View Full Version : Hair and security check
Audrey Horne
July 12th, 2011, 10:13 PM
It's been a long time since I was in the airport and the last time I was checked I had short hair.
I always "beep", it's like a curse! I quite dislike tapping and "stripping" but what can you do. So the last time I wore "safe" shoes and clothes that wouldn't beep. And guess what?.. :D As soon as they checked my hair full of pins I'd start beeping. So I spent some fair time there, confusing everyone. Luckily, I wasn't treated like a potential terrorist and they didn't make me take my hair pins off when I suggest that it must have been them that metal detector didn't like. So they let me go.
I know it can be different too. I've heard stories about checking dreadlocks for drugs. What about buns? I mean the big LHC buns :) Or hair sticks? You could surely kill someone with it ;) lol
Do you have any stories related to your hair and security check in the airport/on the border?
Would be interesting to hear those :)
teal
July 13th, 2011, 12:57 AM
My hair stood on end when the security guard told me I had a knife in my carry-on baggage immediately prior to boarding an international flight (thanks, hubby! :mad:). Does that count? :D
Ishje
July 13th, 2011, 01:03 AM
I think hairsticks could be seen as a weapon, even though most longhair's would never use it as such.
personally, I would not wear hairsticks or a bun in the airplane, it is just not nice sitting in those chairs with a bun, especially if the flight is longer and I want to do a nap.
I think a braid is the way to go :)
Audrey Horne
July 13th, 2011, 01:53 AM
My hair stood on end when the security guard told me I had a knife in my carry-on baggage immediately prior to boarding an international flight (thanks, hubby! :mad:). Does that count? :D
Not really LOL
I think hairsticks could be seen as a weapon, even though most longhair's would never use it as such.
personally, I would not wear hairsticks or a bun in the airplane, it is just not nice sitting in those chairs with a bun, especially if the flight is longer and I want to do a nap.
I think a braid is the way to go :)
A bun on the top could be quite comfortable but I agree with you, I'd go for a braid. I was just curious if anyone was forced to get rid of the hair sticks/forks or to let their hair down.
celebriangel
July 13th, 2011, 03:01 AM
As someone who does ninjutsu...yeah. I could totally use my hairsticks as a weapon. I've done weapons training but really I'm best unarmed or with small weapons such as my training knife or a metal pen.
I mean, I *wouldn't*. But part of the appeal of hairsticks to me is "instant weapon if the **** *really* hits the fan" and I can't be prosecuted for carrying weapons since I just made use of what I had to hand.
So...yeah. I plan to french braid if I have to go on a flight :o
Jezzie
July 13th, 2011, 03:56 AM
I was wearing a silver metal bun holder that has a solid metal pin (about 3 or 4 inches long) when I went to the airport to see relatives off. I didn't even think of it until security refused to let me through!
I had to leave it at a newsagent outside security and beg them to hang on to it until I could come back for it in 30min or so.
Needless to say I'm pretty careful now - I travel interstate at least once a month with carry on only luggage so I pack my hair toys carefully, I think I may spend more time sorting them than I do sorting my clothes lol
Alaia
July 13th, 2011, 04:12 AM
I was just curious if anyone was forced to get rid of the hair sticks/forks or to let their hair down.
I have.
I took my hair down to go through the detectors, put my hairstick in my carry-on in my pencil case, and they still confiscated my stick (same sharpness as a pencil!).
It was a custom WoodbyC too :wail:
They said if we bought an envelope and paid postage they'd post it to me, but it never arrived. So I think they just destroyed it.
Alvrodul
July 13th, 2011, 04:32 AM
If I need to fly, I wouldn't wear a bun at all, due to the comfort factor - probably one or two braids instead. But if I were to use any hairtoy at all, i would use something cheap that I wouldn't weep too much over if I were to lose it. It really sucked, what you told us about your WoodbyC, Alaia. :(
inertia
July 13th, 2011, 05:05 AM
I always use a scrunchie to tie my hair in a low ponytail, which is comfortable and has no security issues. Most of my flights are 11 hours (this is the minimum for a one-way to North America or Europe and doesn't include possible transfer flights) so I end up pulling off the scrunchie and leaving my hair loose in order to nap. I can't stand to wear any kind of bun or braid for that long, especially not with an uncomfortable "neck" rest jammed against the crown of my head. And no matter how I have my hair -- loose, tied, braided, bunned, anything -- it always ends up a disaster of grease and flyaways standing on end from static electricity by the end of the flight. The more I try to make it look nice, the worse it ends up looking, so I've given up and just go for comfort.
Naphthylamine
July 13th, 2011, 05:17 AM
In my country, for the exams that the government gives (for university, for becoming a white collared worker, military/police officer etc.), people are searched very throughly. You cannot even bring your keys or your wedding ring, or watch to the exam. Not even a pencil (they give you the pencil during the exam.)
In one of the exams I took, the security guards and the police officers teased and pinched my braided bun that was held with a wooden stick to find a bluetooth device or something similar, in case I would cheat.
Chromis
July 13th, 2011, 05:47 AM
I find a false crown braid secured with tiny plastic clips gets past security well and is comfortable on the flight. I used to use bobby pins, but it was sometimes a gamble if they would pass even when I had it down to only five of them!
My biggest tip though is to look professional. I dress up to fly even though I am in cattle class. I take a blazer to wear even though you take it off for security because they don't tend to target business people as much. I wear a nice skirt and blouse or dress and carry a leather laptop bag rather than a backpack. My husband wears a button down shirt. Make sure your passport and ticket are in your hand before you get to the front of the line and hand it to them confidently. Make it look like you fly all the time for work. Much faster checks!
