CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Non-Provisional Application Serial No. 12/694,687 filed on January 27, 2010 and U.S. Provisional Application Serial No.

61/239,605 filed on September 3, 2009. Both applications are fully incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Hair combs are oftentimes used by women to secure their hair in a particular arrangement. Typically, a hair comb has a spine integral with a plurality of teeth. In use, the teeth are inserted into a woman's hair. The teeth of the comb grip the woman's hair to retain the hair and the comb in place. However, frequently, the teeth of the comb do not grip the woman's hair sufficient to retain the hair in the particular arrangement.

SUMMARY

An apparatus in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure comprises a comb having a spine and a plurality of teeth. The spine has a first end and a second end. The apparatus further comprises a band having a first U-shaped clip at a first end of the band for coupling to the first end of the spine, and a second end of the band coupled to the second end of the spine.

A method in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure comprises lifting a portion of the user's hair in an upward twist arrangement and inserting a comb behind the upward twist arrangement, the comb having a spine and a plurality of teeth. The method further comprises attaching a first end of an elastic band to a first end of the spine and attaching and dropping the portion of the user's hair over the spine. In addition, the method comprises pulling the elastic band that is attached to the first end of the spine over the portion of hair and attaching the elastic band to the second end of the spine thereby retaining the portion of hair.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a hair apparatus in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a comb portion of the hair apparatus depicted in

FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the comb portion of the hair apparatus depicted in FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is another side view of the comb portion of the hair apparatus depicted in

FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the clip portion of the hair apparatus depicted in

FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a back perspective view of the clip portion depicted in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a back of a clip head depicted in FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 is a front plan view of the comb portion of the hair apparatus depicted in

FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 is a front plan view of another exemplary comb portion in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a side plan view of a clip that may be attached to the clip portion depicted in FIG. 5 and used with the exemplary comb portion depicted in FIG. 9.

FIG. 1 la is a perspective view of another exemplary hair apparatus in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 lb is a perspective view of the hair apparatus of FIG. 1 la in an open position.

FIG. 12a is a perspective view of another exemplary hair apparatus in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12b is the exemplary hair apparatus of FIG. 12a in an open position.

FIG. 13a is a perspective view of another exemplary hair apparatus in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13b is the hair apparatus of FIG. 13a showing the hair apparatus in an open position.

FIG. 14 is a back view of a user's head showing the hair apparatus of FIG. 1 placed in hair of the user.

FIG. 15 is a back view of the user's head of FIG. 14 showing a portion of the user's hair covering the comb portion of the hair apparatus.

FIG. 16 is a back view of the user's head of FIG. 14 showing the clip portion attached to the comb portion in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of an exemplary method of the hair apparatus depicted in FIG. 11a and l ib. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure is best understood by referring to the drawings. The elements of the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a hair apparatus 100 in accordance with an

embodiment of the present disclosure. The hair apparatus 100 comprises a comb portion 102 and a clip portion 101.

The clip portion 101 comprises clip heads 103 and 104. The clip heads 103 and 104 may be decorative, as shown in FIG. 1. The clip heads 103 and 104 are attached together via a band 105. Such band 105 may be, for example, made of a stretchy elastic material.

Further, the clip heads 103 and 104 are attached to the comb portion 102. In this regard, the clip head 103 is coupled to a clip 106 that couples to the comb portion 102.

Further, the clip head 104 comprises a clip 107 that couples to the comb portion 102. Such is described further herein.

In one embodiment, both of the clip heads 103 and 104 are removably coupled to the comb portion 102. In such an embodiment, a user (not shown) lifts and twists his/her hair (not shown), and the comb portion 102 is inserted in the user's hair behind the lifted and twisted portion of the user's hair. The clip portion 101 is attached to the comb portion 102, and the user lets the hair drop over the hair apparatus 100, which is described further herein.

FIG. 2 depicts the comb portion 102 separated from the clip portion 101 (FIG. 1). The comb portion 102 comprises comb teeth 200 integrally formed with a spine 201. The spine may be, for example, substantially arc-shaped. The spine 201 comprises an end 202 and an end 203.

The teeth 200 are integrally formed with the spine 201 such that the teeth extend from the spine 201. During use, the teeth 200 are inserted into a user's hair (not shown), as described hereinabove. The teeth 200 retain a portion of the user's hair in a fixed arrangement.

