Author: Charles Frank

What Is a Hair Follicle Drug Test?

So just being around someone who’s handling or smoking weed could make you fail a follicle test. Hopefully, further research will demonstrate the unreliability of these hard-to-pass tests and lead fewer employers to adopt them. For example, if you admit to being surrounded by marijuana smokers, the washing solution could be used to back up the test results. However, any drug you have taken directly will be found within the hair shaft itself.

1. Laboratory testing is considered the most accurate and reliable method for hair drug testing.
2. One of the benefits of follicle drug tests is that they can show whether someone used or abused drugs as far back as three months before the test.
3. Neither type of test is 100% accurate, even though they go through a two-step process.
4. Your body reacts to THC and other cannabinoids in complex ways.
5. As such, hair testing can detect a person’s past drug intake for a period of up to 12 months.

If your job is dependent on a clean test, it’s best to avoid these home remedies and use something with a proven track record that’s specifically designed to get you a negative result. Once the hair is collected, it’s stored, sealed, and sent for analysis. These tests look for a number of drugs, including cannabis—each substance having a specific level that the test uses to determine if the sample is positive or negative. A positive result means the drug or metabolite was found in the hair sample.

How to use a home hair follicle drug test

Remember, you have to use shampoos and “cleaners” like this on the day of your test, ideally right before you go in to provide your hair sample. The protection they provide won’t last more than a day, if that. Hair Cleansing Kit and Zydot Ultra Clean Shampoo are examples of such products. And you should use these “detox” shampoos on the day of your test, right before you go in. These products, like many similar hair detoxes, say they “purify” or “cleanse” or “remove” the drug compounds from your hair. But really, they seal up your hair so the test can’t detect them.

This can happen if someone in the sample gathering or analysis chain doesn’t follow proper procedures. The time depends on several factors including the facility’s processing time, workload, test type, and drug type. Try to find newer, updated products that are a step ahead of the test. Look for the most recent reviews you can find to determine if the product actually works or doesn’t. Excessive shampooing, some cosmetic treatments and the use of thermal straighteners may reduce drug concentrations in hair to varying degrees.

It’s important to use these shampoos in the days leading up to the test, and some users also recommend using a clarifying shampoo before starting the detox process. If you’ve smoked weed fairly regularly during the known detection times, your hair will test positive. And that’s the key to understanding how to pass a hair follicle drug test. The accuracy of any hair drug analysis depends on both the sampling procedure and the laboratory techniques employed. Our trained sample collectors will ensure that the correct individual is undergoing testing, and that the hair sample is real and indeed human! There will be no doubt about the tester’s identity and no chance of any tampering with the samples while the collection was being made.

Passing a Hair Follicle Test

When the drug is processed (or metabolized) by a person’s body, it creates byproducts called metabolites. The main benefit of hair testing is that it can identify drug use further back than other types of tests. The results are reliable because the process uses a follow-up test to confirm a positive result.

A negative result means no drugs or metabolites were found in the sample. If the result is positive, a second test called gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (CG-MS) is performed to confirm the result. The CG-MS is a different method of testing for substances and can confirm a positive result from the ELISA test.

Whereas urine drug tests can detect recent drug use, hair follicle drug tests have a much larger window of detection. This allows persistent drug use to be detected along with more isolated instances of drug use. A urine drug test can only detect drug use for several days, while a hair follicle drug test can pick up on drug use for a longer period of time. Some urine tests provide instant results, but hair tests must be sent to a lab for completion. Some employers provide hair follicle drug test kits that employees can use at home or in a controlled environment.

Some states only allow for pre-employment using a hair follicle drug test, while other states may prohibit the use of hair follicle drug testing altogether. Other people have attempted to bleach their hair as a way to confuse the test. Not only will this destroy your hair, it also has a low success rate.

How to Interpret Test Results

During the test, the technician or collector will cut approximately 100 to 120 hair samples from the crown of your head. This can be collected from different spots to avoid creating a bald stop. How long drugs are detected by a hair follicle test depends on various factors.

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Some detoxification shampoos are designed specifically to permanently reduce toxin levels in the hair strand so they fall below detectable levels in a laboratory hair test. By penetrating deeply into the hair strand these shampoos claim to remove all traces of accumulated chemical deposits including drug metabolites. The reason is that after a drug has been absorbed into the bloodstream, it is broken down in the liver to produce specific metabolites. These metabolites then become embedded into the growing hair shaft from blood supplying the hair follicle. As such, hair testing can detect a person’s past drug intake for a period of up to 12 months. After cannabis consumption, THC and its metabolites can become incorporated into the hair shaft over time.

It can keep a qualified candidate from getting a job or complicate existing legal issues. With this information at your disposal, you stand a chance of dodging the dreaded “positive.” One of the benefits of a hair drug test is that you can’t do much to cheat the test compared. As long as the identification of the test subject isn’t mixed up and no lab mistakes are made, there’s a good chance for accuracy. First, you shampoo your hair to remove anything from the surface of your strands, like weed smoke or other contaminants that could make you fail your test. Second, you use a “purifier” which coats your hair with a chemical residue designed to block the test from actually working on the hair the tester takes.

How Accurate Is a Hair Follicle Drug Test?

If you have questions or concerns about your drug test results, reach out to the medical review officer, or MRO. An MRO evaluates drug test results and may be able to explain your test results. An inconclusive result isn’t common when testing procedures are followed. In some cases, improper collection of the hair specimen may result in the test being rejected completely.

It may alter the appearance of the hair but does not eliminate the presence of metabolites, and laboratories are equipped to detect such attempts. Using products like Old Style Aloe Toxin Rid or Zudot Ulrta Clean shampoos may be more effective in addressing the issue. Supervised testing plays a pivotal role in maintaining the accuracy and integrity of hair follicle drug test results. In the world of workplace safety, you are a seasoned heavy machinery operator at a construction site.

The individual collects a hair sample according to the provided instructions and sends it to a designated laboratory for analysis. This method offers convenience and privacy for individuals, as they can collect the sample at their own convenience. 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. In this article, we discuss how hair follicle drug tests work, how to use a home kit, and what the results mean.