Information on Hair Follicle Testing
Testing for drugs and in particular hair drug testing is becoming much more commonplace, particularly across western Europe and North America. This approach to drug testing has one major advantage over other detection methods such as urine, blood and saliva, in that it provides a far greater timeframe for which drugs can be detected. (Referred to as the detection window). It is possible to detect drugs for several months – even years if the hair has been allowed to grow for that amount of time. Most commonly however, tests usually involve 90 day detection: This compares to just 4-5 days for urine based testing (or in severe cases of marijuana misuse, one month)
Approximately 50 strands of hair are required for successful drug hair testing. This equates to the thickness of the end of a shoelace, meaning that most people would show no obvious signs that any hair had been taken unless their hair is particularly short.
The cost of hair testing is higher than urine based tests – which are the only other genuine method of achieving laboratory standard results. Testing using blood is not widely available partly due to the challenges in taking a sample in the first instance.
A typical hair test costs in the region of £60-£70 for preparation of the sample (which basically means turning the hair from a solid to a liquid) and then a further £40-50 per drug type required for detection. This contrasts to an approximate charge of £60-75 for laboratory testing of urine which will pick up illegal substances across all drug classes.
One of the most common questions how to pass a hair follicle drugs test. Very simply, there is only one sure-fire way in which to do this – Don’t take drugs!