Drug testing and in particular hair drug testing is becoming much more commonplace, particularly in the US, UK and the EU. 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. (This is commonly known 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. In most cases however, tests usually involve 90 day detection: This compares to just 4-5 days for fluid based testing (or in severe cases of cannabis misuse, one month)
Approximately fifty hair follicles are needed for successful hair test results. This equates to 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 genuine method of achieving top-quality test results. Testing blood samples is not commercially available mostly because of the challenges in taking a sample in the first instance.
A typical hair folical test costs around £60-£70 for preparation of the sample (which involves turning the hair from a solid to a liquid) and then a further £40-50 per drug type required for detection. This compares to an approximate cost of £60-75 for laboratory testing of urine which will pick up substances of misuse across all drug classes.
The biggest question asked of course is how to pass a hair follicle drugs test. Very simply, there is only one definite way in which to do this – Don’t take drugs!