The present invention concerns a method for manufacturing artificial hair and the artificial hair made therewith.

The invention also concerns hair pieces such as toupees, wigs, hair extensions, hair tresses, locks, top pieces and the like which are made on the basis of said artificial hair.

In particular, the invention aims to manufacture artificial hair which is a true-to-nature, high quality hair imitation of among others European hair, and/or Indian hair and/or Chinese hair, and which can be offered in different hair qualities .

At present, there is no artificial hair and/or hair imitation that is fully acceptable to companies and clients as a substitute for high quality natural hair.

The reasons therefore are among others the following ones:

- artificial hair only has a restricted heat resistance, of often not more than 160 ⁰ C, as a result of which it is impossible to use standard curling tongs at their maximum heat ,_ .i.e. about 300 ⁰ C;

artificial hair, especially if it has been coloured and/or pigmented, has undesired hues as it may produce a false, unnatural reflection, especially for some colours and incidences of light;

- artificial hair, also traditionally pigmented artificial hair, has little or no metallic colour reflection at a certain angle or a under a certain light, as is the case with real hair, especially in the case of lightly discoloured or bleached hair;

- artificial hair is characterised by a restricted curl tension. Also the strength of the curls and tenability of the curls is often insufficient.

Especially in the case of imitations of fine European hair or Indian hair of a thin quality, the artificial hair may have a corresponding thickness, for example with a diameter between 0.05 and 0.06 mm, but the bounce/tension and tenability of a curl under the influence of mechanical influences will not equal the tenability and bounce/tension of naturally curled hair;

- artificial hair often has problems related to splitting and frizziness.

When vigorously rubbing one' s hand over the far_ ends of the artificial hair, this may produce cracks and/or damages that are optically visible in the filaments, whereas such an effect occurs far less or not at all with natural hair, save for split hair ends;

- artificial hair, especially in the case of simply tied hair formed of a single thread, can easily break off from a filament in a screen in which it has been provided.

Artificial hair often and easily breaks when said artificial hair has been tied to a fine thread protruding from a screen, as is currently used as an element for manufacturing the bases of wigs and toupees;

artificial hair behaves differently in relation to moisture and water compared to natural hair, as it is not or not sufficiently hydrophilic on the inside and at the same time sufficiently hydrophobic on the outside.

As a rule, the moisture absorption and moisture resistance qualities of artificial hair are different from those of real hair.

Indeed, real hair can absorb moisture under hot conditions, but it rather repels moisture under cold, dry conditions. Such an effect is not seen with artificial hair;

- artificial hair is often formed of a single monofilament, instead of a certain number of encapsulated protein filaments, as is the case with real hair.

It also has a less natural flexibility and flexure and does not fall naturally.

The way it falls, the flexibility and flexure _is more natural in the case of real hair, and as a result the latter also looks more lively; - the tips of artificial hair do not fall naturally either. With healthy, natural hair, the tips of the hairs mesh when the hair is being combed or brushed, as opposed to artificial hair, where the hairs stand straight out due to a lack of affinity for one another of the artificial hairs.

Only the use of cosmetics or conditioners can improve this;

often, artificial hair is not made in different thicknesses, such that highly qualitative ethnical hair can only be imitated partly and imperfectly.

Thus, for example European natural hair of a good quality has a thickness or diameter of + 0.05 mm.

For South-Indian hair it is 0.05 ,mm as well, for North- Indian hair it is 0.08 mm. In general, Indian hair has a diameter of 0.065 mm. In the case of Chinese hair, the thicknesses of natural hair vary from 0.08 to 0.1 mm.

Artificial hair on the basis of polyester is known in this context, from JP 2008031565 for example, produced according to a fibre spinning process, whereby basic filaments are produced which are filled with titanium dioxide and silicon dioxide, and whose surface is further coated with apatite.

In order to provide these artificial hairs with a natural looking texture and behaviour in relation to water, _the thus produced fibres are subsequently subjected to a post- treatment with a strong base at a high temperature, as a result of which elongated craters are formed, mainly oriented according to the longitudinal axis of the synthetic fibre.

After this treatment, whereby the artificial hair fibre loses 15-25% of its original weight, it is coloured in a subsequent step.

