Personal care in air

How to emerge from a flight feeling fresh(ish)

When I wrote about how to survive long flights, I got more than one question on personal care during the flight. I generally take a very hands off approach because I try to minimize time in the plane bathroom.

That being said, these are the personal care items I always have with me in flight:

• Chapstick (Carmex)

• Cuticle oil & cuticle trimmers

• Deodorant

• Powder sunscreen (Colorscience)

• Toothbrush & travel toothpaste (with a bottle of water)

Upon takeoff

Once I sit down, I will immediately start to look at how terrible my nails look. Enter cuticle oil. I will put some on my nails and it helps keep me from picking at my nails and keep my hands from drying out too much.

I will also put chapstick on my lips as my lips are the ones that feel the dry plane air the most. Some people I know will do a face spray, but I always forget to bring it and then usually accidentally end up spraying it on my neighbor.

During flight

Without fail, I will get sweaty during a flight. While spraying perfume (or cologne) on yourself is not recommended while seated, I can usually re-up my deodorant with little problem and without accidentally nudging the person next to me.

I will also brush a powder sunscreen over my face as I am always worried about UV rays and not having enough sunscreen on my face. It also feels nice and this is as close as I will get to any type of face massage in flight.

Prior to or on landing

My preferred strategy here is to use the bathroom next to the baggage claim instead of the plane bathroom, but this is a personal preference. I will take a water bottle and use that water to brush my teeth. If you want to do a quick spray of perfume or cologne, this is your time (personal preference).

I used to also use the water bottle to wash my face and do a whole face regime, but it just depends on how comfortable you are in the bathroom you are doing this in. My general rule of thumb is if the bathroom is on the plane or has a stall, I want to spend as little time as possible there. The teeth brushing is more critical to me to feeling fresh than a face wash.

Best to re-up your deodorant again here and voila - you are fresh(ish).