Hair follicle testing has grown very common in detecting drug use. Unlike faster-disappearing traces within blood or urine, hair tests reveal longer-term usage – presenting challenges requiring preparations when facing them. This guide explains what hair tests involve, why applied, and how traces accumulate and remain trapped within follicles.
What is a Hair Follicle Test?
Hair follicle tests offer precise ways of determining if people consumed banned substances over previous months. Laboratories analyze small hair samples – usually clipped from heads – checking for traces entering follicles as hairs naturally grow. Presence indicates drug usage while new hairs keep growing clean absent continued consumption.
How Hair Follicle Tests Work
When ingesting substances like marijuana, cocaine, or opioids, trace residuals pass into the bloodstream. Hair follicles subsurface nourish each strand development pulling blood contents. Therefore buried drug metabolites become trapped while hairs lengthen. Laboratories screen hair segments closest to scalps covering the newest growth with longest exposures. Sophisticated analyses can differentiate external contaminations from historical intakes accurately assigning timings of use.
What Drugs Can be Detected?
Among wide ranges detectable:
- Marijuana – THC/cannabinoids
- Cocaine – Benzoylecgonine
- Amphetamines – Methamphetamine/MDMA
- Opioids codeine/Heroin
PCP
Window durations vary between specific drugs and precise hair properties up to 90 days although labs estimate usage timelines through follicle examination processes determining metabolites depths and hair growth averages.
Why Hair Follicle Tests Get Used
Unlike urine-clearing substances hours after consumption or invasive blood draws showing only recent exposures, hair testing offers practical nonintrusive screenings revealing longer histories regarding repetitive or habitual usage across previous months. Growth cycles act as ongoing records retaining chemical evidence.
Common situations involving hair follicle tests include:
- Workplace drug screenings
- Court-ordered screening
- Rehab program intake testing
- Foster/adoption eligibility
- Background checks where extended substance use insights needed
How to Prepare for a Hair Follicle Test
If facing upcoming hair follicle screening, preparation remains vital increasing chances of avoiding detections. However questionable masking attempts appear suspicious. Here is how to pass a hair follicle test:
1. Stopping Drug Use Promptly
Discontinue substance intakes ASAP allowing new clean growth. Hair sections closest to scalps show the newest usages while lengthier portions predate testing days. End exposures immediately maximizing recent hairs testing negative.
2. Adopt Healthy Lifestyle Changes
Boosting cardiovascular exercise, enacting cleaner diets, and drinking more water help clear metabolites faster from the bloodstream reaching hairs through improved circulation and sweating.
3. Consider Hair Lengths
Longer head hair shows more historical usage, so shorter styles demonstrate reductions over greater durations. However, avoid sudden drastic trims.
4. Seek Help If Struggling
Reputable rehab clinics offer proven dependency treatments, both inpatient and outpatient. Counseling aids long-term recovery by reducing risks/stresses.
Myths Around Passing Hair Follicle Screenings
Commonly circulated techniques don’t effectively circumvent accurate hair tests:
1. Bleaching/Dying Hair
While removing temporary exterior contaminations, follicular metabolites remain trapped internally unchanged by cosmetic alterations. Damages actually raise suspicions.
2. Vinegar Rinses or Other Home Remedies
Household solutions don’t penetrate follicles where substances embed inside during formation. External washings prove futile.
3. Shaving All Body Hair
Labs easily collect body hairs if no head hair exists. However, attempts to remove all raise credibility questions that most evaluators avoid.
What Happens During Hair Follicle Tests
Understanding processes demystifies tests:
1. Collection
Personnel snip small hair sample portions from heads, only needing ~100 strands cut close to scalps but long enough to cover 90-day windows.
2. Sealing
Samples are sealed inside tamper-proof envelopes maintaining control/credibility of materials en route to laboratories.
3. Laboratory Testing
Special chemistry analyses reliably detect even trace metabolite levels and assign usage timelines intelligently.
4. Result Reporting
Overseeing authorities e.g. employers, share outcomes from lab reports compared against policy or court thresholds determining necessary actions aligned to individual scenario contexts.
