Emergency Beauty for the Terminally Grounded

Photo: Getty Images

It's never fun when your flight is canceled. It's even less fun when you're forced to spend a night in the airport along with hundreds of other ill-tempered travelers who can get kind of testy about who gets to sleep in the waiting room seats. Come morning, everyone looks just awful and smells more than a little like the carpet. Ew.

If you've been around almost any airport in the U.S. these past few days, that's just the aftermath you would have found from the roughly 2,500 flights that American Airlines has canceled since Tuesday.

But the news isn't all bad. As I sat fuming into my food court coffee -- awful stuff, that --  over my own canceled flight at New York's LaGuardia airport early Wednesday morning, an uncommonly fresh-seeming young lady sat next to me with wet hair, a crisp shirt and bright, recently-moisturized skin. She had showered. 

How this happened is still a mystery to me, but here's a bag of Emergency Beauty Tricks for the Terminally Grounded to hold us over until we figure out her showering secrets:

1. Duck into a bathroom as soon as you land. A quick face wash (and shave), hair re-arrangement, cologne/perfume spritz and make-up touch up usually suffices, but having a travel toothbrush/toothpaste, deodorant and a bit of hair product on hand never hurts -- and doesn't fill up your carry-on by much.
2. Never underestimate the power of a moist towelette and gum or breath mints to disguise the stress of travel.
3. Moisturize. And while hydrating your skin from that arid recirculated "air" on board, also rehydrate by drinking lots of water -- it'll actually help keep you healthy if your cabin mate is making you suffer from his whooping cough.
4. In a pinch, a bit of diluted moisturizer can also double as leave-in hair conditioner, hair shine and a revolume-izer.
5. Keep an extra, clean shirt in your carry-on. Never underestimate how re-energizing a new outfit can be as you rush out of baggage claim straight into a meeting.

Photo: Getty Images

It's never fun when your flight is canceled. It's even less fun when you're forced to spend a night in the airport along with hundreds of other ill-tempered travelers who can get kind of testy about who gets to sleep in the waiting room seats. Come morning, everyone looks just awful and smells more than a little like the carpet. Ew.

If you've been around almost any airport in the U.S. these past few days, that's just the aftermath you would have found from the roughly 2,500 flights that American Airlines has canceled since Tuesday.

But the news isn't all bad. As I sat fuming into my food court coffee -- awful stuff, that --  over my own canceled flight at New York's LaGuardia airport early Wednesday morning, an uncommonly fresh-seeming young lady sat next to me with wet hair, a crisp shirt and bright, recently-moisturized skin. She had showered. 

How this happened is still a mystery to me, but here's a bag of Emergency Beauty Tricks for the Terminally Grounded to hold us over until we figure out her showering secrets:

1. Duck into a bathroom as soon as you land. A quick face wash (and shave), hair re-arrangement, cologne/perfume spritz and make-up touch up usually suffices, but having a travel toothbrush/toothpaste, deodorant and a bit of hair product on hand never hurts -- and doesn't fill up your carry-on by much.
2. Never underestimate the power of a moist towelette and gum or breath mints to disguise the stress of travel.
3. Moisturize. And while hydrating your skin from that arid recirculated "air" on board, also rehydrate by drinking lots of water -- it'll actually help keep you healthy if your cabin mate is making you suffer from his whooping cough.
4. In a pinch, a bit of diluted moisturizer can also double as leave-in hair conditioner, hair shine and a revolume-izer.
5. Keep an extra, clean shirt in your carry-on. Never underestimate how re-energizing a new outfit can be as you rush out of baggage claim straight into a meeting.