The spine 201 comprises an opening 220 on the end 202. While not shown in FIG. 2, the end 203 also comprises an opening (not shown). The opening 220 on the end 202 and the opening on the end 203 are for receiving the clip 106 (FIG. 1) of clip head 103 (FIG. 1) and clip 107 (FIG. 1) of clip head 104 (FIG. 1). Furthermore, opening 220 is depicted as being circular-shaped. However, such opening 220 may be other shapes in other embodiments. For example, the opening 220 may be rectangular-shaped.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the end 202 of the comb portion 102. In this regard, the first end 202 has formed within the first end 202 the opening 220. Notably, the opening 220 receives a portion of the clip 106 (FIG. 1) of the clip head 103 (FIG. 1) such that the first clip head 103 is removably coupled to the spine 201.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the end 203 of the comb portion 102. In this regard, the spine 201 has formed within the end 203 an opening 400, which is described further herein. Similar to the first end 202 and its respective opening 220, the opening 400 receives a portion of the clip 107 (FIG. 1) of the clip head 104 (FIG. 1) such that the clip head 104 is coupled to the spine 201. When both clip heads 103 and 104 are coupled to the spine 201, the band 105 (FIG. 1) stretches over the spine 201. In such an embodiment, a user (not shown) lifts and twists his/her hair (not shown), and the comb portion 102 is inserted in the user's hair behind the lifted and twisted portion of the user's hair. The clip portion 101 is attached to the comb portion 102, and the user lets the hair drop over the hair apparatus 100, which is described further herein.

FIG. 5 depicts a front view of the clip portion 101 separated from the comb portion 102 (FIG. 1). As described with respect to FIG. 1, the clip portionlOl comprises the clip heads 103 and 104 attached together via a band 105, which may be made of a stretchy elastic material. In such an embodiment, the band 105 may further be covered with a material that covers the stretchy elastic material.

Because the clip portion 101 is removable, the clip portion 101 may be

interchangeable with other clip portions (not shown) exhibiting different clip heads 103 and 104, i.e., different decorative clip heads may be used.

Note that in such an embodiment, the clip portion 101 is removable from the comb portion 102. However, in other embodiments depicted in FIGS. 1 la- 13 below, one of the clip heads 103 or 104 may be fixedly coupled to the comb portion 102 such that the clip portion 101 cannot be completely removed from the comb portion 102.

Furthermore, the clip heads 103 and 104 are coupled to the clips 106 and 107, respectively. As described above, the clips 106 and 107 snugly fit within the openings 220 (FIG. 3) and 400 (FIG. 4), respectively, thereby coupling the clip portion 101 to the comb portion 102. FIG. 6 depicts a back view of the clip portion 101. The clip portion 101 comprises the clip heads 103 and 104. Further, the clips 106 and 107 are coupled to the clip heads 103 and 104, respectively. Note that the clips 106 and 107 may be attached to the clip heads 103 and 104, respectively, in any manner known in the art or future-developed. As an example, the clips 106 and 107 may be welded to the clip heads 103 and 104, respectively.

In one embodiment, the clips 106 and 107 are substantially U-shaped. The clips 106 and 107 are formed such that they fit within the opening 220 (FIG. 3) and opening 400 (FIG. 4), respectively. Thus, the openings 220 and 400 retain the clips 106 and 107 while the band 105 is stretched across the spine 201 (FIG. 2) of the comb portion 102 (FIG. 2). Therefore, a user's hair (not shown) is retained in an upright position, wherein the hair (not shown) falls over the hair apparatus 100.

Note that the clips 106 and 107 are depicted as U-shaped. However, the clips 106 and 107 may be other shapes in other embodiments.

FIG. 7 depicts a plan view of a back of the clip head 103. The back of the clip head 103 comprises the substantially U-shaped clip 106, as described hereinabove.

Notably, the clip 106 is substantially U-shaped and is configured for insertion into opening 220 (FIG. 3) of the spine 201 (FIG. 4).

In addition to the clip 106, the clip head 103 further comprises two substantially U- shaped clips 700 and 701. The U-shaped clips 700 and 701 receive, and fixedly retain, a portion of the band 105, thereby securing the first clip head 103 to the band 105. In one embodiment the portion of the band 105 wraps around the U-shaped clips 700 and 701 and that portion of the band 105 is sewn such that it is retained by the U-shaped clips 700 and 701.

Note that the clip head 104 is arranged in a substantially similar fashion as the clip head 103. In this regard, the clip head 104 also fixedly retains the band 105. However, for brevity, the clip head 104 and its attachment to the band 105 are not discussed in detail here.

FIG. 8 depicts a top plan view of the comb portion 102. In such a view, the spine 201 is shown integrally formed with the teeth 200. In addition, FIG. 8 depicts the openings 220 and 400 formed within the ends 202 and 203 of the spine 201. As described hereinabove, the openings 220 and 400 receive the clips 106 (FIG. 1) and 107 (FIG. 1), respectively. When the clips 106 and 107 are inserted within the openings 220 and 400, the band 105 (FIG. 1) stretches across the spine 201, thereby retaining the clips 106 and 107 and allowing hair (not shown) to be retained in an upright position with a portion of the hair falling over the hair apparatus 100.

In this regard, as described above, the band 105 may be made of a stretchy elastic material such that the band 105 stretches across the spine 201. The stretching of the band 105 across the spine 201 causes a force on the clips 106 and 107 that pulls the clips 106 and 107 inwardly into the openings 220 and 400, respectively. This force caused by the band 105 ensures that the clips 106 and 107 are retained within the openings 220 and 400.

FIG. 9 depicts a side view of a comb portion 901 in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. The comb portion 901 also comprises a spine 902 integrally formed with the teeth 900, similar to the comb portion 102 of previous embodiment. However, in such an embodiment depicted in FIG. 9, the opening 903 has an indentation 904.

FIG. 10 depicts a clip 1000 that can be used with the comb portion 901 depicted in FIG. 9. Notably, the clip 1000 would be attached to the first clip head 103 (FIG. 1), similar to the clip 106 described with reference to FIG. 6. However, in such an embodiment, the clip 1000 would further comprise a protrusion 1001. Thus, when the clip 1000 is inserted into the opening 903 (FIG. 9), the protrusion 1001 would fit within the indentation 904 (FIG. 9) thereby fixedly securing the clip 1000 to the opening 903 of the spine 902 (FIG. 9).

FIG. 11a depicts a perspective view of another hair apparatus 1100 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure in a closed position. The hair apparatus 1100 comprises a comb portion 1102. The comb portion comprises a spine 1101 integrally formed with a plurality of teeth 1103.

In addition, the hair apparatus 1100 comprises a clip portion 1104. The clip portion 1104 comprises a substantially rectangular clip head 1108, which is hingedly coupled to the spine 1101 via a hinge 1109 on an end 1105. In this regard, the clip head 1108 is fixedly coupled to the spine 1101 via the hinge 1109.

In addition, the clip portion 1104 comprises a clip head 1110. The clip head 1110 is substantially L-shaped and a portion of the L-shaped clip head 1110 fits around an end 1106 of the spine 1101. In such an embodiment, the clip head 1110 is removably fixed to the end 1106 of the spine 1101, as described herein.

Additionally, the clip portion 1104 comprises a band 1107. In one embodiment, the band 1107 is made of an elastic or stretchy material. The band 1107 couples the clip head 1108 to the clip head 1110. The elasticity of the band 1107 causes a pulling force that pulls the L-shaped clip head 1110 so as to retain the clip head 1110 coupled to the spine 1101.

FIG. 1 lb shows the hair apparatus 1100 in an open position. Notably, the L- shaped clip head 1110 further comprises a protrusion 1113. Further, the end 1106 of the spine 1101 further comprises an opening 1114. When the clip portion 1104 is hingedly closed the L-shaped clip head 1110 fits around the end 1106 and the protrusion 1113 fits within the opening 1114, thereby retaining the hair apparatus in the closed position shown in FIG. 11a.

As described, the clip head 1108 is fixedly attached to the comb portion 1102 at the first end 1105 of the spine 1101, and the clip head 1110 is removably attachable to the second end 1106 of the spine 1101. In such open position, the comb portion 1102 is inserted behind a portion of a user's (not shown) that has been lifted and twisted. The clip head 1110 is then attached to the second end 1106 of the spine 1101, and a portion of the user's hair is allowed to fall over the hair apparatus 1100. Notably, the clip head 1108 remains fixedly attached to the comb portion 1102 while the clip head 1110 may be removed by the user. Such is described further with reference to FIG. 14.

Note that while the clip heads 1108 and 1110 are depicted in a rectangular shape in FIG. 11, clip heads of different shapes may be used without departing from the scope of the present invention.

FIG. 12a depicts a perspective view of another hair apparatus 1200 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Notably, FIG. 12a shows the hair apparatus 1200 in a closed position. The hair apparatus 1200 comprises a comb portion 1202 and a clip portion 1211.

The comb portion 1202 is similar to the comb portion 102 (FIG. 1) of comb 100 and the comb portion 1102 (FIG. 11a). In this regard, the comb portion 1202 comprises a spine 1209 integrally formed with a plurality of teeth 1213. In addition, however, the comb portion 1202 comprises a protrusion 1208 integrally formed on the spine 1209.

