Can you take hair straighteners on a cruise ship? Cruise travel comes with a long list of things that you can not bring on a cruise and most of the things on these cruise prohibited item lists are on their due to the fact that they have a heating element in them. With this in mind can you bring a hair straightener on a cruise ship?
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Do Cruise lines provide hair straighteners?
Most cruise lines provide hairdryers in cruise staterooms as standard. Therefore unless you have special requirements that mean you need your own hairdryer you can add hairdryers to your leave at home list but what about hair straighteners?
Hair straighteners are not deemed a cruise essential item and therefore they are not provided by cruise lines. Therefore if you want to use a hairs straightener on a cruise ship you will have to bring your own but can you take hair straighteners on a cruise ship? Is it allowed?
Can you take hair straighteners on a cruise ship?
While most things with a heating element are banned on cruise ships for instance irons, clothes steamers and kettles to name but a few, you may be surprised to find out that hair straighteners are actually allowed on cruise ships.
We have checked with the below cruise lines to find out what their policies are regarding brining hair straighteners on board.
- Carnival Cruise
- Disney Cruise Line
- Holland America
- Norwegian Cruise Line
- P&O
- Princess
- Royal Caribbean Cruise Line
What type of hair straighteners allowed on a cruise ship?
Generally speaking there are two types of hair straighteners
- Electrical and
- Cordless Butane variety.
In our research we have not found there to be any difference between the electrical or cordless butane hair straighteners in relation to what is and isn’t allowed on a cruise ship.
How Should you Pack your Hair Straighteners for Cruise travel?
Hair Straighteners are allowed to be brought aboard cruise ships in both hand luggage and in your packed luggage (the luggage you leave in the terminal building that is brought on board for you).
Personally I would always put straighteners in my checked bag rather than my cruise carry on as for me hair straighteners are not an embarkation day essential.
However if you feel you will need to use these for day one or for dinner after embarkation you will want to put them in your cruise carry on.
What are the best Hair Straighteners for Cruise Travel?
There is no one hair straightener that is best for travel in my opinion. If you have straighteners are home you could bring those but there is always a risk of damage when you pack hair straighteners.
Therefore I prefer a travel hair straightener. There are lots of travel hair straighteners on the market and I would say pick the straightener that fits your budget best. But if you travel a lot you may want to get a better quality one.
I personally like GHDs as my preferred straightener brand and they do these travel ones.
Click here to shop travel hair straighteners
Are Hair Straighteners every banned on cruise ships?
While we have said that we have found that all major cruise lines allow hair straighteners to be brought on board by their passengers. However that isn’t to say that a hair straightener couldn’t be confiscated.
Security on embarkation are allowed to confiscate items that they deem unfit and cabin stewards also have a duty to report anything they see in cabins that they deem a hazard.
Therefore even if you can bring hair straighteners onboard there is a chance if there is anything dangerous or hazardous about yours they could be confiscated for the duration of the cruise to be given back to you on disembarkation. For instance, if a steward found that you had left your straighteners on in your cabin they would have a duty to report this would could potentially lead to confiscation.
Having said this however I have not found any cases on this in my research.
Things to consider before bringing your hair straighteners on a cruise ship?
If you are bringing your hair straighteners on board a cruise ship be sure that you check your hair straighteners against the voltage and wattage onboard the cruise ship to ensure that you will be able to use them once your have them onboard.
Next Reads: Looking for more cruise related wardrobe and packing advice? Be sure to check out our cruise packing list guides: