WO2003091127A1

WO2003091127A1 - Hair product testing device

Info

Publication number: WO2003091127A1
Application number: PCT/GB2003/001769
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gordon Watt; Gerald Merten
Original assignee: Colour Test Limited
Priority date: 2002-04-26
Filing date: 2003-04-25
Publication date: 2003-11-06
Also published as: EP1501742A1; AU2003229936A1; GB0209553D0

Abstract

Apparatus for testing hair products. A multichamber sachet is provided with each chamber containing a mutually reactive agent of the hair product. A low strength seal between the chambers permits easy breakage and combining of contents. The sachet contents can then be used to provide a patch test for allergies, a compatibility test and/or a colour test for colourants, dyes and bleach hair products. The sachet provides quick and convenient testing prior to full use of the hair product.

Description

HAIR PRODUCT TESTING DEVICE

The present invention relates to a product and method for use in the testing of hair colours, dyes and bleaches, applicable to both the head hair, and other types of hair such as eyelashes and eyebrows.

Four main types of hair colouring agents commonly exist. Temporary hair colours merely sit on the surface of the hair and can be washed out within a specified number of washings of the hair (usually one or two) . Semi-permanent dyes penetrate into the hair shaft. They do not rinse off the hair immediately like temporary dyes, but rather wash out after around five to ten shampoos . Gradual or progressive dyes are also known, which are washed into the hair (normally daily) until the shade of the user's hair colour is sufficiently dark. The gradual dye can then be used less often, to maintain the desired hair colour.

Finally, permanent dyes last until the hair begins to grow and new ^Λroots' form on the hair shaft. Permanent dyes can be more specifically categorised as "oxidation hair dyes". These oxidation dyes consist of dye intermediates or hair colouring concentrate (which form hair dye upon the occurrence of a chemical reaction, e.g.- p-phenylenediamine) and a solution of hydrogen peroxide (often called the colour or dye "developer") . The dye intermediate and the hydrogen peroxide developer are mixed together shortly before application of the solution (i.e.- the hair dye) to the hair. The applied mixture causes the hair to swell, allowing the dye intermediate to partially penetrate the hair shaft before full reaction with the developer.

Semi-permanent and temporary products may also require the mixing of two solutions together to form the final dye solution to be applied to the hair.

Additionally, dyeing or tinting of the eyelashes or eyebrows is also a commonly used process within the beauty industry. Again, dye used on eyelashes or eyebrows can be permanent in nature, or temporary (e.g.- it lasts for 30 days), and applied either at a salon or using a kit for home use by the consumer. Eyelash and brow dyes may also require the mixing of two solutions together (e.g.- an eyelash dye intermediate and an eyelash dye developer) to form the final dye solution to be applied to the eyelashes or brows.

Hair bleaching is commonly done to make unsightly hair less visible. Again, the procedure can be done in a salon or at home and requires a Bleach and Accelerator (or Activator) to be mixed prior to application. Typical application areas are the face and arms. Within this specification, the term "hair products" will be used to encompass colorants, dyes and bleaches and the like used on hair.

There is a requirement within the hair colouring industry and beauty industry to test clients for the potential of allergic reaction (irritation and sensitisation) to the products used on hair. This testing requirement is equally necessary should the user be attempting to colour, dye or bleach their own hair using a ^xhome use' product.

The use of hair products has been reported to cause allergic reactions such as hair loss conditions like alopecia, burning or irritation of the scalp or skin found near the hairline, itching of this skin and the scalp, swelling of the face and even difficulty breathing. Additionally, users of hair products can become sensitised (i.e.- develop an allergy) to the ingredients of hair dyes or colourants. It is possible for users to use a product for many years before an allergic reaction becomes apparent.

These is also a medical condition known as "eyelash dye", which is local irritation on the skin caused by ingredients contained in eyelash dyes (e.g.- isopropanol, thiosulphate or surfactants) .

Thus, in order to ascertain whether an allergic reaction is likely to occur, hairdressers, beauticians and home users of hair products are advised to perform an allergy- ascertaining "patch test" each time the client or user's hair is dyed. These ^λpatch tests' consist of putting a small amount of the mixed dye solution onto the skin, usually behind the ear or on the inside of the elbow of the user. This patch should then be left for around 24-48 hours. If no signs of allergic reaction, such as itching, burning or redness of the skin, develop within this time period, it can be assumed relatively certainly that they user is not allergic to the hair product. The mixed dye solution can then be removed using a mild soap and water solution, or some sort of cleaning agent or substance.

