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    ihatebrasCollier Meyerson
    3/28/15 4:44pm

    I have had them request to search my headwrap. I refused because I'm not taking it off for religious reasons along with the right to not undress publicly. When I said to TSA "Wouldn't a concealed weapon/item appear in the scanner I just walked through?" they refused to answer me and went an got a supervisor whom I asked the same question to. She told me, "yes it would. Thank you. You can go."

    So from TSA itself: there is no need to search someone's head. The scanner does that just fine. It's degrading and unnecessary and just another way to single out folks. Not okay.

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      Tzaihatebras
      3/28/15 5:14pm

      While I don't wear anything on my head for religious reasons, I frequently wear bandannas on planes to hide how messy my hair will get as I sleep. Only rarely am I ever asked to take them off, which has convinced me the times I am asked are bullshit.

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      Eeepihatebras
      3/28/15 5:31pm

      JESUS WHY

      Like, we know TSA is security theater, but can't they even be good actors? They institute fancy/expensive/invasive full-body scanners to make people feel safe and then just continue to put their grubby mitts all over everyone anyway? And expect us to believe that either of those two things are really productive?

      I appreciate the magic that is zooming across the country in a few hours, but give me a roadtrip any day...

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    Charmed22Collier Meyerson
    3/28/15 4:37pm

    Cue the "but i am white and i had my hair searched" and people missing the point that the TSA screening process is based on racial profiling (many reports have stated that).

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      St. Borg de Chupacabras ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗCharmed22
      3/28/15 4:51pm

      HA I was just about to post this.

      GIF
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      HadesbestfriendCharmed22
      3/28/15 5:15pm

      I wish I have upvoted you more because those are the exact comments I came across before I got to yours. I thought I was crazy thinking the whole time that I wouldn't see those comments. Silly me.

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    PotentPotablesCollier Meyerson
    3/28/15 5:18pm

    I have natural hair that I wear in a variety of styles and no matter what I'm wearing (twists, afro, or straightened) the agent always has to pat down my hair. I've been told that my bobby pins set the machine off, but why? My hair isn't even that big anyway... what do they think I'm hiding in a two-strand twist?

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      accordingtoPotentPotables
      3/28/15 5:41pm

      I think certain textures just set the machine off? My husband's left thigh is almost entirely DENSE, raised skin graft and scar tissue, to the point where it almost looks like a raised relief topo map:

      And it sets the scanner off every time. His leg gets patted down every time, which makes sense because you can't see his graft through his clothes.

      Hair, though, is completely different, because most of the time they should be able to visibly see that braids or locs are what's triggering the scanner. They just lack the common sense to do so.

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      Mo-PotentPotables
      3/28/15 6:10pm

      This is my experience. I hate this shit. I go through the stupid scanner so you don't have to put your gotdamn hands on me. Fuck out of here. The last time I flew and went through TSA I had had it. I asked the lady, "do you search everyone's hair or just the ones with texture like mine?" She gave me some spiel about safety and just doing her job and I told her to shut it cuz when m hair was relaxed bone straight I never had these issues.

      Fuckers!

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    KaraBiberCollier Meyerson
    3/28/15 4:48pm

    In my experience (as a black woman) we can indeed hide things in our hair, but a) I should think there are other ways to screen for that, and b) we should not be singled out for extra-invasive hair searches.

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      aiurKaraBiber
      3/28/15 5:18pm

      So the problem here is that black hair has the most natural high volume of any race's hair. Every other race has either flat hair, waves, or ringlets. Not large volume puffy hair. I'm not really sure how anyone except maybe a person with very frizzy ringlets could sustainably hide stuff in their hair. Afros? You can put stuff like pens and perhaps even heavier stuff in there. One can't really claim racism when one is part of the only race who *can* do this thing they need to watch out for.

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      KaraBiberaiur
      3/28/15 6:02pm

      Black people don't have a monopoly on nappy hair. Not at all.

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    paultoesCollier Meyerson
    3/28/15 4:37pm

    Clearly, white women are the people that should be searched.

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      Clairvoyantpaultoes
      3/28/15 5:13pm

      A+

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      deerlady83paultoes
      3/28/15 5:17pm

      I love that movie.

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    lucitachikita66Collier Meyerson
    3/28/15 4:30pm

    I am a white lady with extremely thick hair and more than once I have had my hair searched. And when they mess up my hair do, I don't bother to straighten it out during the whole process to accentuate the effects of personal invasion to my fellow travelers. I hate it, but I hate it even more when my handicapped friend is lifted out of his wheelchair by his armpits while they inspect his ride He makes the TSA agents really work for it by not using an ounce of his upper body strength. We know it's for safety and we are acting like assholes, but it does not diminish our humiliation.

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      Cocopop!lucitachikita66
      3/28/15 4:40pm

      They made me take my sleeping baby out of his bjorn carrier thingie before getting on a red eye. Took me quite a while to calm him down.

      I think the whole hair search might be kind of extra invasive for WOC, considering how loaded the whole hair thing is.

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      jifaner13lucitachikita66
      3/28/15 4:46pm

      It's not really for safety, it's for safety theater. Keep on making it difficult. Maybe eventually they'll get the point and stop this nonsense.

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    ChocolynneCollier Meyerson
    3/28/15 4:28pm

    Am I "carrying prohibited items"? Apparently my blackness with accompanying hair and features are on the list. I need to start booby-trapping my afro for any wandering TSA fingers.

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      PumpkinPancakeChocolynne
      3/28/15 6:15pm

      Everyone knows that black women use their hair for extra carry-on items. Like toothpaste over 3 oz.

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      www.vintageclothesretro.comPumpkinPancake
      3/28/15 9:30pm

      I only use my afro to smuggle in lotion bc I am fancy like that

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    Mo' CatsCollier Meyerson
    3/28/15 4:29pm

    My hair has been searched twice as well. I'm a biracial black woman with a curly fro, and I've had to bite my tongue during the experience. Don't touch my hair with your funky ass gloves man.

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      Cocopop!Mo' Cats
      3/28/15 4:37pm

      That's messed up. I hope they weren't latex gloves. That would add an extra layer of discomfort.

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      Mo' CatsCocopop!
      3/28/15 4:45pm

      So far it's been nitrile gloves both times. I just think it's gross since they've touched/searched however many people and their belongings during their shift, probably wearing the same gloves the whole time. & then they want to shove em in your hair. Eww.

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    TumblintumbleweedCollier Meyerson
    3/28/15 4:49pm

    I'm white with regular boring blonde hair and they feel it up every single time I fly. Doesn't excuse the matter, but just thought I'd throw that out there. I'm glad they're aware enough to stop practicing that rule. The full body metal detector followed by the metal detector wand and a pat down should suffice as is and is already humiliating. Ya don't gotta go finger my hair too!

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      Cocopop!Tumblintumbleweed
      3/28/15 4:53pm

      They have never touched my hair. I've never had one of them lay a hand on me. I can't imagine it. Well, I've had my hands scanned every time I've flown with my dog, but that's it.

      One time they wanted to take my three year old son off to the side and search him. I put my foot down. A manager came and we were allowed to go. We didn't know yet, but he has autism, and trips to the airport were already hard.

      Fuck them. Seriously. For a long time I thought, well, it's just a small sacrifice to keep all of us safe, but I am no longer convinced that it is even effective.

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      TumblintumbleweedCocopop!
      3/28/15 5:02pm

      God, they should definitely not have to search any children! That's super crazy. What, are you gonna pack your kids crayons next to a bomb? JFC!

      But they've definitely gotten all up in my hair. Literally every time. If it's up in a bun, they squeeze it and stick their fingers in it. If it's down, they reach up behind my neck and feel up my scalp. It's seriously invasive and embarrassing!

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    KorraCollier Meyerson
    3/28/15 6:35pm

    That happens to me so often. Somehow those scanners can't penetrate the impenetrable fortress that is my ponytail. There's always a white square on the generic stick figure they use nowdays. It can, however, see when I am wearing a tampon and I'm both relieved and confused that noone decided to search my cooch because it's waaay more likely for someone to hide their shit in "nature's pocket" than to pull a Foxy Brown with their afro.

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      EternalRoseWarriorKorra
      3/28/15 9:33pm

      As the Avatar, everyone ought to know about your amazing ponytail by now. Er, actually, perhaps they should know about your current lack of ponytail.
      Some person upthread was trying to say it's rational to search people's hair, and I made the same comment about vaginas being Nature's Pocket. Then again, I've also been watching a lot of Broad City lately.

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