Information on Hair Sample Testing
Drug tests and in particular testing hair for drugs is becoming much more commonplace, especially 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 period of time 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 long. 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 cannabis misuse, one month)
Approximately fifty strands of hair are needed for successful hair test results. This is about the thickness of the end of a shoelace, meaning that the majority of would show no obvious signs that a sample 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 viable method of achieving top-quality test results. Testing using blood is not commercially available mostly because of the difficulties in taking a sample in the first instance.
A typical hair drug test costs around £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 substances of misuse across all drug classes.
One of the most common questions how to pass hair tests. Very simply, there is only one definite way in which to do this – Don’t take drugs!
