WEFT LESS HAIR EXTENSION AND METHOD FOR MAKING

Abstract

A hair extension that has no weft for attachment to the hairs on a person's head. The extension however includes a group of hairs arranged to form a flat strip which has a top end, a bottom end, a width across the group of hairs and a length along the group of hairs. An adhesive is located across the top end of the group of hairs to bind the hairs together and double sided adhesive tapes are attached to the sides of the group of hairs and covers the adhesive at the top end of the group of hairs. A release tape is attached to each of the double sided adhesive tapes.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a strip of hair which is placed on a person's head and, more particularly, to a method of preparing a strip of hair that is adapted to be used as a hair extension to add fullness and/or length to the hair on a person's head where the strip of hair has no weft and, when located on a person's head, is seamless, virtually weightless, undetectable, and presents no bumps or lumps and can be easily attached in a variety of ways to the hair on the head of a wearer.

2. Description of Related Art

Hair wefts are used to add fullness, body and/or length to a person's existing head of hair. Hair wefts usually consist of a row of hairs held together at one end with a weft threaded width ways across the row of hairs. The weft is located at one side of the row of hairs and is provided to hold the row of hairs together and allow for easy handling and utilization of the row of hairs in a variety of different ways. The weft of hairs or a group of wefts of hairs can be attached directly to a person's hair to provide fullness and/or extensions to the person's hair.

Each weft can include either natural human hair or some other synthetic or natural hair-like substance. When a hair weft is used as a hair extension, the weave of the weft is attached to a person's existing hair near his/her scalp. The wefts then move away from the scalp as the natural hair grows.

In most instances when hair wefts are used as hair extensions, tapes are used to attach the hair weft directly to a person's natural hair. Prior art hair wefts are significantly thicker than the individual hairs themselves. This thickness of the weave prevents multiple wefts from being spaced closely together to provide an appearance of thick hair.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,124 to Incando there is disclosed a hair weft which includes a weave which connects attached ends of individual hairs to the weave. The weave has a vinyl composition applied along its length. Once multiple coats of the vinyl composition are applied to the weave and allowed to dry, clamps are used to press the vinyl composition and weave. The resulting pressed weft bonds the hairs to the pressed weave and decreases a thickness of the pressed weave. However, the weave is still attached to the hair weft.

Accordingly, a need exists for a new strip of hair that has no weft, that has reduced thickness, that sticks readily to the hair attaching tape, can be easily attached to a person's hair and can be removed from that persons hair without causing damage to the existing hair.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In an embodiment there is disclosed a hair extension for attachment to the hair on a person's head comprising:

a group of hairs arranged to form a flat strip having a top end, a bottom end, a width across said group of hairs and a length along said group of hairs;

an adhesive located across the top end of the group of hairs to bind the hairs together;

a first double sided adhesive tape attached to one side of the group of hairs at the top end of the group of hairs;

a second double sided adhesive tape attached to another side of the group of hairs at the top end of the group of hairs;

a first release tape attached to the first double sided adhesive tape; and

a second releases tape attached to the second double sided adhesive tape;

wherein the hair extension has no weft.

In another embodiment there is disclosed a method of making a hair extension for attachment to the hair on a person's head comprising the steps of:

arranging a group of hairs as a flat strip having a top end, a bottom end, a width across the group of hairs and a length along the group of hairs;

applying an adhesive across the top end of the group of hairs to bind the hairs together;

attaching a first double sided adhesive tape to one side of the group of hairs at the top end of the group of hairs;

attaching a second double sided adhesive tape to another side of the group of hairs at the top end of the group of hairs;

attaching a first release tape to the first double sided adhesive tape; and

attaching a second releases tape to the second double sided adhesive tape;

wherein the hair extension has no weft.

The foregoing has outlined, rather broadly, the preferred feature of the present invention so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description of the invention that follows. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims of the invention. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiment as a basis for designing or modifying other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention and that such other structures do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other aspects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the appended claim, and the accompanying drawings in which similar elements are given similar reference numerals.

FIG. 1 is a view of a strip of hair weft before removal of the weft in accordance with the principles of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a view of the strip of hair of FIG. 1 being prepared for removal of the weft in accordance with the principles of the invention; and

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of the steps in preparing a strip of hair that has no weft in accordance with the principles of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a view of a strip of hair 10 before removal of the weft. The strip of hair is received from a supplier as a long weft which is approximately 72 inches in width and includes a group of hairs 12 arranged in a row and held together at one end 14 by cross threads that are either sewn or woven to the ends or the hairs 16. This sewn or woven end 14 is referred to as the weft and has more bulk and mass than the strands of hair to which it is attached.

Initially the weft is cut to one of more desired widths. In the embodiment here disclosed, the 72 inch wide strip of hair is cut into 24 strips where each strip has a width of 3 inches.

Referring to FIG. 2, a 3 inch strip of hair 18 is placed on a non-stick surface 20 such as a Teflon board and a polymer adhesive 22 is applied to the hairs along a line 24 which is located immediately below the weft and extends along the full width of the strip. The adhesive contains no vinyl or latex. If desired, the strip can be turned over and the polymer adhesive is then applied to the reverse side of the strip of hair, immediately below the weft and along the full width of the strip. The polymer adhesive functions as a bonding member to lock the various hairs of the strip together.

After the polymer adhesive has completely dried, a double sided adhesive tape 26 is applied to each side of the strip of hair, immediately below the weft and on top of the dried polymer adhesive, and is pressed firmly in place. The double sided adhesive tape can be a product from Walker Tape Co., Inc. located in West Jordan, Utah. This double sided adhesive tape does not contain any hazardous substance under OSHA's hazard communication standard #29 CFR 1910.1200 as amended in the 8-24-87 federal register. To protect the adhesive tape until it is to be used, a release strip is located on top of the adhesive tape on each side of the strip of hair. The release tape can be made of plastic or paper and completely covers each of the exposed sides of the double sided adhesive tapes. The release tape is removed from the double sided adhesive tape when the strip of hair is being attached to a section of hair on a person's head.

After the release tape has been applied to the double sided adhesive tape on each side of the strip of hair, the weft that was originally provided with the strip of hair is cut away from the strip of hair just above the double sided adhesive tape with either a pair of scissors or a knife and can be discarded.

At this time the strip of hair has no weft and there in now provided a hair strip that has all of the advantages of the prior art hair wefts without any of the disadvantages.

Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown a flow diagram 30 of the steps in preparing a strip of hair that has no weft in accordance with the principles of the invention. Initially a weft of hair received from a supplier is cut to form strips of a desired width, block 32. A cut strip of hair is placed onto a no stick board, block 34. While the strip of hair is on the no stick board, an adhesive is applied to one side of the strip of hair below the weft and along the full width of the strip of hair, block 36. The strip of hair is then turned over and the adhesive is applied to the other side of the strip of hair below the weft and along the full width of the strip of hair, block 38. The adhesive is allowed to completely dry, block 40.

After the adhesive has dried, double sided stick tape is applied to each side of the strip of hair below the weft and covering the dried adhesive, block 42. The adhesive is now pressed firmly in place, block 44, and release tape in now placed on top of each double sided stick tape, block 46. The weft at the top of the strip of hair is now removed and discarded, block 48. At this time the strip of hair has no weft is ready for use.

To attach the strip of hair to, for example, the back of a person's head, the hair is parted horizontally to form a lower group of hairs and an upper group of hairs, and the upper group of hair are temporarily attached to the hairs at the top of the person's head with a spring clip. The release tape is removed from one side of the hair strip, is placed about one quarter of an inch down from the part and is pressed against the lower group of hairs hair. Now the release tape on the other side of the hair strip is removed, the upper group of hairs are released from the top of the person's head and placed on the exposed adhesive on the hair strip. Pressure is now applied to the hair on each side of the hair piece to lock it in position.

While there have been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention and not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings. The embodiments discussed were chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated All such modifications and variations are within the scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are entitled.

Claims

1. A hair extension for attachment to the hair on a person's head comprising:

a group of hairs arranged to form a flat strip having a top end, a bottom end, a width across said group of hairs and a length along said group of hairs;

an adhesive located across said top end of said group of hairs to bind said hairs together;

a first double sided adhesive tape attached to one side of said group of hairs at the top end of the group of hairs;

a second double sided adhesive tape attached to another side of said group of hairs at the top end of the group of hairs;

a first release tape attached to the first double sided adhesive tape; and

a second releases tape attached to the second double sided adhesive tape;

wherein said hair extension has no weft.

2. The hair extension of claim 1 wherein said first double sided adhesive tape covers said adhesive.

3. The hair extension of claim 2 wherein said second double sided adhesive tape covers said adhesive.

4. The hair extension of claim 1 wherein said adhesive is applied to a group of hairs having a weft which is removed from said group of hairs after said adhesive is applied.

5. The hair extension of claim 1 wherein said adhesive is applied to a group of hairs having a weft which is removed from said group of hairs after the release tape has been applied to each double sided adhesive tape.

6. The hair extension of claim 1 wherein said top end of said group of hairs are arranged to form a substantially straight line.

7. The hair extension of claim 6 wherein said hairs of said group of hairs are of substantially equal lengths.

8. The hair extension of claim 6 wherein said hairs of said group of hairs are of the same length.

9. The hair extension of claim 1 wherein said adhesive contains no vinyl.

10. The hair extension of claim 1 wherein said adhesive contains no latex.

11. The hair extension of claim 1 wherein said adhesive is a polymer.

12. The hair extension of claim 1 wherein said double sided adhesive contains no hazardous substance.

13. A method of making a hair extension for attachment to the hair on a person's head comprising the steps of:

arranging a group of hairs as a flat strip having a top end, a bottom end, a width across said group of hairs and a length along said group of hairs;

applying an adhesive across said top end of said group of hairs to bind said hairs together;

attaching a first double sided adhesive tape to one side of said group of hairs at the top end of the group of hairs;

attaching a second double sided adhesive tape to another side of said group of hairs at the top end of the group of hairs;

attaching a first release tape to the first double sided adhesive tape; and

attaching a second releases tape to the second double sided adhesive tape;

wherein said hair extension has no weft.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said first double sided adhesive tape covers said adhesive.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said second double sided adhesive tape covers said adhesive.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein said adhesive is applied to a group of hairs having a weft which is removed from said group of hairs after said adhesive is applied.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein said adhesive is applied to a group of hairs having a weft which is removed from said group of hairs after the release tape has been applied to each double sided adhesive tape.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein said adhesive is a polymer.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein said double sided adhesive contains no hazardous substance.