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Hair follicle drug testing in the State of California is becoming a more popular method by California employers and individuals in need of a hair follicle drug testing California method. Hair follicle drug testing is becoming a more popular method by employers and individuals in need of a drug test due to the detection time frame being longer than a standard urine test. Products formulated to beat a hair test, such as shampoos and bleaching agents, can sometimes work, but products marketed for urine tests or nail tests are less effective. The window of drug detection varies depending on the type of drug, the amount of the drug ingested, and the frequency of use.
Drug Testing Testing California Services
Patient costs may be covered by an individual’s health insurance or the organization requiring a drug test. In other cases, patients may choose to pay out-of-pocket for laboratory-based or at-home collection kits. How long drugs remain detectable in hair is called the window of detection. The length of the detection window varies based on a number of factors, including the amount and frequency of drug use or misuse and the rate at which the drug is metabolized in the body. Some drugs continue to enter new hair growth for months after a person’s last drug exposure. Many at-home tests will charge an extra fee for the laboratory analysis, adding to the total cost of the test.
Drug Testing
This "passive exposure" will not impact your hair follicle drug test results. In drug testing, a day or an hour may have a significant impact on the test results. Judges will typically order you to submit to a urine, hair, and/or nail drug test within hours of the court hearing. The opposing attorney may even have an employee from the testing facility in the courtroom to conduct the drug test in the courthouse immediately after the hearing. Delving deeper into the science of hair analysis reveals a world where biology and chemistry intersect, offering insights into how drugs are integrated into hair and subsequently detected. It involves understanding the unique structure of hair and the biochemical mechanisms that allow drug metabolites to be encapsulated within.
What Drugs Can Hair Follicle Tests Detect?
However, the test may not be able to detect if someone uses drugs very infrequently or uses drugs shortly before the test. The person could have used a drug very recently, before it showed up in the hair. They could also have used other drugs for which the test didn't screen. Take the hair sample necessary based on the directions and wrap it in the foil provided. Health Street can help you to streamline your company’s pre-employment and employee drug testing with our mobile-friendly StaffGlass application. Contrary to popular belief, there is no way to cleanse your hair of any drug substance.
However, they are not as accurate as hair follicle tests, as they can only detect drug use within the past week or two. Additionally, urine tests can be affected by external factors, such as changes in temperature or humidity. However, there are some drawbacks to using a hair follicle test to determine drug use over a 12 month period. First, the test is more expensive than other methods, such as urine or saliva tests. Additionally, the test must be performed by a qualified technician who is trained in administering and interpreting the results of the test. Finally, the test only provides information about drug use at the time the sample was taken, so it cannot be used to determine if someone has stopped using drugs in the interim.
Testing Process
If you had entered a room where people were snorting cocaine, it’s possible some cocaine may have landed in your hair and caused you to test positive for it. There is a growing interest in hair follicle testing because drug metabolites can remain present in hair from a person’s scalp for up to 3 months. Some corporate, legal, medical, and educational institutions have turned to hair follicle drug tests as a complementary approach to traditional urine-based testing. Some health insurance companies cover the cost of hair follicle drug testing for medical purposes. Most hair drug tests can detect heavy or regular use of certain illicit substances over the past three months.
How far back does a hair follicle test detect drugs?
Once received by the laboratory, the hair sample may be washed prior to testing. Specialized methods of washing the hair sample remove some external contaminants, dirt, and grease from the surface of the hair. Although there are no special precautions necessary before a hair follicle drug test, patients should inform their doctor of medications or supplements that have recently been taken. Patients should also inform their doctor of any recent hair treatments, including shampooing, as these may affect test results.
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Treatment Methods & Product Testing
Compared to other forms of drug testing, hair follicle drug testing offers advantages such as a long detection window and the ability to estimate patterns of drug use over time. Hair takes time to grow, and hair drug tests may not show whether a person has used drugs during the past few days. Many times, it can take between five and seven days for substances to be detectable on a hair follicle drug test.

The traditional drug test, such as the urine test that has been a commercial and medical standard for many years now, is easy to administer and collect. One urine sample can be collected and subjected to a “panel” drug test, meaning that multiple substances can be screened from one sample for increased efficiency. National Drug Screening, for example, offers a 10 panel test for up to 10 different drugs. Once a sample has been collected and tested at a SAMHSA certified laboratory, the lab data is sent to our staff of medical review officers (MRO) for review and verification of positive or negative results. Hair drug testing has a much longer detection window than urine drug testing plus it is significantly more difficult to cheat on hair drug testing.
The purpose of a hair follicle drug test is to detect evidence of drug use or misuse in a sample of a person’s hair. Drug misuse describes using prescription drugs in a manner that isn’t prescribed by a doctor or using legal substances in an unhealthy way. Hair follicle drug testing detects evidence of drug use or misuse in a sample of hair.
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Leg hair, arm hair, beard hair and underarm hair are all options if there is not 1.5 inches of head hair available. Negative test results indicate that no drugs or drug metabolites were detected in the hair sample. Hair samples that produce a positive result for ELISA testing will undergo a second test, such as GC-MS. A positive result with confirmatory testing means that the laboratory confirmed the presence of specific drug metabolites in the person’s hair sample. The hair follicle drug test, when using the standard 1.5 inches of hair, can detect previous drug use up to 3 months. If a longer piece of hair is selected, the drug test results can go back much further (in fact, years further) to detect drug use.
Hair tests analyze the drugs inside the hair shaft on which external contaminants and chemicals have no effect. Standard hair testing has about a 90 day look back period to detect drugs at about 7 days after ingestion. Employers have several drug testing options available to them, each with its own benefits.
While the primary aim of detox shampoos is to cleanse the hair of unwanted substances, it is also important that they do not compromise the hair’s health. High-quality detox shampoos are formulated with conditioning agents to ensure that, while they aggressively target drug metabolites, they also protect and nourish the hair. When it comes to the nitty-gritty of a hair follicle drug test, there is a lot of chatter out there. One common question is whether these tests can really take a peek into your past drug use, stretching back as far as 12 months. However, the Schneider hair follicle test is not foolproof, as lawsuits and studies prove.
Hair follicle drug tests can also be purchased through retailers without a prescription. The NIH reports that any drug or substance you use enters your bloodstream, which transports the drug and its metabolites all throughout the body. According to Duke University, your hair follicles are surrounded by a series of small, thin blood vessels that provide the follicles with oxygen and nutrients that help them grow and thrive. The drugs you use can enter and stay in your hair follicles for 90 days or until the hair is removed.
This second test can also test for specific drugs and can detect as many as 17 different drugs. The GC/MS also guards against false-positive results caused by foods like poppy seeds or hemp seeds. All nonnegative tests undergo a second test, called gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). A negative result indicates that you haven’t engaged in illicit drug use over the past 90 days. Hair follicle tests can provide a much larger window of detection than urine tests.