US3139889A - Hair curler - Google Patents

Description

July 7, 1964 FIGI F. D. BUZZELLI 3,139,889

HAIR CURLER Filed June 2. 1961 INVENTOR. FRANK D. BUZZELLI.

ATTORNEY.

United States Patent Filed June 2, 1961, Ser. No. 114,518 1 Claim. (Cl. 132-39) This invention relates to curlers for ladies hair and more particularly to such a curler which is adapted to be worn in comfort during sleep.

Women often wear hair curlers during sleep, creating an obvious problem in maintaining comfort. Accordingly, it has been previously proposed to provide hair curlers formed of a resilient material which would deform under the pressures exerted between the Wearers head and the supporting surface particularly during sleep in order to minimize the discomfort which a non-resilient curler would cause. Difficulties have been encountered in maintaining the hair in a curled position on such resilient rollers because their deformation cause the hair to unwind and become tangled. It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a hair curler which is capable of deforming under pressure so that it may be comfortably worn during sleep and yet adapted to retain the hair in a normal curled manner during such deformation.

The rollers are normally cylindrical in shape and hair is wrapped about a transverse perimeter. I have determined that the loosening and tangling of hair which occurs upon use of a resilient roller is not the result of deformation about the longitudinal axis of the roller or of compression of the roller in a transverse direction but rather results from the reduction in the transverse perimeter of the roller upon the application of pressure thereto. Such reduction in peripheral roll length causes the hair to lose contact with the surface of the roller and bunch up and consequently tangle. I have therefore developed a hair roller which is capable of deformation about its longitudinal axis in compression but maintains a constant perimeter during such distortions.

My invention broadly takes the form of a cylindrical roller formed of plastic or other deformable material and having transverse end sections which are sealed with wall sections so as to form a central air chamber along a major portion of the rollers length. Such roller is capable of being bent about its longitudinal axis or com: pressed but during such distortions its perimeter remains of a constant length so that the hair wrapped around it deforms in a similar manner and remains in contact with it. This central chamber may be filled with air or with a deformable medium such as a plastic foam but it is .pssential that the chamber be sealed at its end so it maintains substantially the same volume independent of the shape it is forced into so that its perimeter remains approximately constant.

Other objects, advantages, and applications of the present invention will be made apparent by the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention. The description makes reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the rollers as worn by a woman in sleepingposition with her head resting on a pillow;

FIGURE 2 is an end view of the first embodiment of the roller;

FIGURE 3 is a side view of the roller of FIGURE 2; FIGURE 4 is a detailed view of the roller as it appears in FIGURE 1 illustrating its manner of distortion;

FIGURE 5 is a longitudinal section of the roller of FIGURE 2 taken along line 5--5 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view of a second embodiment of the roller taken along line 66 of FIGURE 7;

3,139,889 Patented July 7, 1964 FIGURE 7 is a longitudinal view of the roller of FIG- URE 6 taken along line 77 of FIGURE 6;

FIGURE 8 is a perspective view of a clip which is useful in connection with the roller of FIGURES 6 and 7; and

FIGURE 9 is a longitudinal sectional view, partly broken away, of the clip of FIGURE 8 in use on a roller of FIGURES 6 and 7.

The roller is formed about a cylindrical tube 10 which may be formed of a plastic or rubber having a high degree of resiliency. A pair of end walls 12 are disposed transversely across the tube 10 inwardly from the terminations thereof. The end walls 12 seal off a central air chamber 14 within the tube 10.

The outer surface of the cylinder 10 may be provided with a plurality of short brushes 16 spaced at regular intervals with respect to one another. These brushes 16 act to retain Wound hair about the cylinder 10 and may take a variety of forms. Embodiments of the invention may be also provided wherein the cylinder 10 is not provided with protrusions such as the brushes 16 but rather have a smooth outer surface to which wetted hair may be adhered by adhesion action.

The manner in which hair 18 may be wound about the roller of FIGURES 1 through 5 is illustrated in detail in FIGURE 4. With the head 22 of the wearer supported on a pillow 20, the cross-section of the roller 10 is distorted out of a uniform circular shape. However, as is noted in FIGURE 4, the outer perimeter of the roller maintains a constant length, generally independent of the distortion, so that the hair 18 is maintained in intimate contact with the roller. This results from the air trapped within the chamber 14 acting to balloon out the roller section at points transverse to those between which pressure is applied. In previous resilient rollers formed of soft rubber or sponge-like materials without an air chamber, pressure caused the cross-section to distort in such a manner as to change the perimeter and therefore cause the hair to move away from the sides of the roller and become tangled.

A spring clip 24 of a well-known type may be utilized to retain the hair 18 in contact with the roller surface 10. However, such a clip does not obviate the difficulties caused with resilient rollers of the type known to the prior art.

A second embodiment of the invention is illustrated in FIGURES 6 through 9. A cylindrical tube 26 of resilient plastic or rubber has a pair of end walls 28 at its extremities. The end walls are pierced by a central axial passage 30 so as to form an annular air. chamber 32 which acts in the same manner as the air chamber 14 of the first embodiment to distribute pressures exerted on the roller so as to maintain its perimeter relatively constant in length. Brushes 34 are provided on the outer sides of the tube 26 to retain the hair. The central passage 30 is adapted to be used in connection with a clip of the type illustrated in FIGURE 8. This clip has a pair of parallel prongs 36 which are connected by a transverse end section 38 to a third prong 40. As is illustrated in FIG- URE 9, the prong 40 is adapted to be retained within the cylindrical passage 30 while the two prongs 36 are adapted to extend along the outer surface 26 and press hair against that surface.

The primary feature of both embodiments is the central air chamber which in other embodiments may be filled with a cellular interconnected foam material (not shown) in order to vary the resiliency of the roller.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

A hair roller formed of a resilient material and comprising a substantially impermeable cylindrical outer wall and a pair of substantially impermeable cylindrical end walls extending transversely to the axis of said cylinder spaced inwardly of the ends thereof, and having their peripheries sealed to said outer wall so as to form a sealed central air chamber between said outer wall and said end walls and a pair of cylindrical open-ended chambers withing said outer Wall at opposing ends of said cylinder.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain Oct. 16,

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