Can you take hair straighteners on a plane?
Carry-on: Conditions Checked: No Same on domestic flights
A gas-powered cordless straightener or curler travels carry-on only, one per person, with the safety cover fitted. Spare gas refills cannot fly at all. Ordinary plug-in models are fine in either bag.
Three different products sit behind the same question, and only one is restricted. A plug-in straightener or dryer is ordinary luggage and can travel in either bag. A cordless gas-powered straightener is the regulated one: carry-on only, one per passenger, with the safety cover fitted.
Spare gas refill cartridges cannot fly at all, in either bag - which makes a gas model a poor choice for a long trip regardless of the rules at the gate.
Battery-powered cordless models follow the lithium rules instead, which means the battery travels in the cabin.
Flying within Australia? This rule does not change.
Lithium battery rules are dangerous-goods rules, not screening rules, so they are identical on a domestic flight.
Two rules explain most of this page. Lithium batteries fly in the cabin so the crew can reach them, and the 100ml liquid limit is an international rule. Your flight home is screened under the departure country's rules, which are sometimes stricter than Australia's.
Cordless hair straighteners: common questions
Can you take hair straighteners on a plane?
Yes. A normal plug-in straightener travels in either carry-on or checked baggage with no restriction. Only cordless gas-powered models are limited: one per passenger, carry-on only, with the safety cover fitted.
Can you take a cordless gas hair straightener on a plane?
One per passenger, in your cabin bag, with the safety cover on. Spare gas refill cartridges are not permitted in either bag, so you travel with whatever is already in the device.
Can hair straighteners go in checked baggage?
A plug-in model can. A gas-powered cordless one cannot - it has to be in the cabin. Battery-powered cordless models follow the lithium battery rules, which also means the cabin.
Can you take a hair dryer on a plane?
Yes, in either bag. A mains-powered hair dryer is ordinary luggage with no dangerous-goods restriction attached to it.
Flying soon? Screening is the easy part
What stops Australians at the airport is more often the passport, the visa or the phone than the bag. Say where you are going and we will show you the entry rules for an Australian passport, what an eSIM actually costs there, and what the insurance covers.
Batteries & electronics
What is actually worth booking.
New destination guides and side-by-side comparisons for Australian travellers - which eSIM, which travel card, which insurance is worth paying for, and what to sort before you go. Prices in Australian dollars, a few emails a year.
Packing something else? The full A to Z of what you can take on a plane covers 61 items, the domestic flight rules set out what changes when you are not leaving the country, and the pre-departure checklist puts the rest of the trip in order.
Last reviewed 2 September 2026. Screening, dangerous-goods and biosecurity rules change, and airlines can be stricter than the government baseline. For anything unusual, the linked source and your airline's dangerous-goods page are the final word.