Hair Follicle Testing is a widely used type of drug
screening. Any drug that has been in your blood stream gets
absorbed by the hair follicles in your scalp. As your hair grows out
of these follicles, the hair strands also pick up traces of these
drugs. The lab analyzes the shaft of the strand of hair for
any drug metabolites present.
A quick note. The hair follicle is not actually
tested, but the hair strand. To test the hair follicle
itself, it would have to be surgically removed from your
scalp. So it should be more accurately called a hair strand
test rather than a hair follicle test.)
Your hair retains a history of drug use for a long time. A
strand of hair grows an average of 1/4" per month, so just a 4"
length can show drug use as far back as 8 months. Shaving your
head before a test is not the answer either. The testing facility
will take a sample from arm or pubic hair if you do not have at
least 1" of hair on your scalp.
What makes matters more difficult, is that second hand smoke
from drugs, when inhaled from just being around it, can enter the
blood and grow into the hair. So if you've had some
exposure to second hand smoke, the laboratory test can have
difficulty differentiating between hair contaminated by second hand
smoke or hair from someone who has directly used the
substance.
If you've been using in the last year or so, or even been
around second hand drug smoke, then there is only one way to
effectively pass a hair test. If you know that you are going to
be given this test, please choose the detoxification method below,
and you will be taken to a page with the recommended products:
