I just went on my first trip since I lost my hair due to Alopecia and had to get a wig. There were many things I was concerned about, but I really didn’t think about wearing a wig through security until a few weeks before we had to go. Once I started looking it up, I couldn’t find a lot of information, and what I could find was that there was one woman who had to take her wig off. That petrified me. And then I started to worry about it.
I could see how a wig could be a problem while traveling for security. First, I was worried about any metal parts going off in the metal detector. But also, if they knew I had a wig on, I was worried that they would want to know if I was hiding anything under it.
I came up with a plan that if they were going to ask me to take my wig off, I was going to ask to go into a back room and do it. And I didn’t even want to do that.
Let’s just say I was extremely worried about it. To the point that I almost didn’t want to travel.
I Couldn’t Believe What Happened When We Went Through Security
When we ended up getting to the airport security, I was still heavily worried about my wig situation. Unfortunately, I was one of those special people selected for a random check through my bags. I have no idea why that happened, but it did. So the guy checked my bag and I stood there and my husband and my mom went through security, and once I was done, I moved towards the dreaded metal detector that I thought was going to ring bells and shine lights with bold letters saying ‘WIG’ when I went through it.
I put my stuff in a bin, tensed up, and went through the metal detector… and guess what? It went off!
I was mortified.
The first thing I said was that I was wearing a wig, because I had assumed that’s what set it off. It was a female security person so I kind of lifted up the ear tab of my wig to show her that it was a wig.
But the funny thing was she didn’t care. She shook her head no, looked me up and down, and then asked if I was wearing any bracelets or anything on my legs. And that’s when I remembered that I was wearing steel toed shoes!
They made me put my shoes in a bucket and then they made me go through the metal detector again and it didn’t go off.
To be honest my husband got more harassed about his belt buckle than I did about my steel toed shoes or any wig on my head.
So basically, I confessed that I was wearing a wig when I didn’t need to confess it.
But I was so sure that something was going to happen because I was wearing a wig, that it was literally the first thing I thought of when the metal detector went off.
On The Way Home Through Security
On the way home, I had caught a cold. And I was more focused on trying not to cough than I was worried about my wig.
To be fair, we had went on a cruise, and I had gone through the metal detector on the ship quite a few times when we would get off and on the ship at the ports. Not once did my wig set off any alerts to the ship’s security. I think that helped decrease my concern about the metal detector and having to take my wig off.
The first thing I said at airport security on the way home was that I was wearing steel toed shoes, and they had me take them off, and it was fine. I went through the metal detector with no problems, but ironically they wanted to check my bag again. I think I just had too much change in my bag or something.
My Advice For Traveling With A Wig
The next time I have to go through airport security I’m not going to worry. Not only did my wig not set off the metal detector, but the woman could have cared last when I told her.
I had assumed that if she knew I had a wig on she would want to make sure I wasn’t smuggling anything underneath it, but she really did not care. I don’t know if they can see that there’s nothing there, or maybe it’s just because no metal sets off the detector, but either way she didn’t have one ounce of concern about it.
If you are planning to go on a trip, don’t stress about your wig. Chances are something else will cause you to be searched over top of your wig.
And what I realised is that if they do want to search your wig, then you can ask for a private room. It may take longer, but at least you’ll feel more comfortable.
That said, if you have any metal wig clips, you may want to put them in your carry-on and then put them on once you get through security. I didn’t have any wig clips in my wig, but I had the little built-in metal things that help secure the wig into place.
One more note is that when we were on an excursion, we ended up going over the border from the states into Canada. We were traveling by bus, and they asked us to take all of our hats off and have our passports ready. It was so they could easily look at us and our passports. I was wearing a toque over my wig because it was extremely windy, and wigs don’t look good when they’re blowing around. That was stressful to me. I thought that I didn’t have to worry about it so I didn’t style my wig in a way that made it look less like a wig. I’m just thankful that I didn’t wear my really bad wig that I was planning on wearing.
That’s something to consider if you’re going to be crossing the border at some point in your trip. The tour guide told us that sometimes the border agents going into the U.S. will do random checks on guests too, and they are very serious about it, so you want to make sure you don’t give them any reasons to be suspicious of you.
