Hairpiece

Abstract

A hairpiece is disclosed having a front portion and a back portion, the back portion being sewn with hair as in a conventional wig, and the front portion being stitched with stands of hair, such that it looks as if the hair strands are rooted in the front portion in single strands. Preferably, the front portion is made of polyurethane and is translucent to allow the natural skin color of the wearer to show through.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of hairpieces. More specifically, the present invention relates to wigs.

BACKGROUND

Wigs are basically caps woven or sewn with real or artificial hair and which are to be worn on the head of a person, to conceal baldness or to change one's hairstyle immediately, such as in disguise or acting.

To mimic a real head of hair, the bulk of the hair on wigs is sewn to be parted according to natural hair patterns. However, the choice of hairstyles is limited as the fringe of the wig must essentially cover the wig's hairline. This is because the underlying structure of a wig is a lace cap and the front part of the lace cap which lies on the forehead of the wearer defines a relatively straight hairline along the forehead, which looks unnatural if exposed. In contrast, a natural hairline tends to be wavy, meandering a couple of times along the forehead.

Furthermore, a wig, particularly a full wig, is sometimes tied in place by pulling the sides of the wig towards the back of the wearer's head.

Furthermore, a real head of hair gradually looks darker from the edge of the hairline towards the centre of the hair body on the top of the head. This is because the strands of hair at the edge of the hairline are more exposed to light whereas the high concentration of hair strands at the centre of the head shielded the hair and scalp from light. Unfortunately, this effect is not reproducible in a wig. The hair of a wig is typically machine sewn onto the lace cap, primarily to keep costs down. Machine sewing is a relatively crude method of attaching hair to the lace cap, and produces an ugly thick mass of entangled hair at the hairline. This thick mass of hair casts a heavy shadow on the forehead of the wearer, creating unnatural look.

Thus, hairstyles available in full wigs are limited to those having a full fringe to cover the ugly hairline and the fringe cannot be combed back or brushed back over the wearer's head to avoid exposing the unnatural hairline.

Typically, the hair of a wig is weft into a lace cloth. Wefting is a process in which hair is sewn to the lace cloth, such that one long end of the hair strands extends away from the head of the wearer when the hair is worn. The other end of the hair is much shorter than the aforementioned long end, and is heat treated and worked such that this other end become crinkly, i.e. teased. The crinkliness adds volume to the wig. Furthermore, the long ends of the hair overlay on the crinkly hair. Thus, the crinkly hair pushes up overlaying long ends of hair further imparts volume to the wig.

The wefted and teased hair is rather stiff and resists combing hack of the hair. Thus, a wig's hair is not supposed to be combed backwards. In any case, the unsightly weft portions at the root of the hair will be exposed if the hair is combed back, which is undesirable.

Machine sewing of hair onto the lace caps is purposed for mass production, which discourages tailoring a wig for a specific individual. This motivates wig-makers to live with designing full wigs having long fringes to maintain mass-producibility, and not to improve the technology.

Thus, it is desirable to provide a hairpiece which has a more natural looking hairline.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

In a first aspect, the present invention proposes a hairpiece for the head of a person, the hairpiece having a front portion, and a back portion, the back portion comprising a lace cap attached with hair, wherein the front portion comprises a material suitable for being stitched with hair spaced to look like the hair extends from the front portion in groups of up to two or three strands.

The invention therefore makes it possible to provide a wig having a front portion which looks and behaves like natural hairline, without a mass of hair sewn or attached onto the front portion in an unorganized or entangled mess. Such a wig allows the user to brush or comb the fringe of the wig back over his head, or even to tie the fringe hair with the rest of the hair of the wig into a bun or to simply clip the hair back, and yet does not show an unnatural hairline. Furthermore, the invention also makes it possible for the wearer to use hair products such as gel or mousse to style the hair at the fringe wig any way he desires and expose the hairline.

The lace portion may be sewn, woven or otherwise attached with hair without looking unnatural, since only the wig fringe and the hairline at the front portion is likely to be subjected to observer scrutiny. This allows a large part of the hairpiece to be mass produced despite the finer work to produce the more natural hairline. Also, the lace portion allows the head of the wearer to breathe and this in turn allows use of a denser material for the front portion without causing much discomfort for the wearer.

