What is a hair drug testing?
One of the more effective methods to determine drug use is the hair drug test. This test (also known as the hair follicle drug test) is based on the idea that any substance you ingest, smoke or inject is absorbed into your bloodstream. Then, as the blood nourishes the hair shaft from the inside out, it forever leaves a telltale residue known as drug metabolites. But don’t worry, the test is far less painful than it may sound. First of all, no one in a white lab coat is going to yank handfuls of hair from your head. The test requires a sample of hair about the width of a pencil. These are cut – not pulled – from close to the scalp to obtain the most recent growth. This sample is then sealed and sent to a laboratory. At the lab, the hair sample is washed clean of any outside contaminants such as shampoo, styling gel, and natural oils, and then melted into liquid. The sample is screened like a urine sample, and five types of drugs – stimulants, pot, coke, opiates and PCP – can be detected
