Strategies offered for coping with new restrictions

NEW YORK — Four-hour lines. No water bottles. Screaming children. Missed flights.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday banned from carry-on luggage all "beverages, shampoo, sun tan lotion, creams, toothpaste, hair gel and other items of similar consistency." The new rules resulted in long lines at airports and garbage bins full of discarded cosmetics.

So how's a traveler to cope? Here are five strategies from travel experts to help.

• PACKING. In case your checked luggage is lost in the confusion, label your bags well, with name, business address and phone on the outside, and an itinerary and contact information packed inside, on top, said Susan Foster, author of "Smart Packing for Today's Traveler."

Rather than throwing away banned items, bring a checkable bag big enough to accommodate items you can't take on board.

Business travelers "must carry essential tools with them," Foster said, but be prepared in case a ban on all carry-on luggage is suddenly imposed. Leave room in your checkable luggage for that stack of reports. Consider faxing, e-mailing or FedExing copies of important documents ahead to your destination.

• PERSONAL CARE. "Airplane air is as dry as the Sahara," said Linda Wells, editor-in-chief of Allure magazine.

But new rules ban moisturizer and similar items from carry-ons. So put on heavier-than-usual moisturizer before you leave home, with either a moisturizing self-tanner or tinted moisturizer on top.

Other cosmetics that will last include waterproof mascara and lip and cheek stain.

Apply hairstyling products before you leave for the airport and then "reactivate" them before you land by running your hands under the water in the lavatory sink and running damp fingers through your hair, Wells suggested.

Pack shampoos and other lotions so they don't spill, Wells said. Take the cap off the bottle, squeeze the product so it reaches the lip of the open top, then screw the top on again tightly, forming a vacuumlike seal. There will still be an indentation in the bottle.

You may want to put them in a sealed plastic bag as well.