In addition, the hair apparatus 1200 comprises a clip portion 1211. The clip portion 1211 comprises a clip head 1206 that is hingedly coupled to the end 1205 of the spine 1209 via a hinge 1214. Further, the clip portion 1211 comprises a clip head 1207. The clip head 1207 is coupled to the end 1204 of the spine 1209 and has an aperture 1210 through which the protrusion 1208 fits and couples the clip portion 1211 to the end 1204 of the comb portion 1202. The clip portion 1211 further comprises a band 1215. Such band 1215 may be made of a flexible or inflexible material. For example, the band 1215 may be made of a stretchy elastic material or it may be made of a rigid plastic material.

FIG. 12b depicts a perspective view of the hair apparatus 1200 in an open position. As shown, the clip head 1206 is rotatably attached via the hinge 1214 to the end 1205 of the spine 1209, and the clip head 1207 is removably attachable to the second end 1204 of the spine 1209. In such embodiment, the comb portion 1211 comprises the projection 1208 protruding from the end 1204 of the spine 1209. The clip head 1207 has the aperture 1210 for receiving the projection 1208 and securing the clip head 1207 to the spine 1209 of the comb portion 1202.

In such open position, the teeth 1213 of the comb portion 1202 are inserted into the user's hair (not shown) behind a portion of the user's hair that has been lifted and twisted. The clip head 1207 is rotated via the hinge 1214 and attached to the projection 1208 at the end 1204 of the spine 1209. Once attached, the user's hair is allowed to fall over the hair apparatus 1200, thereby retaining the hair in the lifted and twisted arrangement.

FIG. 13a depicts a perspective view of a hair apparatus 1300 in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure. Notably, FIG. 13a shows the hair apparatus 1300 in a closed position. The hair apparatus 1300 comprises a comb portion 1301 and a clip portion 1311.

The comb portion 1301 is similar to the comb portion 102 (FIG. 1), the comb portion 1102 (FIG. 11), and the comb portion 1202 (FIG. 12). In this regard, the comb portion 1301 comprises a spine 1312 integrally formed with a plurality of teeth 1315. In addition, the comb portion 1301 comprises a protrusion 1309.

In addition, the hair apparatus 1300 comprises a clip portion 1311. The clip portion 1311 comprises a band 1316. The band 1316 is hingedly coupled to the end 1306 of the spine 1312 via a hinge 1310. Further, the band 1316 has an aperture 1308 through which the protrusion 1309 fits and couples the comb portion 1301 to the clip portion 1305.

Note that the band 1316 can be made of a flexible or inflexible type of material.

For example, the band 1316 may be made of plastic (inflexible) or stretchy elastic

(flexible) material.

FIG. 13b depicts a perspective view of the hair apparatus 1300 in an open position.

In this regard, the band 1316 is hingedly attached to the end 1306 of the spine 1301 via the hinge 1310. The band 105 has the aperture 1301. The end 1307 of the spine 1301 comprises the protrusion 1309 such that the band 1316 may be hingedly rotated about the hinge 1310 and the aperture 1308 couples to the protrusion 1309 to secure the band 1316 to the spine 1301.

FIG. 14 depicts the back view of a user's head 1400 showing use of the hair apparatus 1100 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Note that FIGS. 14-16 show exemplary operation of the hair apparatus 1100. In use, a portion of the user's hair 1401 is gathered, twisted, and lifted by the user, and the teeth 1103 (FIG. 11a) are inserted behind the hair 1401, as shown in FIG. 14. The hair apparatus 1100 is shown in an open position in FIG. 14. Notably, an "open" position refers to that position of the band 1107 when it is separated from the comb portion 1102.

With reference to FIG. 15, the user rotates the band 1107 about the hinge 1109

(FIG. 11a) and couples the clip head 1110 to the comb portion 1102. With reference to FIG. 16, the user then allows the hair 1401 to fall over the hair apparatus 1100.

Notably, the hair apparatuses 100, 1200, and 1300 are operated in a similar manner.

With reference to FIG. 17, the user lifts a portion of the user's hair 1401 (FIG. 14) in an upward twist arrangement, as shown by block 1701. The user then inserts a comb portion 1102 (FIG. 11a) with a spine 1101 (FIG. 11a) and a plurality of teeth 1103 (FIG. 11a) behind the upward twist arrangement, as shown by block 1702 (and depicted in FIG. 14).

Next, the user attaches a first end (or the first end is hingedly coupled to the spine

1101 similar to FIG. 1 lb) of a band 1107 (FIG. 11a) to a first end of the spine 1101, as shown by block 1703. The user then attaches a second end of the band 1107 to the second end of the spine 1101, as shown by block 1704. The user then drops the portion of hair 1401 over the hair apparatus 1100 (as shown in FIG. 16), shown by block 1705.