DECORATIVE CONNECTIVE INSERT

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to hair styling devices, namely devices for forming French knots, buns and the like, and in particular, to an attachment accessory for conveniently attaching hair styling enhancements to the hair styling device.

Long hair styles are popular with people of all ages, particularly with women. Because of the popularity of long hair styles, several devices have been invented for styling long hair. Examples include barrettes, hair ties, combs and ornamental hair pins.

Concerning hair styling devices that are currently known, there are included a few devices which are useful for styling long hair into a bun, a French knot, or similar style.

One such device is a soft sponge-like ring. The ring is covered with a fine netting material, which can be used by drawing the hair through the opening in the sponge, wrapping the hair around the ring and securing the hair onto the ring by trapping the hair and the netting material together with hair pins. The ring can also be formed from a fabric, such as woven nylon covered with a nylon netting. Typically, the ring has an outer diameter of approximately four inches and has an inner diameter of approximately two inches.

There are disadvantages in using a soft sponge-like ring to form a hair bun. Smooth, thick hair is difficult to wrap around the ring, pin the hair down and have the hair remain in place. Wrapping the hair around the ring is also quite time consuming when the hair is long. Shorter hair may not be possible to wrap completely around the ring.

There are flexible combs that are known having two ends which can be opened to install the comb around the hair, and then closed to form a substantially circular ring. Flexible combs have many sharp, pointed edges which can scrape the scalp. Such a comb is also not

particularly useful for styling hair into a bun. Theflexible combs described above are primarily intended to be used to form French knots.

Women have also used rubber bands or cloth covered elastic bands to hold either all the hair in a ponytail or knot or to form small sections of hair into ponytails or knots. The devices currently available are closed loops that have no clasping device built into them. The end-user simply wraps the rubber band or cloth covered band one or more times around the hairto hold it in place. If jewelry is attached, the jewelry is either glued to the elastic loop or the elastic loop is drawn through a closed opening in some part of the jewelry or jewelry mounting arrangement- therein to hold the jewelry in place. Often, removing the band is somewhat difficult and leads to pulled hair.

There is also known a hair styling device including a flexible elongated body portion having a first end with a press capture clasp portion, a second end with the remaining press capture clasp portion and an elongated slit opening extending through a central portion of the elongated body for receiving hair through the slit opening. This elongated portion, though flexible, further elongates only a relatively limited amount so that it cannot be stretched and wrapped about the hair more than once to thereby provide tension therein to hold the hair more tightly.

There is addition to be used with this last hair styling device involving an attachment accessory can include a main body having a first hole, or aperture, through the main body adapted for receiving an elongated body portion in slidable engagement through the first hole. Alternatively, the attachment accessory can have geometrically complementary male and female ends compatible with the first and second clasp portions to allow insertion thereof between these clasp portions. In addition, the attachment accessory can have a second hole, or aperture, through the main body adaptable for attaching a hair styling enhancement thereto, such as a flower or flower representation or other ornament, through use of appropriate insertion elements. Alternatively, the

hair styling enhancement can be attached to the attachment accessory through magnetic attraction, adhesive or interlocking hooks and loops.

There is also a hair styling device for styling a person's hair through being wrapped about a portion thereof having a stretchable, relatively long body portion extending between two ends thereof, and which has a first end clasp member and a second end clasp member that are provided each at a corresponding one of the opposing ends of the body portion with a selected one of the first and second end clasp members having an open region therewith large enough to receive therein at least a part of the other so to be at least in part positionable about at least a part of the other so as to each capture the other and to remain so positioned against a selected amount of force subsequently occurring that tend to pull them apart. These first and second end clasp members each have a passageway therethrough into which ^" a corresponding body portion end extends with the body portion ends each having a passage blocking object thereon.

Although the attachment accessory described above can be used with this last kind of hair styling device to allow optionally attaching an ornament enhancement thereto through use of an attachment accessory, the assurance of the styling enhancement remaining so attached is problematical because of the necessary machinations of the hair styling device and the user's hair in appropriately placing that device therein. In addition, various unavoidable jostlings of the enhancement during use occur which can immediately, or after a sufficient number of such occurrences, case that enhancement to separate from the attachment accessary. Thus, there is a desire for a more secure attachment accessory and styling enhancement arrangement.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an intermediate clasp insert accessoryfor use with a hair styling device having a stretchable, relatively long body portion extending between two ends thereof with a pair of clasp members

each at a corresponding one of these opposing ends. The accessory comprises a pair of clasping structures including a first end clasp portion and a second end clasp portion each extending from a corresponding one of the opposing ends of an intermediate bar formed integrally therewith in a corresponding extent direction substantially parallel to the direction of a spatial axis passing through each, a selected one of the first and second end clasp portions having an insert stub and the other clasp portion being an equatorial plane capture means in which the insert stub is positionable such that the equatorial plane capture means can rotate in multiple directions about the insert stub with the equatorial plane capture means having at least one resilient wall that defines at least a portion of an opening therein and the opening having a cross section similar to the cross section of the insert stub large enough to receive the insert stub therein but only afterthe insert stub stretches the wall in being positioned therein. A pillar extends at an end thereof from the one of the first andsecond end clasp portions that is an equatorial plane capture means with which it is integrally formed and extends along a pillar axis that is at an angle to each of the corresponding extent directions but integrally formed therewith. An ornamental structure is integrally formed with the pillar at the opposite end thereof. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a hair styling device with which embodiments of the present invention are used, and

Figures 2A, 2B and 2C are various views of an embodiment of the attachment accessory improvement of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A hair styling device, 10, with which the attachment accessory improvement of the present invention can be used is shown in the perspective view of Figure 1 and has a cloth covered elastomeric band, 11 , with each end thereof anchored in a corresponding one of two clasp portions, 12 and 13, that snap together and snap apart but remain togetherunderthe tension introduced therein by wrapping band 11 one or more times about an aggregation of the

user's hair. The materials used in this device as seen in these figure for clasp portions 12 and 13 are polymers such as polypropylene or polyvinyl chloride or high density polyethylene (HDPE), or some combination thereof, chosen to provide a suitable combination of resiliency and hardness to allow the clasp portions to snap together, and so stay together against a degree of tensile force, but still be separable from one another by the user. The cloth covered elastomer has a very large rubber-like elasticity for band 11 , and is surrounded by a braided cloth that can stretch in the direction of elongation of the elastomer but to a limit which is short of the failure point in stretching of the elastomer so as to thus limit the elongation of band 11.

Clasp portions 12 and 13 (male and female ends, respectively), of these materials, are sufficiently resilient to permit the engagement of one with the other, and the disengagement of one from the other, but with a

use so as to accomplish their joint clasping function even against tensile forces attempting to separate them. Female end 13 must be able to hold male end 12 rather tightly because the tension introduced in elastomeric band 11 , after its being wrapped about an aggregation of the user's hair to thereby hold that hair, can be considerable. Nevertheless, the capability of male and female clasp portions 12 and 13 to be separated by the user allows both removal of the device from that hairto occur conveniently, and further allows the insertion of the attachment accessories of the present invention, such as to allow displaying a decorative item thereon, even afterthe device clasp portions have been previously joined togetherfollowing the wrapping of the elastomeric band about some of the user's hair.

Figures 2A, 2B and 2C show an elevation view, side view and a top view, respectively, of an decorative connector arrangement, 20, forming an attachment accessory combined in one integrally formed unit with a decorative ornament as a styling enhancement, and of a material common to each. Here, an intermediate connector, 21 , is shown in Figures 2A and 2B supports on a display pillar, 22, an ornamental layer, 23, here being a

representation of a flower having five petals. Of course, a wide variety of representational shapes could be provided rather than a flower as alternative decorative ornaments for ornamental flower 23. As indicated above, half of intermediate connector 21 is formed as though it were a male end 12 clasp portion of hair styling device 10 so that it can fit into the opening in the end of female end 13 clasp portion, of hair styling device 10 as shown in Figure 1 , this half of connector 21 being designated 12'. The remaining half of intermediate connector21 is formed as though it were female end 13 of hair styling device 10 except for the provision of display pillar 22 thereon to give it an accessory attachment function, this second end of connector 21 with pillar 22 thereon being designated 13'. Ends 12' and 13' of connector 21 are interconnected to one another by a cylindrical bar, 24.

Male end 12' is in the form of substantially a solid sphere to which cylindrical bar 24 is joined so as to.substantially have the axis of rotation - symmetry ofthe latter as a part ofa common axis passing throughihe center of rotational symmetry of this solid sphere parallel to the plane of ornamental layer 23. This axis is then perpendicular to the axis of rotational symmetry of pillar 22.