Even if the method used to attach hair to the front portion requires fine manual handiwork, the front portion being only a fraction of the entire hairpiece does not require the same amount of time and effort if the hairpiece were to be made entirely by hand.

More preferably, the hair strands stitched onto the front portion are spaced to look like the hair extends from the front portion in single strands. This is even more natural looking than hair stitched into the front portion in groups of two or three strands.

Preferably, the front portion is cut to show an uneven edge to mimic the natural hairline of a person. The hairline may even be cut to mimic some minimal hair balding patterns to accentuate the natural look of the hairline or the age the character of disguise.

Preferably, the front portion is made of a material which is translucent or transparent such that the skin color of the wearer may show through the front portion.

More preferably, however, the front portion is made of a material which is colored to match the skin color of the wearer.

Furthermore, it is preferable that the material of front portion allows the hair strands to be rooted therein in a specific skew or angle. This mimics the natural parting of hair at the hairline, or even the natural parting of a long fringe at the hairline.

Furthermore, it is preferable that the material of front portion is capable of adhering to human in.

DRAWINGS

Non-limitative examples and embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals indicate like parts, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a front portion of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2a shows an alternative embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates a prior art;

FIG. 4 illustrates the effect of the embodiment of FIG. 1 when worn; and

FIG. 4a further illustrates the effect of the embodiment of FIG. 1 when worn.

DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 shows a hairpiece 100 or wig for the head of a person, the hairpiece 100 having a front portion 103 for the person's forehead and a back portion 102 for the rest of the person's head, the back portion 102 comprising a lace cap 102 machine sewn, woven or otherwise attached with hair.

The front portion 103 comprises a material suitable for being finely stitched, or otherwise attached, with hair such that the hair on the front portion 103 is spaced to look like the hair extends from the front portion in groups of up to two or three strands. More preferably, the hair on the front portion is spaced to look like the hair is rooted on the front portion in single strands 109. Except for the few strands shown, hair on the hairpiece 100 is generally omitted in the FIG. 1 to reveal the structure underneath the hairpiece 100.

A large part of the hairpiece 100 is made up of a lace portion 102 which is shaped and sized to generally fit on the head of a wearer. The part of the lace portion 102 near the front of the hairpiece 100 has a side which extends from the forehead of the wearer towards his ears, when the hairpiece 100 is worn.

One side of a generally elongate piece of net 104 is sewn to this front side of the lace portion 102 and generally extends in the same way when worn, along the forehead of the wearer towards the wearer's ears. The other side of the net 104 is sewn to one side of an elongate skin 103 of a suitable material for fine stitching of hair thereon. The skin 103 is further illustrated in FIG. 2, in an un-sewn configuration. The other side of the skin 103 is exposed along the forehead and the temples of the wearer and defines the hairline 113 of the hairpiece 100. The hairline 1103 may be cut to look uneven, jagged or curving one or more limes along the hairline. This mimics a natural hairline and improves the natural look of the hairpiece 100.

A band or belt 106 is sewn to the back side of the lace portion 102, which is to lie against the back of the wearer's head or neck when worn. The ends of the belt 106 therefore generally extend from the back of the hairpiece 100 towards the front of the hairpiece 100. Each of the two ends, however, folds against the belt 106 itself and extends through a sleeve (not shown in the figures) at either end of the net 104. Thus, pulling on the belt ends would cause the net 104 to be pulled backward towards the back of the wearer's head and against the wearer's forehead, thereby tightening the hairpiece 100 on the wearer. Optionally, the belt 106 may be replaced by an elastic band 106 to grip onto the wearer's head or neck.

Preferably, the part of the lace portion near to the belt 106 is sewn to a net of mildly elastic material 105 for aiding the capping of the hairpiece on the wearer's head before the belt 106 is adjusted to tighten the lace cap on the wearer.

The lace portion 102 and the net 104 are sewn with hair, styled and parted according to the hairstyle of the hairpiece 100. Preferably, the way that hair is attached to the lace cap is suitable for mass production of the hairpiece insofar as the back portion 102 is concerned, such as by machine sewing, weaving or even gluing.

The skin 103 of the front portion is also hand tied, sewn or stitched with hair according to the intended style or parting of the hairpiece 100. Preferably, each strand of hair on the skin is spaced from each other to accentuate the natural look of hair individually rooted in the scalp. More preferably, the spacing distance between the hair strands is irregular to enhance an even more natural look. Alternatively, the strands may be planted into the skin in two strands or three strands per stitch. To a casual observer, it would still look as if the hair strands extend from the scalp of the person individually, in single strands. On close scrutiny, this could look a little less natural than single-strand stitching but this could be cheaper to make and faster to produce, and has a similar effect. Furthermore, different knotting methods, as are known to the skilled man, may be used to impart different effects to the hairpiece.

Furthermore, each strand of hair on the skin 103 may be stitched to be at an angle to the skin 103, to direct the general parting or skew of the hair. This mimics the natural parting of a real head of hair. Thus, preferably, the material of the front portion is rubber, polymer, Mastic, animal hide, toupee skin such as polyurethane (PU) or some other material which has a minimal level of thickness and toughness to support rooting of hair strands stitched onto the front portion in a specific angle or skew direction.

As an example, the skin 103 is made of a flexible and preferably elastic toupee material, such as polyurethane (PU), or a PU-based material having, for example (i) PU 29-31 wt %, Methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) 10-20 wt %, Dimethyl Formamide (DMF) 49-61 wt % (commercially known as PU 1070) or (ii) PU 29-31 wt %, MEK 30-20 wt %, DMF 30-40 wt % (commercially known as PU1090).

Advantageously, PU is flexible, tough and mildly elastic. This allows hair to be stitched to the PU in single strands 109, such that each strand is rooted to extend from the PU like natural hair from human scalp. This is illustrated in FIG. 2. The separated single strands of hair give a look to the hairpiece fringe which is natural. Furthermore, PU is tough enough to hold the hair strongly and prevent the hair from falling out easily. PU is also a breathable material and is non-allergic, and is thus suitable for wearing in close contact to human skin.

Optionally, the skin 103 is flesh colored the so that part of the skin which the hair strands are unable to blocked from observer scrutiny, is camouflaged against the wearer's skin color. Alternatively, the skin may be translucent or transparent to allow the natural skin color of the wearer to show through the skin but in a pale color tone. Advantageously, this imparts an even more natural look to the hairpiece because real hair covers the scalp of a person's head from the sun, which causes the scalp color to be lighter than his exposed skin. As exemplified in PU, it is preferable that the skin 103 is made of a material tough enough to withstand the wearer's action of brushing back the fringe without loosening hair strands from the skin 103 or tearing the skin 103.

Accordingly, the embodiment is a hairpiece 100 that may be styled or combed back over the head of the wearer to expose a natural looking hairline.

In a variation of the embodiment, a fine lace cloth 103 is used as the material of the skin 103 instead of PU, This is illustrated in FIG. 2a. A fine lace cloth 103 is like a finely weaved net and the holes of the net may be tied with strands of hair. Typically, hair is tied to the fine lace cloth in double strands 109. This provides sufficient spacing between every two strands 109 of hair, such that the hair looks like it extend from the scalp in single strands. However, in comparison to the earlier variation of the embodiment, fine lace cloth, is relatively weaker than PU and may tear, or the knot of the hair onto the lace may loosen and the hair may fall off easily.

A fine lace cloth 103 allows the skin of the wearer to show through. Thus, if the color of the fine lace cloth is matched to the skin of the wearer, then the fine lace cloth would be camouflaged against the wearer's skin and be almost invisible to casual observers. However, if the wearer's skin color is lighter than the color of the fine lace, such as if the skin is fair and the lace is brown, the fine lace could be obvious to an observer. In this case, PU is preferable as it is highly translucent to allow the wearer's skin tone to show through and the texture of PU looks like human skin from a distance.

As the net-like structure of a fine lace cloth has many holes and provides a small total surface area for contacting the forehead of the wearer, the fine lace cloth may be applied with strong adhesive or glue generously for adhering to the wearer forehead. In contrast, a PU skin 103 is more like a membrane and less like a net, and this has more surface area for contacting the wearer forehead. Thus, a PU skin 103 does not require as much glue or as strong an adhesive for adhering to the wearer's forehead. In any case, PU has a greater affinity to human skin than a lace cloth and is therefore more likely to adhere to the wearer forehead naturally.