A major disadvantage is that chemically etching away a major part of the synthetic fibre wastes a lot of raw materials and is environmentally harmful, and moreover consumes a lot of energy, and in that mainly only one of the above-mentioned disadvantages, namely the behaviour in relation to water, can possibly be remedied in an acceptable manner.

Artificial hairs formed of acrylic fibres with at least 30% acrylonitrile, and of polyvinyl chloride fibres, produced according to a wet spinning process, and having regular cavities in the cross section and longitudinal direction of the fibre, are also known in this context, for example from JP 2008075210 and WO2008035712 of the company Kanegafuchi Chemical IND.

Of the artificial hair, obtained in this manner, is said among others that it is voluminous and feels soft.

Here as well, the artificial hair is disadvantageous in that a possibly acceptable remedy is mainly offered to only_ one of the many disadvantages, namely the way in which the hair falls and its general feel compared to natural hair. Fire-retardant artificial hair is also known, for example from EP 1 650 333 of the company Kaneka Corporation, Japan, made of a mixture of hairs having a circular cross section and hairs with a modified cross section in a ratio situated between 8 to 2 and 1 to 9, and which is further provided with an outer hydrophilic layer.

A disadvantage thereof is that, as a consequence, the behaviour in relation to moisture of natural hair is not or insufficiently imitated, since these hairs are rather hydrophobic on the outside and hydrophilic on the inside.

Also, the invention aims to remedy the above-mentioned and other disadvantages, and to moreover offer an artificial hair which is a true-to-nature imitation of natural ethnic hair, in particular of European and/or Indian and/or Chinese hair, together with a method for manufacturing it.

These aims are reached by following the method as described in claim 1, and by manufacturing an artificial hair according to this method, mainly consisting of at least one filament.

The latter is formed of a thermoplastic material, and one or several coatings, and one or several pigments, whereby the filament or the filaments out of which the artificial hair is mainly composed has a cross section with a geometrical shape, in particular a round or oval shape, or an oval shape with longitudinal sides which are bent inward in a concave manner, or a trilobal/triangular shape, or a combination of two or more of these shapes, and whereby the outer diameter of an artificial hair that is formed with it is nominally situated between 0.03 and 0.2 mm.

A major advantage of the invention is that this artificial hair to a large extent has the same qualities and characteristics as natural hair, and in that, according to wish or demand, an artificial hair can be offered which specifically has the qualities and characteristics of ethnic natural hair, in particular of European or Indian or Chinese hair.

In a preferred embodiment, the artificial hair is composed of different separate or composed filaments, some or several of which may be twisted or braided together however, or which are mutually connected and/or protected by means of a hardening but flexible coating, but in which one or several filaments are processed having a predominantly oval cross section.

An advantage of this oval shape, composition and structure is among others that the tension, curl and curl tenability of the artificial hair can be largely enhanced in this way.

In a further preferred embodiment, a combination of twisted, predominantly oval multifilaments is used.

Normally, when an artificial hair__is made of twisted, round multifilaments, the tenability of., a curl and/or wave is minimal.

When using oval multifilaments and monofilaments according to the invention, however, the curl and tenability of the curl are considerably enhanced.

As a result, also problems of splitting and frizziness as seen with artificial hairs according to the present state of the art are restricted to a minimum when applying the invention.

In a further preferred embodiment, the artificial hair is made among others of coated oval multifilaments.

As a result, not only the flexibility and/or the way the artificial hair falls are considerably improved, but also the tenability of the curl and/or wave.

In a further preferred embodiment, the monofilament or multifilament is coated with different layers of a flexible plastic, whereby the multifilaments are among others held together and it is made possible to process all sorts of pigments in the coating with which a natural colour and natural reflection can be obtained, especially in the case of lightly discoloured or bleached hair.

In a further preferred embodiment, one__or several twisted multifilaments are used for the inner side of the hair.

As a result, the artificial hair will -have a more natural flexibility, flexure and it will fall more naturally.

In a further preferred embodiment, acutely trilobal- triangular monofilaments or multifilaments, coated as well as non-coated and/or either or not pigmented, are incorporated in the artificial hair whereby the flat surfaces thereof produce a mirroring metallic reflection.

As a result, it is no longer necessary to use metallic pigments in order to produce this effect.

Indeed, even metallic pigments with a particle size of 25 μm no longer produce any additional advantage as far as the smoothness of the surface is regarded.

In this way, thanks to the additional reflection of the flat sides of the trilobal elements, the same so-called metallic effect is obtained as is observed in a reinforced manner in natural, for example sun-bleached hairs.

Thus, what is called the metallic effect which is naturally present in real hair and which could not be produced until now in artificial hair imitations according to the present state of the art, can now be realised in practice by manufacturing artificial hair according to the invention.

In a further preferred embodiment, the artificial hair is composed amongst others of a portion of oval_ jnonofilaments made of fire-resistant and/or flame-retardant polyester, of polyester and polyamide acrylic fibres with at least 30% acrylonitrile polyvinyl chloride fibres and of trilobal monofilaments made of polyester or polyamide. acrylic fibres with at least 30% acrylonitrile polyvinyl chloride fibres and also of round multifilaments and/or monofilaments. Every bundle of hair forming the end product is thereby composed among others of a number of round monofilaments and/or oval multifilaments and/or oval monofilaments with longitudinal sides that are dented in a concave manner, and/or trilobal monofilaments and/or multifilaments of one or several as mentioned above.

Thus, for example, a bundle of artificial hair according to the invention may be composed for example of 50% oval, 25% trilobal and 25% multifilaments, whereby these multifilaments themselves are for example composed of 20 to 30 monofilaments.

In a further embodiment, said multifilaments are made of either or not partly or entirely twisted, round and/or oval, and/or oval with concavely dented longitudinal sides and/or trilobal filaments which are then all coated together .

Thus is finally obtained the desired reflection, strength and curl tenability of the hair and the way in which it falls, whereby moreover practically no frizziness and/or splitting occurs, a light metallic reflection is created, and no false_cqlour reflection is produced as the. _hair has been pigmented, preferably in a coating layer.

Also a better^ heat stability is obtained in this -manner, as the coating__ material partly protects the multifilaments against heat and keeps them in place.

In a preferred embodiment, the coating is mainly formed by making use of coating material selected from the group of water-soluble and/or in water dispersed and/or in water emulsified aliphatic polyurethane resins which are no longer soluble in water after they have been dried, and which form a heat-resistant and flexible protective and/or connecting layer after they have been cured and/or cross- linked.

In a further preferred embodiment, a coating material is used which is mainly based on the EVO resins of Dystar

Textilfarben GmbH, a Germany-based company, and/or on

Bondtane of the USA company BPI, and/or mixtures thereof, in particular EVO Top U 85 and/or EVO Top U 50, or Bondtane

UD-610 and/or Bondtane UD-615 and/or mixtures thereof, or on equivalent solvent-free self-crosslinking resins.

Preferably, a selection of these materials is used to apply a first layer or layers, whereby use is mainly made of various combinations of silicones for the subsequent top layers, so as to obtain a maximal softness and so as to maximally procure the reflection of the trilobal/triangular filaments .

In a further preferred embodiment, said coating is not provided by means of a customary screen coating technique, but by means of a high-speed coating process with which four successive coating layers are then successively provided for example.

The first coating layer is indeed formed of a first pigmented layer of glue/coating, followed by a second layer formed of an either or not pigmented coating layer, next a third permanent silicone layer and a fourth semi-permanent silicone coating layer/finishing rinse coating.

One or several filament filaments as described above can hereby be bundled.

This results in less splitting and frizziness, a real metal effect and hair that falls in a more flexible way, together with an improved curl/wave tenability and curl tension and also a better heat resistance, situated between 250°C and 300 ⁰ C, for a short cycle or duration.

The major advantage of such an embodiment according to the invention is that the end product can no longer be optically nor mechanically distinguished from highly qualitative real hair, as opposed to the usual artificial hairs according to the state of the art.

As mentioned above, the breaking off of hair, followed by hair loss of simply tied artificial hairs on threads in a screen, is a constantly recurring problem according to the present state of the art.

For when a knot is made in the hair, which is customary when knotting toupees and wigs, a single monofilament hair is tied round a thin -thread or filament of a screen.