Female end 13' is formed as a truncated hollow spherical shell to which cylindrical bar 24 is joined on the opposite side of this shell from a circular opening, 25, in the shell created by such truncating, this opening providing accessto the spherically shaped hollow interiorof the shell. Bar24 is joined to the hollow sphere so as to substantially have the axis of rotation symmetry of the bar as a part of a common axis passing through the center of rotational symmetry of this spherical shell parallel to the plane of ornamental layer 23. The truncation ofthe spherical shell occurs at a position more than a radius ofthe spherical internal hollow away from the location where bar 24 joins that shell thereby leaving the diameter of circular opening 25 at a value less than the maximum diameter of the spherical internal hollow of that shell. The material of decorative connector arrangement 20 can be of a synthetic polymer such as the material Santoprene ^® , a thermoplastic

elastomer manufactured by Monsanto Corp. of St. Louis, Missouri, an especially good choice if some or all of the arrangement is to be colored using dyes or speckles, or both. Alternatively, material of arrangement 20 can be of 70 durometerpolyvinylchloride, an especially good choice if the arrangement is to be substantially transparent.

This spherical shell of female end 13' thus has walls that are resilient. The diameter of the solid sphere on male end 12' is then chosen to be approximately of a diameterslightlygreaterthan the maximum diameter of the spherical internal hollow within the spherical shell of female end 13'of decorative connector arrangement 20 and of female end 13of hair styling device 10. In such an instance, the solid sphere on male end 12' of decorative connector arrangement 20 can be inserted through the opening in female end

13 of hair styling device 10 by forcibly stretching the resilient walls about that

-opening to a greater diameter in doing so, thereby permitting this solid sphere- "tσ-then- enter the spherical internal hollow in female end 13: Because the truncation creating the circular opening in female end 13 of hair styling device 10 is located more than an interior spherical hollow radius away from the opposite side of the shell, the solid sphere of male end 12', after entering the ^• spherical internal hollow of female end 13 through forced insertion, will be captured therein since the shell wall of female end 13 will extend past that equatorial plane of the solid sphere of male end 12' that is perpendicular to the axis of the plane of the circular opening in female end 13.

The firm resilience of the spherical shell of female end 13 of hair styling device 10 requires a significant force to remove the solid sphere of male end 12' from the spherical interior hollow therein so that these two ends joined together form a clasp which significantly resists separating these two ends from one another. Because of the similarity in the diameters of the solid sphere as part of male end 12' and the maximum diameter of the spherical hollow in female end 13, the insertion of this solid sphere into that hollow forces much of the air out that was precedently in that hollow. As a result, removing the solid sphere of male end 12' from the spherical hollow of female end 13 by

forcibly pulling it through the opening in that end results in a temporary vacuum which is filled within rushing air so as to form a popping sound at the moment of removal.

Similarly, the solid sphere on male end 12 of hair styling device 10 can be inserted through opening 25 in female end 13' of decorative connector arrangement 20 by forcibly stretch ing the resilient walls about that opening to a greater diameter in doing so, thereby permitting this solid sphere to then enter the spherical internal hollow in female end 13'. Because the truncation creating circular opening 25 in female end 13' of decorative connector arrangement 20 is located more than an interior spherical hollow radius away from the opposite side of the shell, the solid sphere of male end 12, after entering the spherical internal hollow of female end 13' through forced insertion, will be captured therein since the shell wall of female end 13' will extend past that equatorial plane of the solid-sphere of male end 12 that is perpendicular to the axis of the planeof the circularopening in femaleend 13'.

Here, too, the firm resilience of the spherical shell of female end

13' of decorative connector arrangement 20 requires a significant force to remove the solid sphere of male end 12 from the spherical interior hollow therein so that these two ends joined together form a clasp which significantly resists separating these two ends from one another. Because of the similarity in the diameters of the solid sphere as part of male end 12 and the maximum diameter of the spherical hollow in female end 13' of decorative connector arrangement 20, the insertion of this solid sphere into that hollow again forces much of the air out that was precedently in that hollow. The presence of some flexibility in cylindrical bar 24 allows intermediate connector21 to bend somewhat to accommodate the bending of hair styling device 10 in being wrapped one or more times about an aggregation of the user's hair. However, the desire to have ornamental layer 23 exposed for viewing following such a wrapping, requires that layer 23 be relatively stiffly held by pillar 22 to avoid having the wrapping of the user's hair catch layer 23 and bend it under some part of that hair aggregation. Thus,

pillar 22 is made relatively thicker than bar24, i.e. have a larger diameterthan does bar 24, to result in being stiffer and less susceptible to bending under externally applied force. Pillar 24 typically has a diameter that is one-sixth to one-third or more greater than that of bar 22.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.