We, as a company that sells drug tests and different other types of rapid tests, also offer hair follicle drug tests which are usually needed to prove an obstinence from illicit substances. We receive a lot of questions from our clients about these hair analyses and we decided to compress a few of them in a presentation.

1. www.self-diagnostics.com

2. 1. 1 1. How does hair testing work?
Should you have abused drugs in the past, you have to
be aware of the fact that, even after a period of
abstinence, these can still be found in your hair.
Typically you will be tested for a period of 3 to 6
months.
Hair has its own life cycle and, while some hair strands
continue to grow and are clean as a result of
abstinence, others are dormant (close to the end of
their life cycle); this means they stop growing and
remain on the scalp for 1 to 4 months more until they
fall, which may influence the final results of the
analysis.
www.self-diagnostics.com

3. 2. How do drugs get into the hair?
After you ingest a drug, the substance itself or metabolites
that are produced as the drug is processed by your body
are deposited from your bloodstream into the hair shaft
via the hair follicle.
www.self-diagnostics.com

4. 3. How long do drugs stay in your hair?
Once you used drugs, alcohol, or nicotine, these will
stay in your hair – at least until the time it is cut. Some
of them will degrade a little over time, others like THC
traces remain unchanged. The algorithm is quite simple:
your hair needs blood in order to grow. So traces of the
substances are deposited directly from your
bloodstream into the hair. The hair analysis test will
show as positive a few days after consumption, as it
takes some time for the hair to grow above the scalp.
www.self-diagnostics.com

5. 4. How great a period
does a hair analysis cover?
A standard drug hair follicle analysis covers a period of
approximately 90 days (3 months).
www.self-diagnostics.com

6. 5. Can body hair be drug tested?
Yes: if, for any reason, a person’s head hair can’t be
tested, the second option is body hair from the
underarm, chest or back.
www.self-diagnostics.com

7. 6. Hair follicle test, one time use –
will it be positive?
While urine tests or saliva tests can pick up one time use,
hair tests look for long term usage and are like a timeline of
consumption. Moreover, a positive result does not indicate
the date of drug use, but rather drug concentration over a
certain period of time. In the case of single use, the results
depend on various factors like drug type, hair type,
metabolism etc. Cocaine consumption on one occasion is
more likely to be detectable in hair than a one-off
consumption of THC (although this does not come as a
certainty). The same applies for alcohol: it depends on the
type of alcohol consumed, the amount, and the consumer
behavior beforehand etc. For this reason we recommend
100% abstinence for a negative result.
www.self-diagnostics.com

8. No, second hand marijuana smoke will not generate a
positive result for your drug hair analysis if it will be tested
for THC-COOH.
www.self-diagnostics.com
7. Can second hand Marijuana smoke
cause a positive result by a hair analysis?

9. 8. How can I pass a hair drug test?
The safest way to pass a drug test is not to consume any of
the substances that you know you will be tested for. For
health reasons, our advice is not to use any illicit
substances in general.
www.self-diagnostics.com

10. 9. Is there any way to cheat at
a hair follicle test?
Cheating a hair drug test is nearly impossible, considering
that the users can’t “clean-up” quickly. If you need the test
as an official abstinence proof, the hair sample will be taken
by a person certified to do so. The best proven way by far to
beat a hair drug test is abstinence. There are different
products on the market that promise to clean your hair of
the consumed substances. Although this might work, these
solutions are not guaranteed to do so. Shaving from head to
toe circumvents a hair analysis, but in most cases it would be
assumed that a positive result was anticipated and will
instead alternative detection methods such as urine testing
will be requested.
www.self-diagnostics.com

11. 10. How much does it cost to get a
hair follicle drug test?
Depending on the number of substances that you want to test,
the prices may vary as follows:
- Forensis Hair Follicle Test for Cannabinoids
- Hair Follicle Drug Test (5-Drugs) Forensic
- Evidence Hair Drug Screening Polytox - 7 drugs
- Hair Follicle Alcohol Test (EtG) Forensis
www.self-diagnostics.com

12. Thank you!
www.self-diagnostics.com
www.self-diagnostics.com