hair around the ring and securing the hair onto the ring by trapping the hair and the netting material together with hair pins. The ring can also be formed from a fabric, such as woven nylon covered with a nylon netting. Typically, the ring has an outer diameter of approximately four inches and has an inner diameter of approximately two inches. 
     There are disadvantages in using a soft sponge-like ring to form a hair bun. Smooth, thick hair is difficult to wrap around the ring, pin the hair down and have the hair remain in place. Wrapping the hair around the ring is also quite time consuming when the hair is long. Shorter hair may not be possible to wrap completely around the ring. 
     There are flexible combs that are known having two ends which can be opened to install the comb around the hair, and then closed to form a substantially circular ring. Flexible combs have many sharp, pointed edges which can scrape the scalp. Such a comb is also not particularly useful for styling hair into a bun. The flexible combs described above are primarily intended to be used to form French knots. 
     Women have also used rubber bands or cloth covered elastic bands to hold either all the hair in a ponytail or knot or to form small sections of hair into ponytails or knots. The devices currently available are closed loops that have no clasping device built into them. The end-user simply wraps the rubber band or cloth covered band one or more times around the hair to hold it in place. If jewelry is attached, the jewelry is either glued to the elastic loop or the elastic loop is drawn through a closed opening in some part of the jewelry or jewelry mounting arrangement therein to hold the jewelry in place. Often, removing the band is somewhat difficult and leads to pulled hair. 
     There is also known a hair styling device including a flexible elongated body portion having a first end with a press capture clasp portion, a second end with the remaining press capture clasp portion and an elongated slit opening extending through a central portion of the elongated body for receiving hair through the slit opening. This elongated portion, though flexible, further elongates only a relatively limited amount so that it cannot be stretched and wrapped about the hair more than once to thereby provide tension therein to hold the hair more tightly. 
     There are currently no known hair styling devices which can be used to rapidly and easily form, and disengage from, a tight French knot, bun or similar hair style, and to which a hair styling enhancement, such as a flower or other ornament, may be optionally attached to the hair styling device with an attachment accessory. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides a hair styling device for styling a person&#39;s hair through being wrapped about a portion thereof having a stretchable, relatively long body portion extending between two ends thereof. In addition, a first end clasp member and a second end clasp member are provided each at a corresponding one of the opposing ends of the body portion with a selected one of the first and second end clasp members having an open region therewith large enough to receive therein at least a part of the other so to be at least in part positionable about at least a part of the other so as to each capture the other and to remain so positioned against a selected amount of force subsequently occurring that tend to pull them apart. The first and second end clasp members each have a passageway therethrough into which a corresponding body portion end extends with the body portion ends each having a passage blocking object thereon. 
     The first and second end clasp members passageways each have at least a part of which that is sufficiently narrow to prevent the body end extending therethrough with a blocking object thereon from passing through that narrow part. The blocking member can be a spherical shaped solid wedging the body portion ends into a tapered sides portion of the passageway in each clasp member. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, 
         FIGS. 2A and 2B  show side views of portions of the embodiment in  FIG. 1  in greater detail, and 
         FIG. 3  shows a side view of the embodiment shown in  FIG. 1  including partial cross sections. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The hair styling device,  10 , of the present invention is shown in the perspective view of  FIG. 1  and has a cloth covered elastomeric band,  11 , with each end thereof anchored in a corresponding one of two clasp portions,  12  and  13 , that snap together and snap apart but remain together under the tension introduced therein by wrapping band  11  one or more times about an aggregation of the user&#39;s hair. The materials used in this device as seen in these figure for clasp portions  12  and  13  are polymers such as polypropylene or polyvinyl chloride or high density polyethylene (HDPE), or some combination thereof, chosen to provide a suitable combination of resiliency and hardness to allow the clasp portions to snap together, and so stay together against a degree of tensile force, but still be separable from one another by the user. The cloth covered elastomer has a very large rubber-like elasticity for band  11 , and is surrounded by a braided cloth that can stretch in the direction of elongation of the elastomer but to a limit which is short of the failure point in stretching of the elastomer so as to thus limit the elongation of band  11 . 
     Clasp portions  12  and  13  (male and female ends, respectively), of these materials, are sufficiently resilient to permit the engagement of one with the other, and the disengagement of one from the other, but with a resiliency also permitting the maintaining of sufficient rigidity and shape during use so as to accomplish their joint clasping function even against tensile forces attempting to separate them. Female end  13  must be able to hold male end  12  rather tightly because the tension introduced in elastomeric band  11 , after its being wrapped about an aggregation of the user&#39;s hair to thereby hold that hair, can be considerable. Nevertheless, the capability of male and female clasp portions  12  and  13  to be separated by the user allows both removal of the device from that hair to occur conveniently, and further allows the insertion of a decorative jewelry item even after the device clasp portions have been previously joined together following the wrapping of the elastomeric band about some of the user&#39;s hair. 
