Real Estate Investing Videos

Simple Information on Hair Drugs Tests

Drug tests and in particular testing hair for drugs is becoming far more commonplace, particularly across western Europe and North America. This approach to drug testing has a significant 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 typically 4-5 days for urine based testing (or in chronic cases of cannabis misuse, 28 days)

Approximately 50 hair follicles are needed for successful hair testing. This is about the thickness of the end of a shoelace, meaning that most people would show no obvious signs that any hair had been removed 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 using blood is not commercially available partly due to the difficulties in taking a sample in the first instance.

A typical hair sample test costs in the region of £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 contrasts to an approximate charge 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 drug test. Very simply, there is only one definite way in which to guarantee this - Don’t take drugs!