Hair Testing

Hair testing for drugs-of-abuse samples are sent to our laboratory, where specialty laboratory technicians perform in-depth testing.

Hair testing shows long-term substance use over a period of months.

How do drugs get into hair?

When a substance is ingested, it is absorbed into the blood and circulates around the body. Every hair follicle has its own blood supply, and the drug transfers from the blood to the hair, and is absorbed into its core. As the hair grows, the drug stays in that same portion of the strand, acting like a record or timeline of drug use.

Hair testing can provide trends of drug use or abstinence by sectioning a hair sample and testing each segment for a more detailed month-to-month analysis.