US2417882A - Composition for removing unwanted hair - Google Patents

Description

Patented Mar. 25, 1947 some OFFICE COMPOSITION FOR REMOVING UNWANTED HAIR Leonard J. Neary, Los Angeles, Calif.

No Drawing.

Claims.

This invention relates to depilating methods and compositions.

One object of the invention is to provide an improved and less painful method for pulling out unwanted hairs from parts of the human body. Another object is to provide a new clepilatory composition.

The painful and laborious method of pulling out individual unwanted hairs by tweezers has long been practiced. Pulling of many hairs in a simultaneous operation has also been in long use. One method has been to apply a hot melted waxlike material, at temperatures considerably above body temperatures, to the area to be de-haired, and then allowing it to congeal on the protruding hairs, followed by removal in one piece or a few large pieces of the almost rigid congealed material with the hairs embedded therein. This procedure is painful because so many hairs are pulled at the same, instant, and may be dangerous and in any event is diflicult to carry out without burns or without breaking the skin.

I have discovered that an improved hair-removing composition may be prepared by mixing a sticky, viscous, non-setting water-soluble syrup with a water-insoluble non-abrasive powdered filler. For the viscous syrup, I prefer to use commercial glucose. Commercial glucose is an uncrystallizable syrup obtained from the incomplete conversion of starch into aldoses, and containing some of the pure chemical glucose together with maltose, dextrose, etc. and including some water. Other syrups may be used such as honey, molasses and other water-soluble non-crystallizable sticky viscid liquids. The insoluble powder filler for my composition may be talc, zinc oxide, whiting, silica flour, or similar material. I prefer to use zinc oxide powder because of its plastic properties and also because of its antiseptic value and its long use in ointments. The amount of powdered filler depends upon the viscosity and stickiness of the syrup, and also upon the nature of the powder itself, such as its fineness, surface characteristics, etc. but in general an amount of powder is required which will produce with the syrup a spreadable, somewhat plastic, semi-liquid product. As an example of one composition of my inventlon, I thoroughly mix 2 parts by weight of commercia1 glucose with 1 part of finely powdered zinc oxide. The consistency of the mixture may be adjusted by the amount of water which accompanies the commercial glucose, or which is added to the mixture. I have found that by using a glucose of 43 B. gravity in the above proportions with zinc oxide powder, a product is pro- Application January 20, 1945, Serial No. 573,814

duced which is of the proper consistency for spreading over the area for de-hairing, and also of the proper consistency for packaging in collapsible tubes. Using the above ingredients, I have found that the proportion of 3 parts of glucose by weight to one part by weight of zinc oxide gives a product which is too soft or watery, while equal proportions of glucose and zinc oxide gives a product which is entirely too hard for satisfactory use. The consistency of the mixture is somewhat aiiected by the temperature, it being stiffer when cold, and softer and more fluid when warm.

The preferred composition as above prepared may be used'to mechanically remove hair by spreading the plastic mixture with a spatula in a thin layer over the desired area, and then removing it by pressing a cloth or the like over the spread-out material and stripping the cloth and the adhering mixture from the skin surface, the unwanted hairs being pulled out by adhesion in the mixture.

I have also discovered that if the sheeted material used in removing the sticky composition from the skin surface is non-stretching and not easily distorted or skewed, for example, paper sheets strong enough not to be torn by the process of removing them, that the embedded hairs may be almost completely and painlessly pulled out, particularly if the edge of the paper, or the like, is pulled back quickly and sharply over the remaining adhering paper. This superior result when using a non-stretching, non-skewing sheet such as paper, compared to the use of a piece of ordinary cloth, appears to be based upon the papers freedom from stretching and skewing during the stripping operation. By pulling the edge of the paper back over the adhering surface, only the hairs at the sharply bent edge are pulled, if the paper does not stretch or skew so that other areas are also pulled, with attending discomfort. In other words, the hairs are pulled out not all at once but progressively along the bent back edge of the sheet as it is being stripped'off, and the hairs are not being pulled in the unstripped area unless the paper or other sheet stretches or skews or otherwise is distorted. Ordinary writing paper or other paper having sufficient tensile strength to withstand the pulling of the sticky terial which does not stretch to any practicable amount by linear pulling of the magnitude here involved, but which is also free from oblique distortion or skewing such as is encountered in nearly all woven fabrics especially when out in small pieces for use.

While my method may be used in connection with other sticky materials, the most satisfactory results are attained by using paper sheets with the preferred composition containing the proper proportions of Zinc oxide powder in commercial glucose. When this mixture, which is'not only sticky but is also plastic, is spread by means of a spatula over the hairy area, and then the area covered with a piece of paper pressed closely into contact with it, the hairs may be almost completely and painlessly pulled out by stripping the paper by peeling the edge back over the remaining sheet. Quick stripping is preferred. If the sticky material is spread on in the direction of natural growth of the hairs, and the paper quickly peeled ed in the opposite direction, the hairs are practically all pulled out, with a minimum of discomfort.

My oompositi n, as above described, has the advantage that it may be applied without previously heating it, and performs its function at body temperature, that any excess may easily be removed by water, and that the hairs are pulled out with a minimum of pain and discomfort. By providing a mixture which has plastic properties, as well as sticky property, the external portions of the hairs are embedded in it durin the operation of plastic spreading, and are firmly held by the material so that they may be pulled out by the sheet material, as described. The use of non-stretching sheet material, and the method of removing it as above described, has the advantage of making the operation as painless as possible.

Iclaim:

l. A hair-removing composition containing as essential ingredients glucose, and a water-insoluh-le powder, in the proportions of approximately 2 to 1 respectively and being at temperatures not over body temperature a spreadable, sticky, semiliquid product.

2. A hair-removing composition consisting of glucose and powdered zinc oxide in the proportions of approximately 2 to 1 respectively and being at temperatures not over body temperature a spreadable, sticky, semi-liquid material.

3. A hair-removing composition consisting of glucose and an inertmineral powder in the proportions of approximately 2 to 1 respectively and being at temperatures not over body temperature a spreadable, sticky, semi-liquid material.

l. A hair-removing composition consisting of glucose and powdered whiting in the proportions of approximately 2 to 1 respectively and being LEONARD J. NEARY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,091,313 Grant Aug. 31, 1937 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 478,176 Br. Jan. 13, 1938 429,447 Belgian July 29, 1938