When a pressure, friction or tensile force is exerted on it later on, as occurs when combing the hair and scratching the basis, this often and easily results in irreversible damage, there where the artificial hair is fixed to the screen, which often results in a permanent breaking, either immediately or later on.

This is due to the acute angle at which the artificial hair monofilament is bent or knotted round the fine thread which acts as a knife as if it were on the artificial hair monofilament, resulting in the monofilament being damaged as the angle is too acute, especially in the case of fine threads protruding from a fine screen type.

The finer the screen, the more natural the base material will feel and look, but the faster a tied artificial hair monofilament will break off from the thread in the screen.

In order to remedy this, multifilaments are used in a further preferred embodiment that are twisted first and subsequently coated all together.

This causes practically no damage to the inner multifilaments when they are exposed to the above-described mechanical influences and loads. This is owed to the strong, flexible coating layer which makes contact with the fine thread of the screen, and works as a protection, whereby the inner filaments remain intact and thus will not break, resulting in less hair loss under the above- mentioned circumstances.

An artificial hair which is made in this manner is less easily damaged and breaks less easily, also when it is tied round a thin thread protruding from a fine screen material, and even if it is less strong than natural hair as expressed in Newton tensile strength.

This results in a major improvement compared to the present state of the art, since hair loss from hair pieces with single-knotted hairs, whereby the hair comes off the material onto which it is knotted, has always been a problem up to now.

In a further preferred embodiment, the multifilaments, in case they have an oval or trilobal/triangular or round shape, either single or combined, are also mechanically reinforced by twisting the hair prior to the actual coating procedure.

In a further preferred embodiment, the diameter of the hair is not round but oval-shaped, provided that the longitudinal sides of the oval are slightly dented in a concave manner.

To this end, a slightly hollow inward flexure is provided to the longitudinal faces of the oval, having practically the same shape as the curve of the round faces of the oval hair, but in the negative. When these oval shapes are brought together, many of the round faces will fall in the oval, hollow depths of the longitudinal faces of the oval fibre.

As a result, the hairs form a more compact whole, which cannot be obtained with exclusively round artificial hairs. The squamae on the outside of real hairs all point in one and the same direction, whereby a similar effect is automatically guaranteed with natural hair.

However, as soon as the hairs are brushed in the opposite direction, said hairs will separate, which is less desirable. Since artificial hair has no squamae, the solution resides in the shape of the specially formed hollow and at the same time convex sides of the filaments, whereby they can mutually mesh and come together.

Thus, the tips of the artificial hairs will fall such that they can practically no longer be discerned from rigid, good quality real hair.

A further disadvantage of artificial hair according to the present state of the art, as mentioned above, is its unnatural behaviour in relation to moisture.

In order to bring this more in conformity with the behaviour of natural hair, the artificial hair according to the invention is provided with several coating layers in a further preferred embodiment, whereby a first and/or second coating layer, situated more on the inside of the artificial hair, is made hydrophilic, whereas the following coating layer or layers, which end up more on the outside, _are made hydrophobic.

Thus is obtained an imitation of the behaviour towards moisture of real hair, since it absorbs moisture on the inside, especially under hot conditions, but is rather water-repellent, i.e. hydrophobic, on the outside in the case of healthy, natural hair.

Also, a major advantage of the artificial hair according to the invention is that it has the same hydrophilic characteristics on the inside, being the capacity to absorb moisture, but at the same time remains water-repellent on the outside, i.e. hydrophobic.

This implies amongst others that, if the hair according to the invention is immersed in cold water, it will dry very fast .

However, if it is immersed in somewhat warmer water, it will absorb moisture on the inside, such that it will have the same behaviour, feel and movement as real hair.

Such an effect could not be obtained until now with the customary artificial hairs that are currently produced according to the present state of the art and/or that are offered on sale.

In summary, we can say that also the anomalies occurring with the present artificial hairs are_ remedied and/or largely remedied by the present invention, especially as far as the lack of any partial metallic effect is concerned, their breaking out in case they have been knotted, false reflection, restricted tension of the hair and curl tenability, lack of flexibility, false colour reflection under some incidences of light and the unnatural look and feel of artificial hair compared to high quality real hair .

In a further preferred embodiment, the described new hair imitation is machine-made in an uninterrupted manner at a speed of 0.5 to 5 metres per second, in particular at a speed situated between 1 and 3 metres per second.

In order to better explain the characteristics of the invention, the following preferred embodiment of an artificial hair produced according to the invention is described by way of example only, without being limitative in any way, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 schematically represents a cross section of the filaments out of which the artificial hair is mainly composed, seen in perspective; figure 2 represents an identical cross section of the same hair, but with different combinations of filaments; figure 3 schematically represents a stack of artificial hairs having a cross section in the shape of an oval with longitudinal sides that are inwardly bent in a concave manner.

Figure 1 schematically represents a cross section of filaments^ 1-8 which can be used separately or combined in order to form the artificial hair.

The filaments 1-6 respectively have a cross section which is predominantly round (1 and 2), oval (3 and 4) or trilobal-triangular (5 and 6) .

The filaments 7 and 8 have a cross section which is actually oval with longitudinal sides which are inwardly bent in a concave manner.

The filaments represented under 2,4,6 and 8 represent the same filaments as 1,3,5 and 7, but this time provided with one or several enveloping and reinforcing coatings 15, which may be either or not pigmented.

Figure 2 represents a cross section of different possible combinations 9-13 of the filaments represented in figure 1, by way of example and without any claims of completeness.

These filaments 9 to 13 may be simple or composed, twisted or turned, either or not coated, and provided with one or several coatings 15, as indicated in figure 1, in which one or several pigments may be provided, but they are all kept together, enveloped and protected by one or several outer coatings 14.

Figure 3 schematically represents a cross section of a series 17 of filaments 7 joined together and having an essentially oval cross section with longitudinal sides that are bent inward in a concave manner.

This figure clearly shows how, thanks to this oval cross section with longitudinal sides that are bent inward in a concave manner, the individual filaments 7 can be joined more closely, which is not possible with filaments having another cross section (round, trilobal, entirely oval, etc.) or at least not to the same extent.

A final bundle of artificial hair according to the invention can be composed of hair of one and the same type, either the monofilament or multifilament type, or also of a combination of different types of hair, for example 50% oval, 25% trilobal and 25% multifilament.

When composing and producing artificial hair according to the invention, one proceeds as follows, simply put:

First, a selection is made according to wish or desire of what hair one wishes to imitate and in what product quality, in particular whether it should be European, Indian or Chinese hair, and in what nominal thickness.

Depending on the outcome, one determines out of what elements one wishes to compose the hair, in particular the composition, type, shape and thickness of the thermoplastic filaments, either or not made fire-retardant , the thickness of the respective hydrophilic and hydrophobic coatings, the pigmented coatings, the number and spatial orientation of the different filaments with their different geometrical sections, whether some filaments should be either or not twisted or plaited, the thickness and nature of the final connections and protective layer, the final outer shape, of the artificial hair seen as a cross section, etc.

The basic filaments are made according to known injection moulding or extrusion techniques and thus obtain their final geometrical shape seen as a cross section.

In case of multifilament plastic spinning, for example, a spinneret which is provided with pores with openings having different shapes can hereby be put to use, making it possible to immediately extrude individual filaments of different shapes in a single operation, for example round, trilobal, oval, oval with dented longitudinal sides, etc. and to subsequently incorporate them in one and the same multifilament or composed synthetic hair fibre.

After they have either or not been twisted, the filaments are in this case coated with a first coating, followed by one or several more transparent, either or not pigmented coatings provided one after the other.

After the different coated multifilaments, either or not twisted, have been bundled together in the desired configuration, they are processed together into an end product in the shape of an artificial hair, whereby a binding, protective and resilient outer coating is typically used.

For the latter, watery polyurethane resins and/or emulsions and/or dispersions are mostly used, as indicated above, either or not coloured, which cure after the water has evaporated under the influence of hot air and/or IR radiation and which are cross-linked.

Temperatures of some 150-170 ⁰ C are hereby used during a time span of about 1 minute. The entire process can be largely automated and carried out in a continuous manner, whereby typical production speeds of some 1 to 3 m/sec. are realised.

The present invention is by no means restricted to the embodiment (s) and method described by way of example and represented in the accompanying drawings; on the contrary, such a method and artificial hair according to the invention can be made in all sorts of shapes and dimensions while still remaining within the scope of the invention.