1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hair clip.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hair clip has a structure in which a portion of clipping hairs is opened to clip hair by an operation with fingers. Such a hair clip is used not only privately in a home but also professionally in a beauty parlor. In the beauty parlor, sometimes a number of hair clips are used in a short time.
The hair clip is provided with a spring so as to maintain a closed state thereof with a force of the spring. This requires fingers to perform opening and closing operation of the hair clip with a considerably large force against the force of the spring. However, a conventional hair clip is formed with rigid plastic which causes fingers to slip easily when performing opening and closing operation.
Use of a large number of clips of such a kind in a beauty parlor causes hairdressers to have fatigued fingers to result in reduction in efficiency of their work.
As one of countermeasures to the above, therefore, a flexible material may be employed as the hair clip material. The hair clip, however, must have structural rigidity to some extent. This will therefore cause a problem when employing the flexible material. Namely, the hair clip is required to have rigidity so as not to cause damage by operations of opening and closing, and some extent of strength for holding a spring. In addition, the rigidity is also required for securely clipping hairs.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hair clip which can prevent slip while ensuring rigidity.
According to the present invention, the above object can be achieved by. a hair clip comprising a first clip body with one end thereof formed as a first handling portion and the other end formed as a first hair clipping portion, a second clip body with one end thereof formed as a second handling portion and the other end formed as a second hair clipping portion, a coupler for coupling the first clip body and the second clip body with each other so that the first hair clipping portion and the second hair clipping portion are made opened and closed by operating the first handling portion and the second handling portion, and an urging device for urging the first hair clipping portion and the second hair clipping portion in a direction of closing them, wherein at least one of the first handling portion and the second handling portion has a first part made of a first material and a second part made of a second material as a flexible material more flexible than the first material.
At least one of the first and the second handling portions having the second part made of the flexible second material allows the finger to touch softly with the handling portion. This can prevent the finger from slipping to make the fingers of the user of the hair clip get less fatigued, while the rigidity of the handling portion can be ensured by providing the first material more rigid than the second material. As a whole, the handling portion can prevent slip while ensuring rigidity.
Moreover, each of the first handling portion and the second handling portion has a finger touching face touched by a finger when handled. The whole or a part of the finger touching face of at least one of the first handling portion and the second handling portion is preferably made of the second material as a flexible material. By employing such a constitution, the handling portion is allowed to get fit to a skin of a fingertip, to cause no slip, to facilitate opening and closing operation, and to reduce extent of fatigue of fingers even when the hair clip is frequently used.
The finger touching face made of the second material is preferably formed with a periphery of the second material as a flexible material surrounded by the first material being more rigid than the second material. Since the fingertip does not so strongly touch to the periphery of the finger touching face, no problem is caused even though the periphery is surrounded by the rigid first material. Hence, the above form can be provided as being best suited for ensuring rigidity while preventing slip.
In addition, according to the other aspect of the invention, in the above hair clip, at least one of the first hair clipping portion and the second hair clipping portion has a first part made of a first material and a second part made of a second material as a flexible material more flexible than the first material.
The hair clipping portion having the second part made of the flexible second material provides the second part as a slip-proof for clipping hairs to allow the hair clip to securely clip and hold the hairs without causing any slip, while the rigidity of the hair clipping portion can be ensured by the first material being more rigid than the second material. As a whole, the hair clipping portion can prevent slip while ensuring rigidity.
Each of the first hair clipping portion and the second hair clipping portion has a hair clipping face touching hairs when clipping the hairs. The whole or a part of the hair clipping face of at least one of the first handling portion and the second handling portion is preferably made of the second material as a flexible material. Such a constitution can ensure a slip-proof function of the hair clipping portion together with allowing the hair clipping portion to have an ensured strength and a clipping force.
Further, the hair clipping face made of the second material is made to have a constitution in which a periphery of the second material as a flexible material is surrounded by the first material being more rigid than the second material. This can not only ensure a strength of the hair clipping portion but also make the hairs easily move apart from the hair clip when the hair clip is opened for taking the hairs away therefrom to allow easy and efficient hairdressing work.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds