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Well, I am happy to say that airport security does not seem biased towards long haired men. I had no problems and did not receive one of those "random" checks that they give you at the metal detectors and before you board the planes. I tried it in a braid and also wore it down.
The problem at the airports is that their security is pointless. The people they did tend to pick were the least-likely folks to cause trouble. It is actually a reverse profile they are using to "show" that they are not profiling people while screening for terrorists. I am not sure that checking two people from each flight does anything at all...especially when it is joe business man with all of his identification and business materials or 60 y/o small women with blond hair and blue eyes who gets the full search 3 times along the way instead of spreading the checks over the remaining majority who don't get checked. And going page by page through someone's paperwork while ignoring someone else's bag full of electronic equipment just seems weird.
Here is what to consider when going through these lame security checkpoints. Don't try to look like everyone else, wear black, tan or white, the guards seem attracted to colors (like people generally are). Dress very nice or unusual. Women should look HOT. Blond women cover your heads. Sunglasses inside are a bonus. Longhairs wear your hair down and proud! Don't look at the security screeners. Try to look serious or a bit pissed off. If you do get picked then make sure that they search your bags where you can see what they are doing (FAA rules). Be patient because the minium wage workers could care less about how you feel. If you have a burka then wear it, you're guaranteed not to get checked!
I am sure that this is a temporary state as the government is taking over the security in airports but for now you have to put up with this .
What good advice.
If they look like they are searching you because you are a good looking woman in a tight outfit (or whatever) then that could be cause enough for trouble. All they want to do right now is avoid trouble before the switch to federalize the security. Everybody is watching and it's all done out in the open...eggshells and eyebrows.
I have found that I get the full treatment (rude search, treated like a criminal, etc.) whenever I fly East to West (Newark was the worst). However, when I fly out of a Calif. airport, I get no trouble at all. This was true when my hair was short, too. Go figure.
The Rev