GB2414955A - Hairdressing scissors having multiple blades - Google Patents

Abstract

A hairdressing tool intended to enable a hair stylist to create hair layering and styling effects in a single operation. The tool is a scissor-like shape with handles 1,2 and two or more pairs of scissor blades 7, 8 ,9 which are coupled to work simultaneously, alternate pairs of blades in the combination being of long and short lengths. The tool may have four pairs of blades and these may be provided with rounded tips. The tool is particularly suitable to be used for the hairdressing Chipping technique.

Description

HAIRDRESSING SCISSORS

This invention relates to hairdressing scissors. It relates particularly to a pair of scissors which is suited to cutting hair to enable a stylist to give a required shape and style to the cut hair.

The usual tool for cutting hair is a single pair of scissors having straight cutting blades. It is easy to achieve a blunt, straight cut of the hair with this tool but it is more difficult to layer, to texturize or to thin the hair. Additionally, a single scissor pair is able to cut only a small amount of hair with each operation. A further tool, a pair of scissors having serrated edge cutting blades may then be used for the thinning of the cut hair. In the operation of cutting and styling a person's hair, a hairdresser will first wet the hair and then cut it using the straight edge scissors to give a blunt, straight cut. The serrated edge scissors will then be used to thin the hair. The hair will next be dried with a blow dryer and any necessary hair trimming will be done to complete the task. The process therefore occupies several stages and the first of these which occurs when the hair is wet is the major part of the cutting operation. However, because the hair is wet, the hairdressing customer and the stylist are both unable to fully observe the final result until the hair has been dried again. Therefore, the customer will not be able to provide any comments on the progress and effect of the cutting operation until the end of the process.

Since it is difficult for the stylist to layer, to texturize or to thin the hair with a single pair of scissors, it has been proposed to use a cutting tool which employs two or more pairs of scissors. This would allow the customer and the stylist to better observe the r progress of the work throughout the cutting and styling stages. It would also enable some reduction to be made in the time required for the complete hairdressing operation.

There have already been models of scissor tools proposed which are said to achieve designer effects in the cut hair. In patent application No. GB2337721, a pair of hair designing scissors is disclosed which comprises six scissor pairs clipped together in a parallel arrangement so that they can be operated simultaneously by the hairdresser. In patent application No. GB2345456, a similar arrangement of parallel scissor pairs allows the combination to be operated as a single unit by the fingers of the hairdresser. The scissor pairs are secured together by the use of connection blocks so that they can be operated simultaneously.

I have now devised a hairdressing tool which is particularly useful for cutting into sections of hair at different angles in order to give shape and style in the sections. The hairdressing tool is thus able to create layering and styling effects in a single operation without the need for separate scissors having straight blades and a second pair having serrated edge blades.

According to the invention, there is provided a hairdressing tool having two or more pairs of scissor blades which are coupled to work simultaneously, alternate pairs of blades in the combination being of long and short lengths. Preferably, the hairdressing tool has between two and six pairs of scissor blades.

In one embodiment, the hairdressing tool has four pairs of scissor blades. The blades are arranged in the tool in the order of long length/short length/long length/short length. Between each pair of scissor blades in the tool, a spacer is located. The spacer is retained in position by a scissor pivot pin which secures the blades of each scissor pair together.

The blade ends may be provided with rounded blade tips.

A first scissor handle of the tool may be connected to one blade of each scissor pair in the tool. A second handle of the tool may similarly be connected to a second blade of each scissor pair. The said first scissor handle may be formed with the relevant blade of each blade pair from a single piece of metal in a monolithic construction. The second blade and handle of each scissor pair may be formed similarly.

The spacer component may be a thin metal disc.

By way of example, a particular embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which: Figure 1 depicts a plan view of the hairdressing tool, Figure 2 is a side view, and, Figure 3 is a perspective view.

As shown in Figure 1, the hairdressing tool has a first ring handle 1 which is connected to the upper four blades of a four scissor pair combination. A second ring handle 2 is connected to the lower four blades of the combination. The two handles 1, 2 and the relevant scissor blades are connected together by the usual scissor pivot pin 6.

Figure 2 shows that the handle 1 is connected to each of the upper blades of the four scissor pair combination. It will be noted that the uppermost scissor pair of the combination has blades 9 which are of a comparatively long length. However, the scissor pair below this has blades 8 which are of a shorter length. The third scissor pair of the combination similarly has blades of the long length whilst the fourth pair of the combination has blades of the shorter length. The four scissor pairs of the combination therefore have alternately long and short blades. The blade ends are provided with rounded blade tips 7.

Between each pair of scissors in the combination, a spacer 3 is located. The spacer 3 is a thin metal disc which is retained in place by the pivot pin 6 which passes through an opening in the spacer.

Figure 3 is the perspective view which shows clearly that the tool is made up of four scissor pairs which have alternately long and short blade lengths. The spacer 3 is fitted between each scissor pair. The rounded blade tips 7 are also plainly visible.

In use of the hairdressing tool, this has been found to be particularly suitable for cutting hair by a method known as the Chipping technique. This is a way of cutting hair unevenly which creates texture and movement in the hair body whilst also effecting layering and thinning. If this method is required with the conventional scissor tools these need repetitive movements to be made into a section of hair with the scissors held at a downward angle so that the tips of the scissors will point into the ends of the hair section.

The cutting of the hair at the required angles creates shape and style in the hair section.

Each section of hair has to be chipped into evenly making sure that the same amount of hair is cut out of a section to produce an even balance over the head whilst creating a very uneven texture to the style. The required result is difficult to achieve and it is time consuming when the conventional scissors are used because it may require between three and five chipping movements to be made on each hair section. However, with the hairdressing tool of the invention, the individual pairs of scissor blades work together so that it is only necessary to make a single cutting movement into each hair section. This can enable four chipping cuts to be made with a single movement of the scissors. The hairdressing tool can thus enable valuable working time to be saved by the stylist in the hair salon.

The hairdressing tool of the invention is able to be manufactured at a comparatively low cost and it has been found to be robust and reliable in operation. Use of the tool can enable the hair stylist to become more creative and to achieve more desirable hair styles for both female and male clients.

The foregoing description of an embodiment of the invention has been given by way of example only and a number of modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invetion as defined in the appended claims. For instance, it is not essential that the scissor blades and handle should be constructed from a single metal piece, in a different embodiment the handle could have the blades attached separately to it by means of rivet fixings. A hairdressing tool formed with six scissor pairs would be effective when using the Chipping technique on larger sections of hair whilst a tool formed with two scissor pairs would be very suitable for chipping short hair around the face and fringes. The hairdressing tool can also be made with different scissor blade lengths, for example, a four scissor tool with five inch blades for long hair and a three scissor tool with four and a half inch blades for short hair.

Claims (8)

1 A hairdressing tool having two or more pairs of scissor blades which are coupled to work simultaneously, alternate pairs of blades in the combination being of long and short lengths.

2 A hairdressing tool as claimed in Claim 1, in which the tool has between two and six pairs of scissor blades.

3 A hairdressing tool as claimed in Claim I or 2, in which the tool has four pairs of scissor blades.

4 A hairdressing tool as claimed in any one of Claims I to 3, in which the tool includes a spacer located between each pair of scissor blades.

A hairdressing tool as claimed in Claim 4, in which a scissor pivot pin serves to secure the blades ol each scissor pair together, the pivot pin also retaining the said spacer(s) in position.

6 A hairdressing tool as claimed in any one of Claims I to 5, in which a first scissor handle of the tool is connected to one blade of each scissor pair, a second scissor handle being connected to a second blade of each scissor pair.

7 A hairdressing tool as claimed in Claim 6, in which the said first scissor handle is formed with its respective blade ol each scissor pair in a monolithic construction.

8 A hairdressing tool substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.