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Hair Testing
Hair Testing

There are many reasons why an employer or a parent would want to consider hair testing. Workplace Screening Intelligence can offer this method which is the only drug testing method that provides up to a 90 day drug use history.  The longer detection window can provide 2 -3 times the  positive rate as compared to urine testing which can only detect most drugs 2 to 3 days.  

 

Advantages of Hair Testing:

  •  Hair testing is the most effective way to confirm long term patterns of use.
  • Hair testing requires only a small sample of hair that is collected under direct supervision without any invasion of privacy.
  • Suspicious parents may be able to collect a sample from a comb or a brush for hair testing without the teenager's knowledge. This method of collection is most useful for parents who want to avoid asking their children to take a urine drug test.
  • Hair testing samples are hard to switch compared to urine samples prior to a drug test, where many often get a "clean sample" of urine from a friend. 
  • Hair testing is a good method for pre-employment testing where the goal is to eliminate applicants who regularly use drugs.

Disadvantages of Hair Testing:

  • It takes approximately 7-10 days for drugs to show up in hair.
  • For post-accident or reasonable suspicion testing, a hair test cannot be done immediately after suspected use.
  • For parents who want to test for recent use, hair testing may not be the best method.  Instead a urine or oral fluids test can detect recent use. 
  • Hair testing tends to be more expensive.