Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Mika Asada

Jyuzaemon Iwasaki

Yoshinobu Takegawa

Masao Tanahashi

Toshihiro Takeuchi

Yuko Matsumura

Yasuhiro Sato

A hand-held depilating device capable of masking the pain of plucking the hairs. A plucking head has a plurality of pinching elements which arrange along a horizontal axis in a closely adjacent relation and are driven to close and open gaps between the pinching elements for pinching the hairs between the adjacent elements and release the hairs therefrom. A cycler or turning mechanism is included to cyclically move the plucking head in a direction crossing with the horizontal axis so as to define, in combination with the movement of closing and opening the pinching elements, repeated depilating cycles of introducing the hairs between the adjacent pinching elements, pinching the hairs therebetween, plucking the hairs from the skin, and releasing the hairs from between the pinching elements. Mounted to the top of the housing adjacent to the plucking head is a simulator which applies stimuli to the skin independently of the plucking head. The device includes a synchronous mechanism for synchronizing a timing of applying the stimuli with the depilating cycle. Thus, the stimuli can be made at an optimum timing or timings within the depilating cycle, thereby masking the hair plucking pain.

Hand-held depilating device with a pain masking stimulator

A hand-held depilating device capable of masking the pain of plucking the hairs through psychological effect. The depilating device comprises housing adapted to be grasped by the hand of the user and a plucking head mounted on top of the housing for plucking the hairs from the skin. Stimulator is mounted on top of the housing adjacent to the plucking head for providing mechanical stimuli to the skin while the plucking head operates to pluck the hairs. The stimulator comprises a vibrator which provides vibrations to the skin as the mechanical stimuli which act on sense receptors other than nociceptors that respond to pain, thereby masking the pain caused by plucking the hairs or received at the nociceptors. That is, the mechanical stimuli caused by the vibrations can activate Meissner's corpuscle or Pacinian corpuscle to make indistinct to the pain as demonstrated by a gate-control theory in psychology. Thus, the mechanical stimuli applied separately from the plucking operation can excite the tactile or pressure sense receptors so as to activate the gate control path at posterior horn of the spinal cord immediately before or simultaneously with the plucking the hair, thereby blurring the pain being transmitted through the nerve. Alternately, roller with stimulus projections may be utilized to apply the mechanical stimuli for alleviation of the pain.

Hand-held depilating device

Growing community of inventors

Matsubara, Japan

Mika Asada