Certain laws (e.g.- US laws) governing provision of hairdressing and beauty services, and sale of hair products for home use, usually require that a patch test is recommended to be carried out prior to full Application to the hair or skin. Dye products are labelled with a prescribed caution statement which states that the product contains ingredients which may cause skin irritation, thus a preliminary test should be carried out.

Previously, it has often proved difficult to carry out the required patch test in both the hairdressing or beauty salon context, and the home use context. The hairdresser/beautician would require their client to come into the salon around two days prior to their appointment in order for the patch test to be applied. This is clearly inconvenient for both client and salon, thus is often omitted from the process, at risk to the client's health.

A home user of hair dye products would be required to mix a small amount of the dye intermediate and dye developer around two days prior to their intended Application of the hair colouring solution. This can be a cumbersome and inconvenient process, as the bottles or containers of intermediate and developer are of a size intended for full mixture only at the ultimate end of the process (i.e.- immediately before full application to the user's hair) . Thus, the containers may be awkward to decant small amounts from, and the risk exists that spillage of the intermediate, developer or both may occur onto the user's skin. This consequence has clear ramifications with respect to the potential allergic reaction of the user. Again, this inconvenience and awkwardness often results in the user omitting to perform the patch test prior to full Application of the hair product.

Additionally, it has been helpful to apply a similar test directly to a strand of hair to determine if the hair will react to the hair product, and what the eventual colour of the hair will be after treatment.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a product for use in testing for allergies to hair products.

It is a further object of at least one embodiment of the present invention to provide a method of facilitating the testing for allergies to hair products.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for testing hair products, the apparatus comprising multi-chambers wherein one or more chambers each include mutually reactive hair product components.

Preferably, at least a first chamber contains a hair dye/colourant intermediate, and at least a second chamber containing a hair dye/colourant developer. Alternatively, at least a first chamber contains a bleach and at least a second chamber contains an accelerator or activator.

Optionally, at least one chamber contains a quantity of air or inert gas .

Optionally, the apparatus may include a chamber containing a substance for cleaning hair product from the user's skin.

Preferably, the apparatus comprises a sachet. The sachet may be a plastic envelope. Preferably, the external edges of the sachet are sealed together with a high strength seal.

Preferably also, the chambers of the sachet are separated by one or more inner dividing seals.

More preferably, the one or more inner dividing seals are of sufficiently low seal strength to permit rupture upon application of finger pressure by a user.

In a preferred embodiment, the sachet is constructed from heat-sealable material. Alternatively, the sachet may be made of UV sealable materials or the like.

Preferably also, the quantities of components are measured in each chamber.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of testing users of hair products for allergic reactions to the products, comprising the following steps :

(a) Providing apparatus according to the first aspect; (b) Applying sufficient pressure to the apparatus to rupture the inner dividing seal between the chamber containing the first hair product component and the chamber containing the second hair product component; (c) Mixing the components in the apparatus together to form a hair product solution; (d) Opening the apparatus and dispensing the hair product solution; and (e) Applying the hair product solution to a user's skin and determining, by sight, if an allergic reaction results.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of testing users of hair products for suitability of a user's hair to the product, the method comprising the steps :

(a) Providing apparatus according to the first aspect; (b) Applying sufficient pressure to the apparatus to rupture the inner dividing seal between the chamber containing the first hair product component and the chamber containing the second hair product component; (c) Mixing the components in the apparatus together to form a hair product solution; (d) Opening the apparatus and dispensing the hair product solution; and (e) Applying the hair product solution to a strand of the user's hair and determining, by touch and sight, if the hair is badly affected by the solution.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of testing users of hair products for the final hair colour resultant from a dye or colourant of the hair product, the method comprising the steps:

(a) Providing apparatus according to the first aspect; (b) Applying sufficient pressure to the apparatus to rupture the inner dividing seal between the chamber containing the first hair product component and the chamber containing the second hair product component; (c) Mixing the components in the apparatus together to form a hair product solution; (d) Opening the apparatus and dispensing the hair product solution; and (e) Applying the hair product solution to a strand of a user's hair and watching to determine the colour change observed.

