It’s time to grasp the viral heatless curls hack earlier than your subsequent trip: Cordless curling irons and hair straighteners are actually banned from checked luggage because the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) continues to put limits on extremely flammable lithium battery-powered units.
Cordless styling instruments that use fuel cartridges, butane, lithium metallic, or lithium-ion batteries can now solely be transported in carry-on baggage, based on updated TSA guidelines. If the TSA finds one in your checked bag, it should confiscate it and provides it to the airline as a “hazmat item,” the company said on X in August. TSA has additionally outlined particular necessities for a way the instruments must be packed inside your carry-on: the heating aspect will need to have a security cowl, and the system have to be protected against unintentional activation, the brand new pointers say.
If your curling iron or hair straightener has an old-school plug-in wire, you’re off the hook. These are nonetheless allowed in each carry-on and checked baggage. But in case you’re a very ready traveler, depart your extra fuel cartridges at residence. The company will confiscate them, regardless of the bag they’re in.
Over the final yr, the TSA has more and more set limitations on lithium metallic and lithium-ion-powered merchandise, together with portable chargers, electric toothbrushes, and digital cigarettes. And for good motive: They can simply overheat and ignite, and have already been the supply of greater than 60 fireplace, smoke, or “extreme heat” aviation incidents for the reason that begin of 2025—nearing 2024’s report of 89 incidents, based on knowledge from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Limiting these merchandise to carry-on bags makes the flammable objects simpler to entry within the occasion of an emergency in comparison with baggage saved away within the cargo maintain.
The FAA has recorded a complete of 660 incidents involving lithium batteries since 2006. The most up-to-date was in September, when a transportable charger began smoking on a Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo to Chicago. And in August, when two digital cigarettes started smoking (to make clear: unprompted) on a United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Punta Caucedo, Dominican Republic—one in all 11 lithium battery-related aviation incidents recorded that month.
Vapes had been the first reason for lithium-ion-related aviation points in 2024, accounting for nearly 30% of that yr’s reported circumstances, based on a report from security group UL Standards & Engagement.
If these restrictions are beginning to really feel more and more troublesome to recollect, the TSA has an online searchable database that clarifies what you’ll be able to and might’t pack. Just keep in mind: If it’s cordless, it’s carry-on.