If you are about to face a hair follicle test, and you know you have used drugs recently, then you definitely have a reason to be worried. However, not everyone knows that hair drug tests are actually the most effective testing method available and is over ten times as accurate as a urine sample would be.

Not only is a hair drug test more accurate, but your hair samples can actually display drug use from months and months ago. With a urine test, using marijuana for example, it could only date back as much as 7-10 days (depending on your metabolism and the THC?s half life) for the casual user but with a hair follicle test, marijuana can be detected (if the hair is still there) from as far as three years prior if you used marijuana.

The basic way to understand how a hair follicle test works is to picture it as this:

• The day you use drugs, any hair that grows after that for a certain time frame will contain chemicals from the drugs.
• If that hair stays on your head, six months later, it is possible that if that hair is used for a hair sample that it will be detected.
• If you were to shave your head bald and grow new hair, then don?t use drugs again, nothing will be detected ? however it is possible they request hair from a different part of your body.

While it depends on the person who is taking the hair sample from you, generally speaking, hair is usually removed from only an inch or two from your scalp. The idea, and especially in a work place, is to see if you have been using drugs recently, not a year or two ago. The closer it is to the scalp, the more recent it would be tested. However, some people may remove the hair sample from farther away, and if so you may be in for a big of trouble.

Hair drug tests are so simple and reliable to conduct that a lot of employers and even schools are able to use this procedure on a regular basis. For instance, you could purchase a kit (just like with urine tests), and it will provide instructions of how to remove a hair sample from the target. After the hair sample is removed, it would be sent to a laboratory for review. The biggest downfall of a hair follicle test would probably be the amount of time that you have to wait to get the results back.

Basically, if you take drugs, little bits of ?evidence? will find its? way through your body and end up staying in certain spots. You may have just a little bit of THC located in your kidney, or even in your head. If drugs are taken, the chemicals will get trapped or filtered in your hair follicles and as your hair starts to grow, for a certain time frame, the chemicals will be stored in that hair. Believe it or not, the chemicals will actually become part of your hair, and it would be interesting to see some research to see how drug use can affect your hair as well.

Here is a list of why hair follicle tests are better for the tester:

• Chemicals become part of your hair and can be traced
• Even drug use from a very long time ago can be found with the littlest bit of a trace of chemical
• Hair drug tests are really accurate compared to the other types of tests (for instance, urine tests can be altered by drinking too much water, making the urine diluted)
• Hair drug tests have become probably the most popular method of testing for drugs due to the high efficiency level

On the other side of the argument, hair follicle tests have not really became a common procedure because it is costly and takes quite a bit off time to get the results returned from the laboratory.

A strand of hair is rather thin as you may know and the total amount of strands of hair you have on your head is just a staggering number. To conduct a hair drug test, the sample must consist of at least fifty different strands of hair.

Regularly, a tester will cut from the minimum required distance from the scalp, and it is likely that they do that because the kit they are provided with instructs that to be done. However, it is possible that the tester cuts from farther away without knowledge of how the test exactly works, or because the tester knows that it will date show results from a further date. The minimum required distance that the hair has to be from the scalp is 1.5 inches.

After 50 strands that are at least 1.5 inches from the scalp are collected, the samples can then be mailed to the laboratory for further review.

First, the person working at the laboratory will screen and review the hair samples. After that, the hair samples will be turned into liquid for the last part of the test.

If you purchase a hair drug testing kit, each kit will cost you anywhere from $50-75 so it can put a little dent on your wallet. On the other hand, urine test kits can be picked up for under $20. With hair drug testing kits, the fee for the laboratory review is usually already added in when you make the payment.

One thing that the tester has to remember is that even if a hair sample yields a positive result that is no reason to automatically assume that the person who was tested uses illegal substances. However, a positive result can be caused by legal substances as well. The test could end up discovering drugs because the person was taking over the counter medication, and having a result like that can really throw the tester off. After a hair test is confirmed that the results are positive, it is essential that you get a doctor or specialist to review the findings to figure out if the cause of the positive result was really from an illegal substance.
Now the thing that you probably want to know the most is if you are able to beat the hair drug test or not. You stumbled upon this article because you find yourself in a situation where you are about to get tested and you recently used drugs or think that the tester may date it back a while.

There are a lot of companies that will claim that you can cheat your way through a hair drug test by using a special type of shampoo, but those claims are completely false and you will end up wasting your money if you even attempted it. The reason being that a shampoo can?t remove the chemicals is because the chemicals become part of the hair and you would have to actually remove the hair as well. It?s kind of like having cookie dough with chocolate chips in it, once they cook, it?s all one thing. It is impossible for shampoo to remove any amount of toxins from your hair. It would also be similar to a plant that is located in a toxic environment as it will take in toxins and then the toxins will become part of the plants? structure.
So if shampoo does not work, maybe you could bleach or dye your hair for temporary results? This is a possibility for temporary results, but you have to remember that your skin is constructed of fatty tissues and fatty tissues hold the responsibility of storing toxins in your body. If you sweat, you will release some toxins and give off skin oil, and if this happens, the sweat/skin oil can touch your hair and you will have drug trace in your hair again. It pretty much goes in a circle, where you start with no drug chemicals in your hair, your hair gets filled with it, you get rid of them, and they are back again before you know it.

Another method that a lot of people attempt is to shave your head bald but as previously stated the toxins will not be leaving your body because you shaved your hair. Your hair will likely grow back into place, and the chemicals will follow along as well. The only way shaving yourself bald works is if you do it to all your body hair as well, and then the tester will have to use a different test method for you, but isn?t that a little suspicious?

So you will have to remember that if you so happen to make a stupid mistake and use drugs, it can haunt you for a long time, and while hair dug tests are accurate, they can not immediately pin point the cause for positive results. In closing, cheating a hair follicle test is possible, but the chance that you will succeed in doing so is not so great, and don?t forget that there are not really and good ways to cheat it that involve shampoo.