Shine bright this holiday season — just not at the airport.
The Transportation Security Administration issued a timely reminder against wearing sparkly clothes while traveling this holiday season.
“TSA PSA: The body scanners don’t love sparkles. We don’t want to dull your holiday shine but we don’t recommend wearing your sparkly holiday sweater to the airport,” the organization’s memo read.
Items commonly featured on holiday sweaters, such as glitter, metallic threads, sequins and rhinestones, can trigger the scanner and lead to extra screening from the TSA.
Turns out, this faux pas is more common than one may think.
Many travelers wrote in the comment section about times their festive garb caused a stir at airport security.
“Sadly, this is true,” one person said, sharing that they have a shirt with “sparkly yarn pieces” sporadically running through it. “They ended up having to have me be completely patted down because they couldn’t determine anything on the scanner.”
“I learned this lesson years ago when the pockets on my jeans had embellishments and I had microbead extensions in,” someone commented.
“I got asked to never wear my metallic pineapple pants to the airport again,” another admitted.
“I accidentally wore a short that had a metal studs around the neckline. I was at a work convention and pretty much had to run from venue to airport and just totally forgot what I was wearing. I got the extra special pat down lol,” one shared.
“NEVER WEAR SEQUINS I was topless and wiped for bomb residue twice thanks to a bedazzled star wars shirt! (twice because the first airport never told me why I was selected for this special treat, and I wore the same shirt home … sigh),” someone wrote.
“No sparkles, no sequins! Trust me! You’re in for the pat down of your life with the back of that ladies hand,” a user quipped.
“Your scanners are scrooges, grinches even,” another joked.
