Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
Winner of 12 awards, including the 2017 Special Recognition Award from the Global Women’s Inventors and Innovators Network (GWIIN), The SimiWeave™, formerly called NewHair, is a really ingenious wig.
Invented by Simi Belo, the SimiWeave™ has a deliberate gap, (a U- shaped opening) through which the user brings out a small section of his or her own real hair. The small section of real hair is then parted to cover the gap in the wig, and by the same token exposes the user’s own roots, scalp, and hairline. Thus, all of the hair of the wig looks as though it is the user’s own hair! The gap is available to the right, left or center of the wig, thus allowing users to part the small section of their own hair accordingly.
Belo points out that while regular wigs provide a full head of hair, this is at the expense of realism since none of the hair appears as though it belongs to the user.
Belo’s invention is recited in a family of 4 patents, including the US utility patent US2007044814 titled NewHair by Simi Belo. The abstract for this US patent is included below with two patent figure drawings, respectively showing the invention wig with the U-shaped gap (Fig. 2), and the wig as it is worn with the user's hair filling the U-shaped gap (Fig. 3).
The NewHair wig features a deliberate gap (3) at the front of the wig (2). Through this gap the wearer brings through his/her own real hair (5), parts and brushes over the wig hair to cover the gap, and in doing so, reveals some of his/her own real hair, natural hairline, scalp and roots (6), so that it looks as if all of the hair is growing out of his/her head. Whether the gap is on the left (7), in the centre (8), or on the right (9), it adds much-needed realism to the traditional wig. This is because traditional wigs use fringes, hair bands and other features to hide the stitching, but in doing so, they conceal the wearer's own roots and hairline, so it is apparent that the hair is not really growing out of the head and therefore the hair is fake. [Abstract US2007044814]
The list of the SimiWeave™ patents is also included below.
- US2007044814 (A1) ― 2007-03-01 - Newhair by Simi Belo
- USD518604 (S) ― 2006-04-04 – Wig
- WO2005046375 (A1) ― 2005-05-26 - Newhair by Simi Belo
- EP1681950 (A1) ― 2006-07-26 - Wig
- GB2407979 (A) ― 2005-05-18 - A wig (withdrawn)
References
GWIIN - Global Women's Inventors and Innovators network
SimiWeave™
1 comment:
Thanks, it was a really informative blog post on wearing human hair wigs appropriately. Thanks for sharing that.
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