This invention relates to a guide for use in trimming a person's beard to a desired and symmetrical shape.

Trimming one's own beard can be problematic when a shaver is held in the dominant hand, usually the right hand when trimming both left and right sides of the face, coupled with the difficulty in that the reflection in a mirror may be reversed and sometimes poorly lit.

According to the present invention, a beard trimming guide comprises: a body arranged to extend in a generally upright plane in use; and upper edge of the body defining a guide surface for a razor; a plurality of first channels, each channel extending between respective upper and lower locations; a plurality of adjustable members, each slidably engaged in a respective channel and extending transversely from the body; each adjustable member having two contact surfaces remote from the body; the contact surfaces being located on opposite sides of the body; the distance of each member from the guide surface being adjustable by moving the location of the member with respect to the channel.

In a preferred embodiment, the body is laminar, for example, a parallel sided sheet which may be composed of polymeric material.

The guide surface may be an upper edge of the sheet.

The guide surface may be configured to a desired shape of the upper edge of a user's beard. For example, the guide surface may be straight or may have one of a variety of curved shapes. A user may select the body to correspond to a desired shape of his beard. Alternatively, or in addition, a plurality of interchangeable guide surfaces may be provided.

The members may comprise elongate structures such as pins or rods which extend laterally, preferably perpendicularly from the body.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, each channel comprises an aperture extending through the body between opposite sides of the body, a member being slidably received in a channel and movable between upper and lower ends of the channel.

The member may extend from the channel on either side of the body, having a contact surface at each end, remote from the channel, the distance of each of the contact surfaces from the body being the same.

Each member may be arranged to be movable between engaged and released positions. In the engaged position, the member securely engages the body preventing movement of the member within the channel. In the released position the member may slide freely within the channel allowing adjustment of the location of the contact surfaces.

Preferably, the member comprises two parts, for example two pins, a first pin having a first clamping surface and a threaded bore, the second pin having a second clamping surface and a threaded shank, the threaded shank being receivable within the threaded bore and rotatable to adjust the relative position of the first and second clamping surfaces.

In use, the shank may be unscrewed from the bore to separate the two pins, enabling the member to be engaged with, or disengaged from the body, for example, to allow the body to be exchanged with another body in order to use a different guide surface. When the pins are in a desired location, the shank may be screwed into the bore until the contact surfaces engage the body, securing and preventing movement of the member. The two parts of the pin may be cylindrical, having the same diameter to give the appearance in use of a solid unitary pin extending on either side of the body. The ends of the pin may be rounded or hemispherical facing away from the body in use.

The first channels may comprise an array of parallel channels. This enables the members to be moved in parallel directions to adjust their distance from the guide surface.

In use, a user may place the body of the guide against the side of their face with the guide surface located along the desired upper edge of the beard. The members may be unscrewed to the released position and each member moved along the channel until the contact surface can touch the edge of a user's jaw. When the contact surfaces of the members have been aligned with the user's jaw, the members may then be screwed into the engaged position in which the contact surfaces engage the body. The guide surface may be used to control the movement of a shaver as the upper edge of the beard is trimmed. The guide may be moved to the other side of a user's face and the contact surfaces of the other ends of the members aligned with the user's jaw. This enables the guide to be accurately located at the same position on each side of a user's face.

The body may further comprise an ear engagement formation configured to engage a user's ear in order to more precisely locate the body in relation to the user's face.

The engagement formation may comprise one or more edges of the body forming a socket or indent configured to engage a user's ear. For example, two generally perpendicular edges may form an L-shaped socket. Alternatively, a curved edge may form a C-shaped socket.

The guide may further comprise one or more second channels extending between respective forward and rear locations, one or more second adjustable members being located in and each being slidably engaged with a respective second channel.

The second members may be constructed similarly to the first members described above, although the length of the members may be shorter. The or each second members may be located below the ear engagement formation. This may enable the second member or members to engage the rear of a user's jaw in use.

Preferably, two second channels may be provided. These may comprise slots extending between forward and rearward locations, more preferably, generally horizontally in use.

The location of the or each second member may be adjusted so that the vertical and horizontal surfaces of the ear engagement formation may provide templates for cutting narrow or wide sidebums of different lengths.

The lower edge of the body may be arranged to be horizontal in use. This arrangement facilitates holding of the device in a correct orientation.

