A treatment technology (perming technology) for giving a desired style to hair such as permanent hair straightening or permanent waving is conventionally carried out by sectioning the whole hair which has been cleaned with a shampoo into some portions before or after applying or spraying a first lotion (softening agent or reducing agent, or it may be called “cold perm lotion”) or the like to the whole hair for softening; subjecting the thus sectioned hair to heat treatment or combing treatment, applying a substance in cream form to the sectioned hair, or wrapping the thus sectioned hair on hair rods in the case of permanent waving; applying or spraying a second lotion (setting agent or oxidizing agent, or it may be called “cold perm lotion”) as a setting treatment; and after removing the hair rods, if the hair has been wrapped thereon, finally subjecting the hair to warm-water rinsing or the like treatment.
This means that the conventional hair styling treatment technology such as perming or conditioning treatment depends only on so-called chemical treatment in which a first lotion (reducing agent) is applied to the hair wrapped on rods or the like to break a cystine bond of the hair and the linkage thus broken is bound again with a second perming lotion (oxidizing agent) while the hair is transformed by the rods or the like. A hair style retention effect after permanent hair straightening, permanent waving, or conditioning does not last long. This is presumed to occur because breakage of the cystine bond is insufficient because the perming lotion does not penetrate into even the deep portion of the hair sufficiently, or the cystine bond itself becomes weak due to hair damage at the time of perming or the like treatment.
In order to prolong the hair style retention effect of the cold perm lotion or the like, attempts have been made, for example, for adjusting the pH of the cold perm lotion, depending on the properties of the hair of an individual person subjected to perming treatment. Satisfactory hair style retention effect however has not yet been achieved.
It is presumed that a number of polypeptide chains (main chains) constituting keratin, a principal component of hair, are arranged in a longitudinal direction of hair and polypeptide chains adjacent to each other are connected via side chains such as cystine bond, salt bond, or hydrogen bond to form a mesh structure. Due to this linkage, the hair is presumed to have high elasticity and have resilience so that immediately after the hair bent with a hand is released therefrom, it can restore the original shape.
Weakening this restoring force, which has been given by a side chain bond such as the cystine bond, salt bond, or hydrogen bond, by breaking the bond is the action of a first permanent wave lotion, while restoring the side chain bond at a new bent position is the action of a second permanent wave lotion. It is presumed that sustainable waves or the like are formed by this series of reactions. Of course, this principle can be similarly applied to hair relaxing for straightening frizzled hair or change of wavy hair to straight hair.
In the hair styling process, it is also the common practice to carry out, together with the above-mentioned hair styling treatment, heat treatment (physical treatment) in which hair is heated at a certain temperature for a certain period of time. This heat treatment effectively utilizes, for changing the hair style, thermal plasticity which medulla, cortex, matrix, cuticle, and the like constituting the hair have. It aims to achieve a synergistic effect with the action of the lotion (chemical treatment) to the hair.
Since the above-mentioned hair styling method such as permanent waving uses a chemical or heat, a great care should be taken so as to precisely follow the direction for use or take a precise amount of the chemical. When the first permanent wave lotion breaks the cystine bond in the keratin too severely to make reforming of the cystine bond impossible, the hair is damaged greatly. When the treatment with the second permanent wave lotion is insufficient, the hair is damaged and at the same time, the hair cannot be formed into a desired style.
As a measure against the above problems, Patent Document 1 discloses a method and device for styling hair by applying thereto ultrasonic oscillation without using a chemical or heat. Patent Document 2 discloses a method of using both ultrasonic oscillation and a cold permanent wave lotion. Further, Patent Documents 3 to 5 disclose a hair setting device utilizing ultrasonic oscillation.
The method and device disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 5 however cannot give, to hair, ultrasonic oscillation corresponding to the properties of the hair such as hair style. They may presumably damage the hair and are not satisfactory for maintaining the elasticity and texture of the hair. In addition, they do not correspond to the properties of the hair such as hair style so that the hair style obtained using them cannot be maintained for a long period of time. Accordingly, they are not satisfactory as a device or method for styling hair.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-08-299046    Patent Document 2: JP-A-09-262120    Patent Document 3: JP-A-09-262119    Patent Document 4: JP-A-09-262121    Patent Document 5: JP-A-09-262123
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