Budding Edisons Saving Face Former Bodybuilder’s Invention Protects Face From Bad Uv Rays

Part 4 of 4

Charmaine LaChappelle-Reynolds was a professional bodybuilder looking for a good tan when she stumbled upon an idea.

When she tanned, the 38-year-old Green Bluff resident didn’t like exposing her face to dangerous UV rays because she feared skin cancer.

She would cover her face with a towel, which was hot, heavy and makes it hard to breath while enclosed in a tanning bed.

She decided to make something to protect her face. She went home, found a cardboard box and folded it into a tent-shaped shield that fit over her face. She stapled it in a few places and started carrying it with her to the tanning salons.

“It worked so well that I didn’t have to use sunscreen and all that,” LaChappelle-Reynolds said. “People saw me using it and asked about it.”

One day, after fielding more questions about the device, she went home and said to her husband, “Jay, a lot of people are asking me about this.”

She wanted to follow up on the idea, but life interfered.

She quit bodybuilding in 1989 and gave birth to a baby girl. She continued to go to tanning salons, and in February 1996, six years after coming up with the idea, decided she still wanted to pursue it.

Her husband, who had an engineering background, “became my chief engineer.”

Together, they improved the product dramatically. They made it out of collapsible cardboard, easy to assemble and comfortable. They rounded it at the neck, just below the chin, so people could tan there but still protect their faces.

They made it large enough to enclose a person’s head and hair, but small enough to fit in a tanning bed.

The product they came up with is one-size-fits-all.

“I had little-headed girls and big-headed guys testing it,” said LaChappelle-Reynolds. “I’d look at my friends and say, ‘Well, you have a little head, would you try this?”’

The product is called the “Face Saver.” It’s made of cardboard and comes in a plastic tote bag with a small pillow. She plans to begin approaching distributors this month.

A patent is pending.

She thinks the Face Saver will retail for about $30.

People frequently balk when they hear the price tag LaChappelle-Reynolds has attached to a stylized piece of cardboard, but she insists that frequent tanners and beach-go-ers will be sold once they try it.

“It’s not the sort of thing that you go, ‘Wow. This is great beyond my wildest dreams,’ but for some tanners, I think it will be,” she said.

“It’s going to move slowly, but if enough people get curious about it, all they have to do is try it once and they’ll love it,” she said. “Once you use it, you’ll never use a towel again.”

Besides, she reasoned, the tanning industry has grown increasingly expensive. Simple bottles of lotion and sunscreen can cost $30, she said.

LaChappelle-Reynolds already has invested more than $10,000 on applying for the patent, developing her product and ordering parts. In addition to the foldable cardboard, there are rubber bands, buttons and Velcro strips that hold it together.

Because of the design, the product pops into shape when removed from its bag.

She plans to market the bright yellow Face Saver with its beach and umbrella decals to tanning salons, gyms, beauty shops and beach-supply shops. She envisions selling advertising space on her product.

Though merchants’ reactions to her invention haven’t been as positive as she’d hoped, LaChappelle-Reynolds is certain it’ll become a hit as soon as tanners try it.

“I guess I have the typical type A personality,” she said. “I don’t give up easily, even though I’ve come across times when I’ve said, ‘Maybe this is something I shouldn’t do.’ It’s the people who keep pursuing it who get an end product.”

She sees it being used on beaches and in tanning salons worldwide. There’s also a medical application, she said, for people with skin conditions that require them to tan parts of their bodies, but not their faces.

She’s so confident that she’s already trying to determine when she will need to rent a warehouse for production and when she will need to hire employees.

One day, she imagines walking along the beach and hearing the words: “You’re Charmaine? I have your Face Saver!”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BUDDING EDISONS Sunday: A look at the struggles and successes of some of the Inland Northwest’s inventive people. Monday: Coeur d’Alene’s Debbie and Rosella Miller have a patent on a new type of Christmas ornament hanger that shows the best side of ornaments. Tuesday: Robert Foster of Post Falls has developed an invention that makes supermarket meat and meat departments safer. Today: Charmaine LaChappelle-Reynolds of Spokane has invented a face protector to market to suntan devotees worldwide.