The first channels may be parallel.

When there are two or more second channels, these may be parallel.

The edges of the body may be chamfered or rounded to facilitate engagement with a razor.

Alternatively the edges of the body may be planar or flat, extending perpendicularly to the surfaces of the body. This configuration may allow more accurate alignment with a razor, depending on the configuration of the cutting head of the razor.

The body may be composed of transparent polymeric material. This may allow a user to see that the guide is correctly positioned, particularly, that the contact surfaces of the members are correctly located against a user's jaw.

The beard trimming guide of the present invention provides several advantages.

The guide has a simple and economical construction which allows adjustment to suit the size and shape of a user's face. The guide may be reversed to allow the beard on both sides of the face to be trimmed to the same shape, providing a neat and symmetrical appearance. This may be achieved despite the user being right or left handed.

The invention is further described by means of example but not in any limitative sense with reference to the accompanying drawings of which:

Figure 1 shows views of a first guide in accordance with this invention;

Figure 2 shows views of the adjustable members;

Figure 3 shows three guides having differently reconfigured guide surfaces; and Figure 4 shows use of the guide.

Figure 1 shows four views of a guide in accordance with this invention. A body

(1) is arranged to be located vertically as shown in Figures 1(a) and (b). A guide surface

(2) is located on the upper edge of the body (1) and is provided with a chamfer. In the embodiment, in Figure 1, the guide forms a curved surface corresponding to the desired shape of the upper edge of a beard on a user's cheek.

Five parallel slots (3) extend vertically from a lower portion of the body (1). Two adjustable pins (4), (5) extending through respective slots (3) may be slidably moved between lower and upper positions in the slots (3). The members (4), (5) extend on either side of the body (1) and they have a length of 18mm. The members (4), (5) are adjustable between the opened positions in which the members slide freely within the slots and closed positions in which the members are clamped against the body preventing movement within the slots.

An ear engagement formation is formed by two edges (6), (7) comprising an upper portion of the body. The surfaces form a generally L-shaped rebate configured to receive a user's ear when the guide is correctly located against a user's face.

A pair of parallel, horizontal slots (8), (9) are located beneath the ear engaging portion (6), (7). The member (10) may be moved horizontally in one of the slots (8), (9) with the position adjusted so that it contacts the corner of a user's jaw in use. The location of the member (10) may be readjusted so that the vertical and horizontal edges may be moved to provide templates for cutting narrow or wide sideburns.

The construction of the adjustable member shown in Figures 2(a)-(c). The member comprises a pair of pins (20), (21) constructed of metal. The first pin (21) has a threaded shank extending axially from the pin. The second pin (20) has a threaded bore (23) arranged to receive the shank (22). Polymer bodies (25), (28) cover the metal pins (20), (21) respectively, each body having a rounded end defining an end portion (28), (29). The bodies (24), (25) have widened contact portions (26), (27) arranged to move closer together as the shank (22) is screwed into the bore (23) in order to clamp the pins to the body (1) in use. Figure 1(c) shows the arrangement in cross-section.

In an alternative embodiment, not shown, the first and second pins are cylindrical having the same diameter, so that the appearance of the assembled adjustable member is a unitary cylindrical member extending from both sides of the guide body.

The jaw pins shown in Figure 2(e) may each have a length of 18mm from the contact plate to the end portion. The ear pins shown in Figure 1(d) may have a length of 12mm from the contact plate to the end portions.

Figure 3 shows three configurations of bodies in accordance with this invention. The first configuration showed in Figure 3(a) has a body (30) with a curved surface (31) forming a guide for a razor. Figure 3(b) shows a body (32) having a guide surface (33) with a slight curve. Figure 3(c) shows an alternative body (34) having a straight guide surface.

Figure 4 illustrates use of the guide. The body (40) is held in position by a user with the pins (41), (42), (43) held in contact with the user's jaw. The surfaces (44), (45) of the ear engagement formation are located against the user's ear. This arrangement allows for a symmetrical and clean shave to be achieved. The device is reversible so that it can be used on both sides of the user's face. Use of the location members in engagement with a user's jaw ensures that the guide does not move out of position during shaving. In this embodiment to lower edge of the body (46) is straight and horizontal to facilitate holding of the device in the correct orientation in use.