       FIGS. 2A and 2B  more detailed side and end views of clasp portions  12  and  13 . Thus,  FIG. 2A  shows two side views of female clasp portion  13 , such that one of these views is rotated 90° from the other, and an end view on the left of the right side ends of these first two views. Female clasp portion  13  has on the right end thereof a hollow interior capturing portion shaped somewhat like a truncated spherical shell into which male clasp portion  12  can be inserted, and further has a band fixation portion shaped more or less like a cylindrical shell extending out from the truncated spherical shell portion to the left therefrom. The material forming the sides of the capturing portion of clasp portion  13  about the hollow therein must be resilient enough to permit enough radial stretching of the capturing portion walls about the clasp end opening in the capturing portion so as to permit forcing the corresponding portion for capture of male clasp  12  into that hollow and then permit recovering from that opening dimensional stretch through the subsequent radial contracting of those sides thereby leading to snugging the sides of the capturing portion about the hollow therein against the inserted portion of male clasp  12 . 
     A round passageway extends through the interior of this cylindrical shell portion from the hollow interior of the capturing portion, and has a smaller diameter starting from the left than the parallel diameters of this hollow (as seen in the left view in  FIG. 2A ), but, further on, has two opposite side portions which, rather than being parallel to the passageway axis, are in a rounded taper at about 22° in extending from the capturing portion hollow to reach the diameter of the round passageway in the cylindrical band fixation portion (as seen in the middle view in  FIG. 2A ). This passageway permits cloth covered elastomeric band  11  to be pulled therethrough to permit the end of that band to be altered in a selected manner so that it cannot pass through this smaller diameter portion. 
     Thus, a knot can be tied in the end of band  11  and pulled back into the tapered side portion of this passageway to thereby be out of the interior of the spherical shell portion but still anchored in the passageway through being unable to pass through the small diameter portion thereof. Alternatively, a metal or polymer ball or clip can instead be placed on that end of elastomeric band  11  and pulled back into the tapered side portion of this passageway. The cylindrical band fixation portion also enables the user of the styling device to conveniently hold onto female clasp portion  13  when connecting together clasp portions  12  and  13  or when disconnecting them from one another. 
     Placing a metal ball on the end of elastomeric band  11  can be accomplished by affixing that ball to the end of band  11 , as an example, by having an opening in the ball in which an end portion of band  11  is inserted and bonded there by a suitable adhesive. Alternatively, such a metal ball can be wedged against parts of such an end portion of band  11  in the interior of the cylindrical shell portion of female clasp portion  13  as shown in  FIG. 3  by forming a loop in band  11  outside, or partially outside, of the clasp capturing portion, while leaving the terminal end of the band in the tapered portion of the passageway, and then inserting the metal ball in the loop so formed. Then, by drawing main remaining portion of band  11  back out of the passageway opening at the end of the band fixation portion to thereby draw the band loop and metal ball into the tapered portion of the passageway, band  11  is wedged against the sides of the tapered side portion of the passageway by the metal ball. The diameter of the metal ball must be less than the distance between the most widely separated opposite sides of the passageway at the tapered sides portion located where the passageway continues toward the band fixation portion from the capturing portion hollow but about the same diameter as the diameter of the round passageway between the end of the tapered sides portion of that passageway and the clasp passageway end in the band fixation portion on the left in the left and middle views in  FIG. 2A . 
       FIG. 2B  shows two side views of male clasp portion  1 , such that again one of these views is rotated 90° from the other, and an end view on the left of the left side ends of these first two views. Male clasp portion  12  also has a passageway through it, and has on the left end thereof a rounded tapered side interior capture portion, shaped somewhat like a truncated spherical shell for insertion into the hollow in female clasp portion  13 . In addition, male clasp portion  12  has a band fixation portion shaped more or less like a cylindrical shell extending out from the truncated spherical shell portion to the right therefrom. The passageway is round in extending through the interior of this cylindrical shell portion from the tapered side interior of the capture portion, and has a smaller diameter starting from the right than the distance between the most widely separated opposite sides of the passageway at the tapered sides portion located at the clasp passageway opening in the capture portion (as seen in the right two views in  FIG. 2B ). The passageway in the capture portion has two opposite side portions which, rather than being parallel to the passageway axis, are in a rounded taper at about 22° in extending from the capture portion to reach the diameter of the round passageway in the cylindrical band fixation portion (as seen in the middle view in  FIG. 2B ). Again, this passageway permits cloth covered elastomeric band  11  to be pulled therethrough to permit the end of that band to be altered in a selected manner so that it cannot pass through the smaller diameter portion, and the cylindrical shell band fixation portion of male clasp portion  12  here, too, also enables the user of the styling device to hold onto it when connecting together clasp portions  12  and  13  or when disconnecting them from one another. 
     Thus, one end of cloth covered elastomeric band  11  is anchored at the cylindrical shell portion passageway of male clasp portion  12  and, at the other end of the band, that end is anchored at the cylindrical shell portion passageway of female clasp portion  13  as shown, for example, in  FIG. 3 . Female clasp portion  13 , during engagement with male clasp portion  12 , receives male clasp portion  12  within its spherical shell portion and closes thereabout sufficiently for the friction between the two to hold them together against the tension in band  11  to thereby form a toroidal-like structure resembling a rubber band. Providing sufficient separating force between male and female clasp portions  12  and  13  by the user allows them to be separated. 
     Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.