We all know they target some people more than others. Some things they target you can't much help (skin colour for example), but you can help to mitigate as much as you can. Basically, look nonthreatening.
trolleypup
July 13th, 2011, 08:37 AM
I find a false crown braid secured with tiny plastic clips gets past security well and is comfortable on the flight. I used to use bobby pins, but it was sometimes a gamble if they would pass even when I had it down to only five of them!
My biggest tip though is to look professional. I dress up to fly even though I am in cattle class. I take a blazer to wear even though you take it off for security because they don't tend to target business people as much. I wear a nice skirt and blouse or dress and carry a leather laptop bag rather than a backpack. My husband wears a button down shirt. Make sure your passport and ticket are in your hand before you get to the front of the line and hand it to them confidently. Make it look like you fly all the time for work. Much faster checks!
We all know they target some people more than others. Some things they target you can't much help (skin colour for example), but you can help to mitigate as much as you can. Basically, look nonthreatening.
I use a 7 inch hollow stainless steel chopstick to support my usual bun. I used to use a plastic chopstick for flights until I forgot one time and just sailed through the metal detector with the usual stick in. Now I never worry about it...never been stopped, never had my bun checked...which would be OK...pull stick, hair falls down, redo bun...elapsed time <20 seconds. I don't however bring my good S&D scissors with me! Not risking those babies!
I won't say I dress up, but my regular mode of dress is fairly presentable, and non-touristy looking. Also I have a businesslike/efficient attitude, ready to go and I pay attention to the screeners so there is no wasted time or missed cues.
I'm always a little surprised that I have never been profiled and pulled, given...
http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/54736756/1380681
Beldaran
July 13th, 2011, 08:47 AM
Last week I flew from Minneapolis to JFK in New York (and then back at the end of the week) and my ficcare didn't even set off the metal detector. Both airports are international airports, and if any state has a right to be paranoid about terrorists, it's New York. I had no problems and I also had goody spin pins and a double ended knitting needle hair pin in my purse.
Kherome
July 13th, 2011, 08:48 AM
Since knitting needles ARE allowed on flights, I'm surprised anyone had trouble with a hairstick.
heidi w.
July 13th, 2011, 08:49 AM
In the past, when I traveled, yep the hairpins definitely set the buzzers abuzzin'. So now, I just wear a hair stick, and when I get close to having to go through, take that out too. And go through without a hitch.
The advantage to the stick is that I can take my hair out, quickly, if need be, and re-position my updo if need be for sitting on the plane, which, with a big ball of hair at the back of the head can be problematic.
This is doubly so if I washed my hair in the morning before leaving. I can let it air dry on the plane.
No more problems.
heidi w.
heidi w.
July 13th, 2011, 08:51 AM
I don't however bring my good S&D scissors with me! Not risking those babies!
Yep, one time brought 2 S&D scissors in carry-on, one in bakpak, one in suitcase. They missed the second pair.
But I never bring what I really care about. Stuff can get lost too.
heidi w.
swetiepeti
July 13th, 2011, 09:05 AM
I've never had a problem with the short (like 5 inch long) hair sticks. Only the ones that are 7 inches or more. I also carry only the bone, wood or horn short sticks in my carryon. Or similar forks. One of the TSA guys was telling me it's sometimes the LENGTH of the stick. Apparantly 7 inches is the golden number. By the way, they consider pencils to be more breakable, and less likely to keep a sharp tip..... and they are correct I'd say. After I was told that, I happened to have a pair on me that was 6.5 inches. The TSA agent was eyeing them and I mentioned that I'd measured them at 6.5 inches, so less than 7 as require for carryon (that's how I phrased it as well) and he just then waved me on through.
kamikaze hair
July 13th, 2011, 09:09 AM
you know i had never even thought that it could be my hair pins that can set off the alarms. I have beeped often enough thorugh the metal detectors, but as a general rule i almost always get tested for explosives... even when i don't beep. but then again i'm not white so thats racist, but i expect it from narrow minded *****. what i find funny though is that they're so vigilant about that, which is weird cause i live in Adelaide, in Australia and we always joke that NO ONE would come and bomb Adelaide. (it would be a waste of a bomb really, not that i condone BOMBING anybody) Adelaide is such a "big country town" sort of city.
:cheese:PARTY PARTY PARTY!!!!!!!!!! the chees says PARTY!!!!!!!!
Audrey Horne
July 13th, 2011, 10:31 AM
Thank you for your replies, ladies and a gentleman :blossom: This topic has been bothering me for awhile and my intuition has told me no pins, no buns, no sticks with sharp visible ends.
I'm usually very fast and well prepared: a pass and a ticket in one hand and everything else is already "in the baskets". I never take make-up or anything liquid, powdered with me to avoid any discussions. I wear usual clothes, I guess... just something casual but not tooo casual ;) I'm quite boring looking, let's put it this way.
It's the alarms that I set off... And once it was my camera I had in a bag (they made me switch it on and take pics). I will give my best to avoid everything the next time.
I will fly next year, so I will plan everything very carefully. Thanks to you, guys.
eternalknot
July 21st, 2011, 03:31 AM
I'm a flight attendant. I wear my hair down through security then fix it on the airplane before y'all board it.
TSA agents vary from airport to airport, even terminal to terminal WRT the hair sticks and hairpins - it's not worth the hassle IMO.
But with more and more airports using alternate screening measures, maybe the hairpins are less of an issue ...?
Jezerellica
July 21st, 2011, 04:05 AM
This is a great thread! I've been waiting for it! The surprise is that knitting needles are allowed. WHAAAAAT!! One could do serious damage with one.:scared:
Audrey Horne
July 21st, 2011, 05:02 AM
This is a great thread! I've been waiting for it! The surprise is that knitting needles are allowed. WHAAAAAT!! One could do serious damage with one.:scared:
Is it for real???
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