In order to provide a better understanding of the present invention an example will now be described by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying Figures, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates apparatus in the form of a sachet having two chambers, according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 illustrates the apparatus of Figure 1 once the seal between the two chambers has been broken;

Figure 3 illustrates the apparatus of Figure 1 during mixing of the liquids contained in each of the two chambers of the sachet;

Figure 4 illustrates the apparatus of Figure 1 with the fully mixed solution being dispensed from the sachet; and

Figure 5 illustrates the apparatus of according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Referring firstly to Figure 1, a sachet 1 is shown, consisting of two chambers 2 and 3. Chamber 2 contains dye developer 4 and chamber 3 contains dye intermediate or colouring concentrate 5. Chambers 2 and 3 each contain a small amount of air or inert gas, and are separated by inner seal 6. Indentation 7 is also provided on an external edge of sachet 1.

Referring to Figure 2, the user applies pressure to the outer surface of sachet 1 sufficient to rupture inner seal 6 by forcing the air/gas from one chamber to the other, or between chambers. The ruptured inner seal 6 then allows free passage of dye intermediate 5 from outwith chamber 3. Dye intermediate 5 begins to mix with dye developer 4, contained in chamber 2.

Referring to Figure 3, the dye intermediate has been completely evacuated from chamber 3 into chamber 2, to fully mix with the dye developer to form colouring solution 8. Gentle massaging of sachet 1 by the user facilitates this mixture while indentation 7 remains intact, and sachet 1 remains completely sealed.

Referring to Figure 4, indentation 7 is torn by the user to create an aperture 9, allowing mixed colouring solution 8 to be dispensed through the aperture 9.

The sachet 1 may be used in the following way. The sachet 1 may be contained as part of a hair dying kit intended for home use. Alternatively, it can be posted or otherwise provided to a client who is due to have their hair coloured at a hairdressing salon, prior to their appointment.

On dispensing the solution 8, the solution 8 may be applied to the skin or a strand of hair for testing. In this way a user can determine if they have an allergy to the ^• solution, it is incompatible with their hair or determine the colour it will turn their hair, prior to attending a salon for a full treatment or procedure to be carried out.

The sachet 1 is a plastic envelope which is constructed from of a heat sealable material (transparent or opaque) featuring two chambers, 2 and 3. The outer edge seal of the construction is of high seal strength and the inner dividing seal 6 is of a weaker strength comparatively.

In a second embodiment of the invention, chamber 3 includes bleach 5 and chamber 2 includes an accelerator/activator 4. Each or either of the chambers, 2 or 3, of the sachet 1 will also house a small quantity of air or inert gas. When the sachet 1 has pressure applied to it (e.g.- manual squeezing by the user) , the weaker inner seal β of the sachet 1 is ruptured, allowing the bleach 5 and accelerator/activator 4 to be mixed together. The bleach and accelerator/activator may be a cream or powder.

The resulting mixture is the active hair product solution 8 and is then available for testing as described above. Specifically, the user can carry out a ^Λ atch test', applying the solution 8 to their skin (e.g.- inner elbow or behind the ear) and leaving it for around 48 hours in order to ascertain if any allergic reaction has occurred to the hair product solution 8.

Additionally, the user can take a strand of their hair, typically from the underside of the hair/nape of the neck and apply solution 8 to this, at intervals along the strand. After some time, the user can feel or view the strand to determine if the solution has caused damage to their hair and/or view the final colour their hair has changed to.

The size of the sachet 1 can be varied in accordance with the volume of product required for testing or colouring.

The number of chambers contained within a single sachet 1 may be varied, for example, four chambers may exist, containing two different dye intermediates and their corresponding dye developers. Reference is now made to Figure 5 of the drawings which illustrates a multichamber apparatus 10 according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Apparatus 10 comprises four chambers 12, 14, 16, 18. Three chambers 14, 16, 18 contain hair product components 20, 22, 24 respectively. The components may be colourants, dyes, bleaches and their respective activators or the like. Air or gas is also present in the chamber 16, 18. Chamber 12 includes a cleaning solution 30 for removal of the hair product following application to the skin.

In use, component 20 is forced into chamber 18 by pressure applied to chamber 16. Component 20 will travel through channel 26, where the seal between the chambers 16, 18 is weakened. Components 20, 22 can then be mixed. The result can be mixed with component 24 if desired, by the same technique. To release the mixed component, the apparatus is broken at indentation 32 or 34 as appropriate. Thus a user can select the number of components for mixing. Once applied, a user can open chamber 12, using indentation 36, to release a cleaning solution 30 which they can use to remove excess or all of the mixed solution form their skin and/or hair.

