By Lauren Juliff
Student Travel Expert, about.com
I don't know about you, but I believe that toiletries are always overlooked when travelers talk about their essentials. Everyone's always worrying about what's in their first aid kit or whether they should travel with jeans or not, but nobody is talking about toiletries -- the things you'll end up using every single day on the road.
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Toiletries
are tough. They can be heavy, take up tons of space, and only last for
weeks at a time, which are pretty much the three things every traveler
hates. Fortunately, there are plenty of cheap, light, and small
alternatives designed for people on long-term trips. Read on to find out
some of my biggest and best recommendations.
First Things First: Are You Traveling Carry On-Only or Checking Your Bag?
This
makes a huge difference to what you're allowed to carry in your
luggage, and will drastically affect the weight and size of your
toiletry bag.
Carry-on travelers: this is probably the one thing that will cause you the biggest headache.
Don't worry, though, I offer tons of options
and alternatives to those big bulky liquids that you're probably
worrying about. In general, I recommend looking for solid alternatives
for many products, opting for travel-sized if you can't find a solid
version, and investing in some ziploc bags, so that you'll be able to
easily remove your toiletries for inspection at the airport.
Shampoo and Conditioner
Yep,
shampoo is one of those toiletry essentials you just can't do without.
Trust me: after several months spent trying to use my shower gel as my
shampoo on the road, I gave up and bought the good stuff. If you have
shorter hair, you'll be able to get away with shower gel or a bar of
soap, but know that your hair definitely won't look or feel as good as
it could. And conditioner? Well, it's not as much of an essential, but
it does help you feel like less of a grubby backpacker!
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My personal recommendation in terms of size and weight (and especially if you're a carry-on traveler) are the solid shampoo and conditioner bars from Lush.
These bars last a minimum of three months on the road, and take up so
little space in your bag! They work like a bar of soap -- just rub them
over your hair in the shower -- and weigh very little. I do recommend
buying the metal tin that fits them
if you decide to go down this route -- the last thing you want is for
your wet shampoo bars to rub all over the rest of your toiletries!
Body Soap
You'll
want something to keep yourself clean while traveling, of course, so my
second travel essential is body soap. Over the past few years, I've
gone back and forth between shower gel and a solid bar of soap, but
eventually settled on the latter. A bar of soap lasts longer, it's
lighter, it's cheaper, and it's smaller. There really is no competition!
I recommend a standard bar of soap from Dove to get the job done.
Sunscreen
Did you know that you're supposed to wear sunscreen every single day? And did you know that it's possible to buy solid sunscreen?
If you're sensing a theme here, it's because carrying liquids when you
travel can be a painful experience. You'll want sunscreen in your
toiletries bag no matter where you're heading, so you might as well get a
solid stick version that will last much longer.
Dental Health Stuff
Another
toiletry bag essential is everything you need to keep your mouth fresh
and protected against bacteria. I recommend taking a toothbrush (along
with a plastic cap
to keep the bristles clean), a small tube of travel-sizes toothpaste if
you're traveling carry on-only (you can pick these up at most airports
or in pharmacies) or a regular size if you don't need to cut down on
size and weight, and a small roll of floss.
Fun fact: if you travel with unscented and unwaxed floss,
it can actually double up as a knife when you're on the move. Think
stopping for lunch in Paris and buying a baguette and lump of cheese for
your meal -- you can use the floss to cut the cheese! Thinking further
than lunch, you can also use it as an emergency piece of thread if you
need to.
Deodorant
You'll definitely want to go for the
solid kind rather than the spray in order to -- you've got it by now! --
keep the size and weight of your bag down. You'll be able to find these
all over the world, so don't worry about running out.
Razors
Razors
are yet another travel essential, for helping you keep well-groomed on
the road. If it's a short trip you'll be taking, you might be able to
get away with waxing for your trip, or hey, let it all grow out if you
don't care.
Male readers, travel gives you the perfect opportunity
to grow out a beard, so if that's something you've always wanted to do,
do it while you don't have a job to turn up to.
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I recommend
grabbing some high quality razors that'll last several weeks while you
travel. While you can find razors pretty much anywhere in the world,
picking up disposable razors every week or so can quickly become
annoying, and they also take up so much space. I don't bother with
shaving gel and just use the bar of soap I'm traveling with before
shaving.
A Hairbrush
If you have long hair, you'll definitely want to pack a hairbrush. I recommend grabbing a Tangle Teezer before you go -- they're small, they're lightweight, and they're seriously great at gently removing all of your knots.
Tweezers
For
grooming and other medical uses. Tweezers are useful for removing
splinters and ticks, getting things out of small places, and removing
ingrown hairs, too.
Sanitary Wipes
You'll find a surprising amount of uses for sanitary wipes
while you're traveling: using a squat toilet that doesn't have tissue
paper, cleaning your hands and cutlery before tucking in to a street
food meal, disinfecting your hands, freshening up after a long-haul
flight or a night out with the backpackers in your hostel -- the
possibilities are endless! Plus, sanitizing wipes don't count as your
liquid allowance if you're not checking your bag at the airport, which
makes them a huge bonus in my eyes!
Nail Scissors
Another
multi-purpose item! I use my nail scissors on an almost daily basis when
I travel, so it's definitely something I recommend grabbing to put in
your bag. And don't worry -- you don't need to check them, so if you're
going carry on-only you'll be fine with these in your bag (and that goes
for tweezers and razors, too!)
So, What Don't I Pack?
That
covers my main travel essentials that I'll always have in my toiletries
bag whenever I hit the road. But what didn't make the cut?
I
rarely travel with a moisturizer -- I don't suffer from dry skin, so
find a moisturizer to be more of a luxury than an essential. I don't
travel with cotton buds, because I don't have much of a use for them.
Nail clippers and a nail file are also something I skipped out on,
relying on the toughness of travel to wear my nails down and smooth them
out. I don't travel with laundry soap, because I'd rather cough up the
money to have a professional clean my clothes than spend hours trying to
do it myself in a sink. I don't travel with perfume, because that also
feels like more of a luxury than a necessity. Finally, I don't travel
with a mirror, because I've rarely struggled to find one while I've been
traveling -- just head to the nearest bathroom!
