The comb-over

The comb-over is the practice of growing the hair long on one side of the head and combing it across a bald or thinning area to conceal it. It is cheap, instant, reversible, and — for as long as the wind holds — surprisingly effective. It is also, almost uniquely among hairstyles, patented.^{[citation needed]}

The patent

On 10 May 1977, the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted US Patent 4,022,227, “Method of Concealing Partial Baldness,” to Frank J. Smith and Donald J. Smith, a father and son from Orlando, Florida.

The patent does not claim a product. It claims a method — a specific sequence of moves. The scalp is divided into three regions, and the hair from each is combed over the bald area in turn, from different directions, so the strands cross and support one another. The filing includes solemn engineering-style diagrams of a head, arrows indicating the correct sweep of each section.

That a technique this old could be patented at all is the joke at the heart of the document. Patents are supposed to cover things that are new and non-obvious; the comb-over is neither. It remains a favourite example of the patent system having an off day.

The honour

In 2004 the Smiths were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in Engineering — the prize for achievements that “first make people laugh, then make them think.” Accepting it, the inventors were good-natured about the whole affair, explaining that they had not really invented the comb-over so much as patented it “to record and document the comb-over for history.” Mission, arguably, accomplished.

How it works (briefly)

The mechanics are exactly as undignified as they sound: hair from a region that still grows is recruited to stand in for hair from a region that does not. Because each strand is anchored only at one end, the structure depends entirely on stillness — of the air, and of the head. Wind is its natural predator. Rain is worse.

For a more permanent solution, the field generally points toward the toupée or a hair transplant, both of which add hair rather than redeploy it.

See also

• History of the toupée
• Do hair and nails grow after death?
• Ig Nobel Prize