Abstract:
A hair styling attachment including a main housing and at least a pair of hair treating members, the hair treating member includes at least a thermally conductive hair treating surface, the pair of hair treating members being adjacently disposed with the corresponding hair treating surfaces on the pair of adjacent hair treating members generally in compressive contact, the corresponding hair treating surfaces on the pair of adjacent hair treating members being relatively displaceable to form a gap for receiving the hair to be treated, the main housing includes an air inlet and the hair treating surface being communicable with the air inlet.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to hair styling attachments, devices and apparatus and, more particularly, to hair styling attachments, devices and apparatus which operate with a hot or warm air source in the hair styling, setting or treating process. More specifically, although of course not solely limited thereto, this invention relates to attachments, devices and apparatus for hair straightening. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Hair style setting attachments, devices and apparatus (collectively “hair formers”) are widely used to effect designed or desirable hair styling for personal grooming or other requirements such as theatrical needs. In general, hair formers with the particular hair forming members can form specific designs of hair styling. For example, hair rollers or curlers are used to produce a curly effect on hair and hair straighteners are used to straighten hair which is otherwise curly. 
     Typically, to straighten hair a hair-dresser holds a comb or brush by one hand, engages the portion of hair to be straightened, imparting straightening tension to that portion of the hair by pulling towards the free end of the hair and then blow hot or warm hair onto that portion of the hair to impart more permanent hair styling setting to that portion of the hair. This requires the service of a hair-dresser and may not be comfortable to the customer because different customers may have different susceptibility to the straightening tension and different levels of straightening tension may be required to treat hair of different qualities. 
     Furthermore the traditional way of hair straightening requires two separate styling parts, namely, the comb or brush and the hair dryer or hot air blower. Since both hands are required, this may be inconvenient. Hence, it will be highly desirable if there can be provided an improved hair styling attachment, device or apparatus which alleviates the shortcomings associated with the above-mentioned conventional hair styling means and methods. More specifically, it is highly desirable to provide hair styling attachment, device or apparatus with integral means to simultaneously apply heat and tension to the hair for hair straightening. 
     OBJECT OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hair styling attachment, device or apparatus which alleviates shortcomings associated with conventional means, methods and apparatus for hair styling, especially hair straightening. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hair styling attachment, device or apparatus with integral means to simultaneously impart heat and tension to the hair or hair straightening. At a minimum, it is an object of this invention to provide the public with a useful choice of a hair styling attachment, device or apparatus. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to the present invention, there is provided a hair styling attachment including a main housing and at least a pair of hair treating members, said hair treating member includes at least a thermally conductive hair treating surface, said pair of hair treating members being adjacently disposed with the corresponding hair treating surfaces on said pair of adjacent hair treating members generally in compressive contact, said corresponding hair treating surfaces on said pair of adjacent hair treating members being relatively displaceable to form a gap for receiving the hair to be treated, said main housing includes an air inlet and said hair treating surface being communicable with said air inlet. 
     According to another aspect of the present invention, a hair styling apparatus including a hair styling attachment of claim  5  and a hot air blower. 
     Preferably, said adjacent hair treating surfaces on said pair of adjacent hair treating members being resiliently displaceable to form said hair engaging gap. 
     Preferably, said hair treating members includes a first end and a second end, the first end being a free end and the second end being mounted on said main housing, the first end of at least one of said hair treating member of said pair of hair treating members being resiliently deflectable and/or displaceable with respect to said main housing. 
     Preferably, said hair treating member includes a generally cylindrical main body with a first cylindrical axis, said hair treating member includes at least a cylindrical roller with its cylindrical axis substantially parallel to and off-set from said first cylindrical axis so that at least part of the cylindrical surface of said cylindrical roller is exposed from said cylindrical surface of said cylindrical main body and forming said cylindrical body and from said hair treating surface. 
     Preferably, said main housing includes an upstream end and a downstream end, said hair treating members include a first and a second end, said first end being a free end and protrudes beyond said downstream end. 
     Preferably, said first end of said hair treating member being deflectable and/or displaceable relative to said main housing and said corresponding hair treating surfaces being generally convexly disposed with respect to each other. 
     Preferably, said hair treating member resembles a finger with a generally cylindrical body. 
     Preferably, said hair treating member includes a generally elongated and thermally insulated main body mounted with a metallic surface to form said hair treating surface. 
     Preferably, said metallic surface being generally curved with the same curvature extending along an axis of curvature, said axis of curvature being generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of said insulated main body. 
     Preferably, said attachment includes a plurality of hair treating members, wherein a first and a second hair treating surfaces are formed on some of said plurality of hair treating members, said hair treating surfaces on the same hair treating member being generally diametrically disposed on said cylindrical body. 
     Preferably, air entering said upstream end of said main housing can exit through the gap formed between adjacent hair treating members. 
     Preferably, said main housing includes an attachment means for coupling said device to a hot air blower. 
     Preferably, said attachment includes a plurality of hair treating members, wherein said plurality of hair treating members are linearly disposed. 
     Preferably, bristles generally parallel to the longitudinal axis said hair treating members are disposed on said main housing. 
     Preferably, the second ends of an adjacent pair of hair treating members co-operatively forms an hair engaging aperture, said hair engaging aperture being convergent towards said upstream end of said main housing. 
     Preferably, said styling device being detachable from said hot air blower. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be explained in further detail below by way of examples and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a top plan view of a preferred embodiment of a hair caring attachment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a cross-sectional view along the section line A—A of the attachment of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a cross-sectional view along the section line B—B of the attachment of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional view along the section line C—C of the attachment of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a cross-sectional view along the section line D—D of the attachment of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 5A  shows the front and side views of an exemplary hair treating member. 
         FIG. 6  shows the same cross-sectional view as  FIG. 2  but with the hair treating members displaced relative to each other; 
         FIG. 7  is a sectional view along the line C—C corresponding to  FIG. 6 ; 
         FIG. 8  illustrates engagement of hair by a pair of adjacent hair treating members; and 
         FIG. 9  illustrates the displacement of one of the hair treating member the hair is engaged between the left-most pair of the hair treating members. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to the Figures, the hair styling device which is a hair styling attachment  1  for the present example includes a main housing  10  and a plurality of hair treating members  21 - 25 . The main housing  10  includes a generally frusto-conical body with an upstream end  12 , a downstream end  13  and a circumferential wall  14  interconnecting the upstream end and the downstream end. The downstream end of the main body  10  includes a top member  15  on which a sub-assembly including the plurality of the hair treating members  21 - 25  and a mounting base  26  is attached. The upstream end  16  of the main housing includes an air-inlet aperture and coupling means for attaching to a hot air blower such as a hair dryer. The coupling means includes a collar member  16  which extends generally along the axial direction of the frusto-conical main body and is provided with a circumferential flange  17  for, for example, latching engagement with the nozzle of the hot air blower. 
     The hair treating member  21 - 25  includes an elongated main body with a generally circular or rounded cross-section and a thermally conductive hair treating surface. The elongated main bodies of the plurality of the hair treating members are generally aligned with their longitudinal axes generally parallel and the corresponding hair treating surfaces in contiguous compressive contact. 
     In the present example, each of the main bodies of the hair treating members are generally cylindrical with a dome-shaped top or first end with the second end mounted on the base  26  of the main housing. The main bodies are preferably made of a thermally insulated material so as to avoid injuring the scalp of a user, although, of course, a thermally conductive main body can also be used. The dome-shaped first ends of the adjacent pairs of hair treating members co-operate to form a plurality of hair engaging apertures so that the hair treating members are adapted to more conveniently approach and engage the hair to be straightened. At least a roller is mounted with its longitudinal axis off-set from the cylindrical axis of the main body  51 - 55  of the hair treating member so that part of the curved surface is protruded from the cylindrical surface of the main body  51 - 55  of the hair treating members exposed to form the hair treating surface. While the rollers have a generally cylindrical body in this example, it will be noted that roller body of other geometry with a longitudinal extending curved surface can be used. For those hair treating members not disposed at the extreme ends i.e., hair treating members  22 - 24 , a pair of rollers are mounted on each of the main bodies  52 - 54 . These rollers are mounted off-set from the cylindrical axis of the main body and are disposed so that the curved cylindrical surfaces of the corresponding cylindrical rollers are slightly pressing against each other under spring bias. 
     Referring to FIGS.  4  and  7 - 9 , the hair treating members  21 - 25  are mounted on a base housing  26  and are disposed so that the longitudinal axes of the hair treating members are generally parallel to each other with the partially cylindrical hair treating surfaces facing each other and in generally compressive contact. The hair treating members are generally linearly disposed and mounted on a channel formed on the base housing  26 . Some of the hair treating members, for example,  21 ,  22 ,  24  and  25  are mounted with spring biasing so that they are urged by a lateral urging force along the transversal direction, i.e. the direction which is generally transversal to the axial or longitudinal axis of the cylindrical body, towards their neutral positions. 
     The hair treating members are disposed so that they can be slightly displaced or deflected by acting against the spring urging force to form a plurality of hair treating gaps  41 - 44 . The channel provides a guide to the deflection or displacement of the movable hair treating members. It will be observed that the hair treating fingers  21 - 25  generally resemble a collection of parallelly disposed fingers each with a top free end protruding beyond the top member  15  of the main housing  10 . The hair treating members  21 - 25  include a rounded or dome-shaped head  61 - 65  and the adjacent heads co-operate to form a hair engaging aperture which is convergent towards the downstream end of the main body so that they can gradually approach the hair and easily engage a small bundle of hair between the gaps formed by the adjacent hair treating members. It will be appreciated that the convergent apertures formed between adjacent rounded or dome-shaped heads assist convenient engagement of the desirable portion of hair. 
     Turning now to the operation of this preferred embodiment, the hair styling attachment  1  is coupled onto the outlet nozzle of a hot hair blower so that hot air is delivered towards the plurality of hair treating members via the upstream end air inlet  12 . The circumferential wall  14  of the main body defines an air enclosure so that the air entering the upstream end  12  will travel towards the downstream end  13 . When hair treating gaps are formed upon engagement of the hair between the gaps, a portion of the hot air will exit through the base aperture between the adjacent displaced hair treating members and generally travel along the partially cylindrical hair treating surface. This will cause the hair treating surfaces to be heated up and, since the hair is caught under tension, movement of the hair treating members towards the end of the hair by, for example, moving the hair styling device will straighten the hair in a manner similar to ironing the hair by the hair treating surfaces. 
     It will be appreciated that the present attachment or features of this attachment can be incorporated with a hot air blowing device to form a standalone unit or apparatus for the same hair styling purposes. 
     While the present invention has been explained by reference to the preferred embodiments described above, it will be appreciated that the embodiments are only illustrated as examples to assist understanding of the present invention and are not meant to be restrictive on its scope. In particular, the scope, ambit and spirit of this invention are meant to include the general principles of this invention as inferred or exemplified by the embodiments described above. More particularly, variations or modifications which are obvious or trivial to persons skilled in the art, as well as improvements made on the basis of the present invention, should be considered as falling within the scope and boundary of the present invention. 
     Furthermore, while the present invention has been explained by reference to an hair styling attachment, it should be appreciated that the invention can apply, whether with or without modifications, to other hair styling devices or apparatus incorporating features of the present invention without loss of generality.