We can all agree that hair follicle drug tests became more popular in the last few years when compared with before.
The main reason for that is that this analysis can detect long-term drug abuse, which is crucial considering that will help you maintain the drug-free working environment following the company’s policy.
However, you can find numerous facts and myths surrounding this particular testing method as well as the ability to pass it by using various types of products such as shampoos. You should click here to learn about using detox shampoo to pass a hair test, and stay with us so that we can separate the fact from fiction when it comes to a hair drug test.
The Advantages Of Hair Drug Testing
Before we start talking about problems that happen with hair analysis as well as myths that most people believe, it is vital to present to you the most important advantages and benefits that come with it:
- Accurate
Since only professionals can administer this particular type of drug screening, you can rest assured because it is highly accurate when compared with other types.
Of course, each drug screening method features the same levels of accuracy, but the main problem with urinalysis, for instance, is the numerous possibilities to tamper with the results.
However, hair analysis features a specific nature of the test where the administrator will take the specimen directly from your hair, which makes it almost impossible to cheat at the spot.
On the other hand, you will be able to cheat a urine drug test by diluting the sample and consuming various products that will mask the presence of drug metabolites, which will help you pass the test even though you consume illegal drugs.
Apart from that, you can also substitute the urine by using the fake alternative or someone else’s specimen. You should click here to learn everything about this particular type of drug screening.
- Long Detection Window
If you have in mind that urinalysis can determine the presence of drug metabolites for a few weeks after the consumption, with an exception of THC that will remain inside up to three months based on the level and frequency of use.
The standard detection window for a drug test is approximately 90 days, but everything depends on the length of collected specimen, which means that your hair can easily keep the presence of your past drug use as far as year and even more.
However, according to regulations, administrators will check only three months beforehand, because that is the most accurate timeframe that will help you determine the patterns of drug abuse.
Since the long detection window is convenient for employers, that is why they started implementing this particular type of drug screening, because that is the most efficient way to maintain drug-free working environment.
Common Myths about Hair Drug Tests
- You Can Pass the Test by Shaving Your Head
The facts state that most individuals think that the best way to avoid this particular type of workplace screening is through shaving the hair completely.
However, you should remember that administrators could use hair from other parts of your body. Therefore, you would have to completely shave and remove any hair from your body so that they cannot conduct this particular type of screening.
It is essential to understand that even if you have a short hair, they can test you, because they will take 1.5 inches of specimen, and if you do not have enough on your hair, they will compensate by cutting from other parts of your body.
Most people neglect the idea that employers will notice that you completely shaved your body, which will indicate that you would fail the test and that you wanted to reduce that particular possibility.
Therefore, most employers will either become suspicious of you or make you take another test such as a urinalysis, or they will terminate your job application since they will consider the shaving as cheating.
- You Can Substitute Hair Specimen by Collecting It from A Brush
In the last few years, the popularity of home drug tests increased, and numerous parents are trying to see whether their teens are consuming something or not. That is why they are using brush hair for screening purposes.
Even though you will be able to do it, the problem lies in the accuracy, because the procedure of taking a specimen requires taking it from the root, which means that it may lead to inaccurate results.
At the same time, brushes can quickly become part of tampering, especially if the person knows that parents will test him. Therefore, it is challenging to attribute sample from a specific person, as well as timeframe that will help you understand the patterns of abuse.
Note that employer and court drug screenings require going to a lab so that professionals can take the specimens directly from your head. Therefore, you will not be able to make a home sample and bring it inside similarly as with other screening methods.
You can understand the effects of marijuana by visiting this site: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/marijuana-use-and-its-effects.
- Second-Hand Smoke Can Cause You to Fail
The problem people experience is an idea that they can affect its integrity and implement the substances inside of it by second-hand smoke. Therefore, if you have been around drug users, such as cannabis, and you did not consume anything, you will pass the test with ease.
Have in mind that second-hand smoke involves passive exposure, which means that you are not inhaling THC, which will enter your bloodstream, hair follicle and then become the part of your hair.
Since our bodies tend to break down an active THC into THC-COOH metabolite, the test will check only for the presence of metabolite because that is proof that you ingested and consumed cannabis internally.
On the other hand, when you are surrounded with the marijuana smoke, the only active substance of THC can linger on your hair, but the test will not notice it, and even if it does, the presence of active substance means that you did not consume anything.