Testing for drugs and in particular hair drug testing is becoming far more commonplace, especially in the US, UK and the EU. This approach to drug testing has a partcular 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 amount of time. In most cases however, tests usually involve 90 day detection: This compares to typically 4-5 days for urine based testing (or in severe cases of cannabis misuse, 28 days)
Approximately 50 strands of hair are needed for successful drug hair testing. This equates to the thickness of the end of a shoelace, meaning that the majority of would show no obvious signs that any hair had been taken unless their hair is particularly short.
The cost of hair testing is greater than urine based tests – which are the only other viable method of achieving top-quality test results. Testing using blood is not widely available partly due to the challenges in taking a sample in the first instance.
A typical hair test costs in the region of £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 cost 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 a hair drug test. Very simply, there is only one sure-fire way in which to guarantee this – Don’t take drugs!