What You need to know about Hair Drug Testing

Hair drug testing is a rather simple procedure. To start, you remove a strand of hair from your head or the participant's head. This strand is then sent away to a lab for analysis. There are various types of drug tests available on the market. The two most common types of drug tests include urine tests and blood tests. These are also very effective. The downside is that they can only detect drug use that took place within the last three days. Thus, it is possible for a drug user to quit using illegal drugs for a short period in order to pass a drug test.

But, hair drug testing is more effective of the five main types of drug tests. Aside from urine and blood tests, a drug tests may be administered by obtaining samples of sweat and saliva. However, the latter two tests are prone to inaccuracies. Taking a hair drug test is a quick and easy. way to test because hair drug testing can detect drug use up to six months, habitual and occasional drug users are reluctant to take this test. The drugs, which have been used, are encased in the hair shaft, which becomes permanent. The only way to not detect drug use is to cut or shave the hair. Of course, if you were to shave your head prior to a hair drug tests, this may appear a little suspicious.

A hair drug test is able to detect the five major drugs. These drugs include marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, and PCP. Failing a drug test may have serious consequences. The employer or agencies that administer the tests have different procedures. While failing a hair drug test will likely result in a denial of coverage with an insurance agency, employees who fail a random hair drug test may be allotted a certain amount of time to discontinue drug use.

There is a bit of a controversial issue on hair drug testing. Studies have found dark-haired people are more likely to test positive for drugs because they have higher levels of melanin, which allows drug compounds to bind more easily to their hair. Let's say a dark haired person who may have had some kind of environmental exposure to cocaine, but they didn’t use the drug themselves. Like a police officer for instance. There was a case in Boston in which seven police officers all tested positive for cocaine. Six of the seven former officers had a second hair test conducted that came back negative within days of the positive result. All drug tests were analyzed by a different laboratory and all came back negative.

If you’re a parent and are afraid to test your son or daughter for drugs, a home hair drug test may be the option to take. You can acquire a strand of their from clothing or a hairbrush and test them for long use drug usage. If the results come back negative, then they are none the wiser. But, if their test should come back positive, you can look to help them in getting over their drug abuse problem.