Understanding Hair Follicle Test Results
Hairs can reveal several usage grades once analyzed:
Negative Results
No substances were detected; None were used within typical detection periods
Positive Results
Chemistries discovered exceeding minimum thresholds indicating drug usage recently under the latest growth areas. Does not precisely pinpoint single usage instances or patterns necessarily without secondary inputs.
Positive flags prompt further discussions determining case specifics before formal determinations are rendered by overseers.
Inconclusive Outcomes
Laboratory ambiguity where substance traces indicate dubious results. Possibly repeating tests on fresh samples determines more conclusively status.
False Positives
Imprecise chemistry detections inaccurately signal substance usage despite the subject abstaining completely. Can dispute through secondary independent testing, sometimes using strands from alternate body sources crosschecking follicle consistency.
What to Do If You Fail the Hair Follicle Test
Don’t panic if you unfortunately receive positive drug use results – options exist challenging inaccuracies or finding constructive support if accurately reflecting substance intakes.Consider:
1. Request Retesting
Although robust, tests sometimes produce false positives. Politely request retesting through labs utilizing the sample’s remainder fractions or newer alternative hair snippets determining consistency across chemistry results. Independent second opinions increase confidence.
2. Discuss Honestly
If retests uphold positives, honestly disclose personal situations prompting past usage without excuses before authorities. Admission shows maturity while authorities usually seek cooperation over solely punishment. Positively emphasize intent moving forward.
3. Understand Compliance Obligations
Research governing bodies’ substance prohibitions fully comprehend aligned testing policies and result ramifications contextually. What gets imposed for low-level versus habitual usage? Retesting rights? Ensure respecting protocols.
4. Seek Treatment Assistance
Perhaps most importantly, let failed tests serve as turning points in overcoming substance issues professionally. Many respected clinics offer in/outpatient dependency programs customizing treatment plans providing tools combating recurring relapses through counseling and health support. Embrace assistance routing permanent lifestyle shifts.
Legal Aspects of Hair Follicle Drug Testing
Regarding associated rights and obligations:
Employment Testing
Workplaces retain legal authority mandating drug testing policies provide uniform nondiscriminatory applications. Review human resource rules and query unclear aspects.
Privacy Concerns
As testing insights extend into personal lifestyles retrospectively, growing debate continues around privacy boundaries and tester liabilities safeguarding sensitivities. Expect transparency improvements.
Contesting Results
Despite “assumed guilt” standards, several processes exist contesting perceived false positive outcomes:
- Retest Same Sample – Analytical false readings sometimes mislabel
- Retest Different Samples – Inconsistent metabolite levels across hair locations indicate errors
- Litigation Motions – Extreme cases allow court hearings to appeal rulings although steep burdens meeting thresholds.
So positive mechanisms provide recourse over mischaracterizations although steep evidence meeting bars.
The Future of Hair Follicle Testing
Ongoing innovations improve testing accuracies and efficiencies including:
Enhanced Sensitivity
Continually evolving laboratory methodologies spot lower metabolite levels identifying broader usage timeframes and less concentrated exposures.
Faster Processing
Automation and streamlining approaches accelerate result turnaround reducing uncertainties awaiting individuals.
Expanded Detectability
Emerging derivations of banned substances constantly circulate, intending masking while evading policy prohibitions on predecessors. However, detection processes adapt to recognizing wider molecular families holistically.
Therefore expanded insight capacities will persist in governing authorities assessing lingering community substance abuse challenges long term through well-equipped hair follicle testing processes.
Conclusion
Hair follicle testing offers uniquely reliable windows into previous repetitive drug usage behaviors over extended durations unlike fleeting other methods clearing within days maximally. By ceasing intake activities immediately after receiving notices plus seeking assistance avoiding dependencies, individuals reduce chances of detections through new clean regrowth. However, attempting concealment tactics rarely succeed given the precise laboratory processes available and rather raises levels of suspicion undermining honesty. Working positively with officials before testing and, if necessary, after unfavorable results produce better outcomes long term.