In any case, it is preferable that the skin 103 has, by way of its material characteristics, a minimal level of natural adhesion to the wearer forehead. In this case, the skin 103 may be capable of clinging to the forehead of the wearer for a good fit.

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate the difference between the prior art and the embodiment of FIG. 1. The left drawing in FIG. 3 shows a conventional full wig which has a fringe designed to droop over the forehead of the wearer, to hide the unnatural looking hairline of the wig. The right drawing in FIG. 3 shows that, when the fringe of such a full wig is combed back over the head of the wearer, the edge of the wig to which hair is crudely stitched is exposed. Thus, the fringe has to he kept over the edge of the full wig to cover the edge.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of how the present embodiment provides a natural look to the wearer. In the left drawing of FIG. 4, the embodiment allows the fringe to flop over the forehead of the wearer, hiding the edge of the hairpiece at its front portion. However, the fringe may be combed back against the forehead and the temples and tied into a bun. As the front portion of the embodiment has hair strands which are stitched to look like they extend individually from the scalp of the wearer, the combed-back fringe exposes a natural looking hairline which does not betray that the wearer is wearing a hairpiece.

FIG. 4a illustrates how it may even be possible to cut the edge of the front potion to mimic a slightly balding hairline, to make the hairpiece more convincing. This greatly increases the styles and designs of hairpieces.

Furthermore, the wearer is able to mimic actions on a natural head of hair, such as flipping the fringe back over his head.

Advantageously, as a large part of the hairpiece 100 is made up of the net 104 and the lace portion 102, the wearer's head is exposed to ventilation for comfort. Only at the front portion 103, if the front portion is made up of a material such as PU, is ventilation relatively reduced.

Advantageously, the lace portion 102 and net 104 allow a large part of the hairpiece 100 to be mass produced by machine, reducing costs of manufacture in comparison to a hairpiece which has hair that is entirely hand-stitched.

Advantageously, the lace portion 102 fits a range of head sizes, as the belt 106 allows tightening adjustments to be made for each wearer. As an option, the belt 106 may also slightly stretch the skin 103 portion over the forehead of the wearer without over-compromising the jaggedness or curves of the hairline. This allows the skin 103 to match a range of-head sizes.

Although the word “hair” common evokes the image of real hair, other suitable strand material may be used for mimicking hair on the hairpiece 100.

Although the embodiments are described herein using specific terms and expressions, it is to be understood that these are not limiting and the skilled man would understand that further variations are possible within the scope as claimed.

Claims

1. A hairpiece for the head of a person:

the hairpiece having

a front portion; and

a back portion;

the back portion comprising a lace cap attached with hair;

wherein

the front portion comprises a material suitable for being attached with strands of hair; wherein the hair strands are spaced to look like the hair strands extend from the front portion in single strands.

2. A hairpiece as claimed in claim 1 wherein the front portion has an uneven edge.

3. A hairpiece as claimed in claim 1 wherein the material of the front portion is translucent or transparent; whereby

the skin color of the person shows through the front portion.

4. A hairpiece as claimed in claim 1 wherein the front portion is colored to match the skin color of the person.

5. A hairpiece as claimed in claim 1 wherein the front portion material is polyurethane.

6. A hairpiece as claimed in claim 1 wherein the front portion has a thickness sufficient to allow hair strands to be rooted therein; and

the hair strands are held in a specific angle to the front portion.

7. A hairpiece as claimed in claim 1

wherein the front portion material is capable of adhering to human skin.

8. A hairpiece comprising

a front portion made of polyurethane;

a back portion made of a lace cloth;

the front and back portion being stitched with strands of hair;

wherein

each strand of hair on the front portion is rooted into the polyurethane to extend from the polyurethane.

9. A hairpiece as claimed in claim 2 wherein the material of the front portion is translucent or transparent; whereby

the skin color of the person shows through the front portion.

10. A hairpiece as claimed in claim 2 wherein the front portion is colored to match the skin color of the person.