An advantage of the present invention is that there is provided a product which enables users of hair products to perform a test in order to ascertain the likely effect of use of the product, with minimum inconvenience to the user (and hairdresser or beautician, if applicable) .

This improved ability to test for potential allergies to dye decreases the possibility that the user will neglect to test the dye before using it. Such an omission is potentially dangerous as the user could suffer an allergic reaction such as irritation of the skin, swelling, breathing difficulties, or sensitisation to the ingredients of the colouring product whose consequences will not become apparent for some years time.

In the context of the self-application of hair colouring products at the user' s home, under the present invention, the user is able to easily mix the dye intermediate with the dye developer within the sealed sachet, in order to produce the hair colouring solution. This is preferable to the previous requirements for testing, in which the user had to extract a small amount from the dye developer container, and mix this independently with a small amount extracted from the dye intermediate container. The prior requirements involved a large risk of spillage of the developer and/or intermediate during transferral or mixing, encompassing risk of contact of the solutions with the user's skin. Additionally, it is less likely under the previous requirements that the user will be able to accurately measure the exact amounts of dye developer and dye intermediate necessary to accurately test whether allergic reaction to the hair colouring solution. Thus the present invention provides the advantage of having premeasured amounts of components available for testing. This limits the waste of unused products.

In the context of colouring a client's hair within a hairdressing salon, it is presently necessary to ask the client to come into the salon around 48 hours before their actual colouring appointment, in order that a ^''patch test' may be performed on the client prior to their appointment. This is clearly inconvenient for the hairdresser, and primarily the client, as two visits to the salon are necessary. This inconvenience often results in the omission of the patch test, increasing the risk of erroneously applying hair colouring to a client who is allergic. This omission could have serious health consequences. However, use of the present invention would negate the requirement for the client to physically come into the salon prior to their appointment, as the sachet containing the accurately measured amounts of dye intermediate and dye developer could be posted or otherwise supplied to the client, to be self-applied and tested in their own home, for example.

Thus the present invention provides the advantage of allowing a client to perform an allergy test in the privacy of their own home, which can additionally let them know how the product will effect their hair and what the result will look like.

Further modification and improvements may be added without departing from the scope of the invention herein described. For example, the selection and number of hair product components can be varied dependent on the hair treatment.

Claims

1. Apparatus for testing hair products , the apparatus comprising multi-chambers wherein one or more chambers each include mutually reactive hair product components.

2. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 wherein at least a first chamber contains hair dye/colourant intermediate and at least a second chamber contains a hair dye/colourant developer.

3. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 wherein at least a first chamber contains a bleach and at least a second chamber contains an accelerator or activator.

4. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein at least one chamber contains a quantity of gas.

5. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein at least one chamber contains a substance for cleaning hair product from the user's skin.

6. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the apparatus comprises a sachet.

7. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein external edges of the apparatus are sealed together with a high strength seal, and the chambers of the sachet are separated by one or more inner dividing seals, of relatively low seal strength.

8. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the apparatus is constructed from heat sealable material.

9. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein quantities of components are measured in each chamber.

10. A method of testing users of hair products for allergic reactions to the products, comprising the steps:

(a) providing apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 to 9; (b) applying sufficient pressure to the apparatus to rupture the inner dividing seal between the chamber containing the first hair product component and the chamber containing the second hair product component; (c) mixing the components in the apparatus together to form a hair product solution; (d) opening the apparatus and dispensing the hair product solution; and (e) applying the hair product solution to a user's skin and determining, by sight, if an allergic reaction results.

11. A method of testing users of hair products for suitability of a user's hair to the product, the method comprising the steps:

(a) providing apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 to 9; (b) applying sufficient pressure to the apparatus to rupture the inner dividing seal between the chamber containing the first hair product component and the chamber containing the second hair product component; (c) mixing the components in the apparatus together to form a hair product solution; (d) opening the apparatus and dispensing the hair product solution; and (e) apply the hair product solution to a strand of the user's hair and determining, by touch and sight, if the hair is badly affected by the solution.

12. A method of testing users of hair products for the final hair colour resultant from a dye or colourant of the hair product, the method comprising the steps: