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Can You Bring a Beard Trim­mer On a Plane Know­ing what you can and can­not take with you when you get on board an air­plane can be tricky these days. There are a lot of rules and reg­u­la­tions around per­mit­ted prod­ucts and groom­ing tools that air­lines either let you take aboard or seize at secu­ri­ty check­points because you’ve unwit­ting­ly car­ried an item that’s forbidden. For men who sport a full beard or goa­tee, or even men with just a mous­tache, know­ing whether you can car­ry essen­tial groom­ing tools on board is impor­tant. After all, who wants to go on hol­i­day and allow his beard to grow wild? Okay, maybe some men are fine with that idea if they’re just head­ing to a beach for a week or two. How­ev­er, most men aren’t keen on leav­ing their beards unat­tend­ed, even if they’re just trav­el­ling for a few weeks to a trop­i­cal des­ti­na­tion for a mid-win­ter break with the fam­i­ly. We bet that most men (and their wives!) don’t favour the idea of let­ting their beards become over­grown and unman­age­able. And, of course, the impor­tance of keep­ing your beard well-groomed, tidy and trimmed dur­ing a busi­ness trip can­not be over­stat­ed. Good beard groom­ing mat­ters to men in all cir­cum­stances. That’s why it’s so vital to know just what is allowed aboard a nation­al or inter­na­tion­al flight and where groom­ing tools should be stored to avoid the risk of them being seized. We’re hap­py to report that nowa­days, most groom­ing tools, includ­ing elec­tric beard trim­mers, are indeed per­mit­ted when fly­ing to vir­tu­al­ly all des­ti­na­tions. The item that could cause a hic­cup in your trav­el plans might sur­prise you. In this arti­cle, we pro­vide a detailed list of the items you may take and where you should store them – are they safe in your car­ry-on bag, or should you stow them in checked lug­gage? For details on this and more, con­tin­ue reading! For most men, grow­ing a beard and get­ting it to the right shape and length takes time and patience. Con­se­quent­ly, going away for even a few days and leav­ing their beard trim­mers at home is sim­ply not an option.

How Should You Pack Your Grooming Tools?

That depends, of course, on whether you’re tak­ing only a car­ry-on bag or plan­ning to check some lug­gage. Most elec­tric beard trim­mers can be stored in your hand lug­gage, which means they will not be tak­en away by TSA agents (Trans­porta­tion Secu­ri­ty Admin­is­tra­tion) when you arrive at the gate. There is a caveat, how­ev­er: get­ting your elec­tric beard trim­mers okayed by secu­ri­ty guards depends on the type of bat­ter­ies they’re equipped with; Most elec­tric beard trim­mers come with lithi­um-ion or alka­line bat­ter­ies installed so they can operate.

Why Would Batteries Be Cause For Concern?

can you bring a beard trimmer on a plane Sim­ply put, bat­ter­ies can be a fire haz­ard. Groom­ing tools like elec­tric beard trim­mers may cause bor­der secu­ri­ty to dou­ble-check it. For this rea­son, make sure your groom­ing tools are eas­i­ly acces­si­ble so the agent can check them with­out delay. Over­all, TSA agents are usu­al­ly fine with elec­tric trim­mers and razors, par­tic­u­lar­ly when they’re with­in a cer­tain size. But their sole pri­or­i­ty is safe­ty aboard flights, so be sure to do what­ev­er they ask – includ­ing pulling out all your groom­ing tools, if asked – to make their job easier. When you pack, make sure your elec­tric trim­mers and shavers are wrapped in a case or oth­er type of pro­tec­tive mate­r­i­al. Usu­al­ly, these tools are allowed in car­ry-on bags, but in order to avoid ques­tions or delays, pack them respon­si­bly. This ensures that they won’t cause con­cern to the secu­ri­ty agents or the flight crew.

Consider Putting Your Electric Trimmers & Shaver In Checked Luggage

This might be the most has­sle-free solu­tion. If you’re going on a lengthy trip that demands extra bags that must be checked through, pack your groom­ing tools in that suit­case. How­ev­er, make sure you take the bat­ter­ies out and store them sep­a­rate­ly in your car­ry-on bag. This is in keep­ing with TSA guide­lines – offi­cials pre­fer to have the elec­tric shaver or trim­mers’ pow­er source with you in the cab­in. Hav­ing them in your bag on board means that TSA guards can check them as you go through secu­ri­ty and decide if they pose a prob­lem. (In all like­li­hood, they won’t).

Do Rules On Domestic & International Flights Vary?

They can, yes. Most domes­tic flights allow you to car­ry bat­ter­ies with you in your hand lug­gage. How­ev­er, because they can pose a fire haz­ard, inter­na­tion­al flights on cer­tain air­lines may have dif­fer­ent guide­lines. Lithi­um bat­ter­ies, your pow­er source for the elec­tric clip­pers and trim­mers, may be dis­al­lowed on cer­tain airlines. Even if you’ve flown to a spe­cif­ic des­ti­na­tion before and think you under­stand the rules, be sure to check with air­line for any pol­i­cy changes that may have been imple­ment­ed since the last time you flew. One air­line may allow you to car­ry lithi­um bat­ter­ies on the plane already installed in your elec­tric beard trim­mers. Oth­er air­lines, how­ev­er, may have a pol­i­cy that they must be removed from the groom­ing tool pri­or to fly­ing. Ask your trav­el agent or go online and dou­ble-check the exact rules sur­round­ing all types of bat­ter­ies on their flights – lithi­um ion, alka­line, etc.

Do Connecting Flights Pose An Additional Problem?

can you bring a beard trimmer on a plane They can, yes. Let’s say your ini­tial flight has no issues with either your elec­tric beard trim­mer or clip­pers on the first leg of your jour­ney. Both the tool and the bat­ter­ies are allowed in your hand lug­gage, and the secu­ri­ty agent has waved you through after check­ing these items close­ly. Then you must wait in anoth­er city for a con­nect­ing flight. Might you have a prob­lem hop­ping on the next flight because you’ve got these groom­ing tools and the bat­ter­ies that pow­er them with you? You might, but it’s unlikely. Most air­lines and the coun­tries they fly to have poli­cies that are under­stand­ing about the need to take groom­ing tools on planes. After all, they want their cus­tomers to feel wel­comed and accom­mo­dat­ed, not incon­ve­nienced and annoyed. As long as these tools are stored secure­ly and in a case or oth­er mate­r­i­al, if pos­si­ble, chances are they’ll be allowed in both car­ry-on and checked bag­gage. Still, it’s impor­tant to con­sult the air­line’s poli­cies before head­ing to the airport.

Are Guidelines Universal?

All air­lines – Air Cana­da, Air France, Amer­i­can Air­lines and oth­ers – must put the safe­ty of their pas­sen­gers first and pas­sen­gers’ con­ve­nience sec­ond, or per­haps on par. That’s why bat­ter­ies con­cern them more than elec­tric beard clip­pers and trim­mers. Bat­ter­ies can cause fires. Beard trim­mers, while per­haps hav­ing a sharp edge, don’t pose near­ly the risk that bat­ter­ies might. And, of course, elec­tric shavers have to be turned on to func­tion at all. They don’t often cause con­cern to bor­der and secu­ri­ty agents, cer­tain­ly not the way the sharp edge of a straight razor might. Our advice is that when you are pack­ing (after con­sult­ing your air­line car­ri­er), pack your elec­tric beard trim­mers and hair clip­pers in such a way that you’re com­plete­ly in sync with both the car­ri­er’s pol­i­cy and TSA guide­lines. Doing so ensures you’ll have a has­sle-free flight, from the moment you arrive at the air­port and head to the secu­ri­ty gate to land­ing your con­nect­ing flight.

In Summary

Trav­el­ling, whether it’s for busi­ness or plea­sure, is not as sim­ple as it once was. There are rules and reg­u­la­tions that gov­ern vir­tu­al­ly all aspects of fly­ing nowa­days. It’s impor­tant that we all respect those guide­lines, for own safe­ty and the con­ve­nience of oth­er pas­sen­gers, as well as to respect the author­i­ty of the TSA and air­line carriers. The eas­i­est way to make sure you have an easy and stress-free expe­ri­ence is by pack­ing your elec­tric beard trim­mers, hair clip­pers and oth­er groom­ing tools in exact­ly the way the air­lines request. When you’re pack­ing, just to be on the safe side, remove the bat­ter­ies from the elec­tron­ic clip­pers and pack them sep­a­rate­ly. Pack your beard trim­mer in a hard shell case or a soft fab­ric one – just be sure it’s pro­tect­ed yet acces­si­ble to a TSA agent should they want to inspect it. (They like­ly will). Be patient and help­ful when you’re going through secu­ri­ty. Remem­ber: these rules are in place to keep flights unevent­ful and pas­sen­gers safe. Air­lines nowa­days have a very for­ward-think­ing approach to men’s groom­ing tools. Chances are you’ll get on board your flight with no delays or dif­fi­cul­ties whatsoever. Keep­ing your beard well-groomed while you’re trav­el­ling is easy when you bring elec­tric groom­ing tools with you from home. Just make sure you stow them in your car­ry-on bag or checked lug­gage in the man­ner the air­line has request­ed. Dou­ble-check your car­ri­er’s rules, and for good mea­sure, check the TSA rules sur­round­ing the safe trans­port of bat­ter­ies as well. After all, every­one’s goal is the same: get­ting you to your des­ti­na­tion with all your per­son­al groom­ing devices stored safe­ly right along­side you.

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