Why you SHOULD NOT shave your head before a hair drug test!

We have had several people call or come in for a hair drug test with recently shaven heads and I would like to take this opportunity to advise the public regarding this circumstance.

A hair drug test is when hair from a donor’s body is collected, sent to a lab and analyzed for illegal substances. Hair can come from ANY portion of the human body but usually we take it from the head. We do this for several reasons but mainly it is because hair taken from the head is very accurate and the record goes back approximately 3 months.

A Body hair drug test goes back a year and can’t give specific history within that year. The body hair grows at a much slower rate and we can not ascertain the time of use. A Head hair drug test is broken into .5 of an inch for each month and can be broken down further from that if need be.

Recently, we have had a donor come in for a hair drug test and found that he had shaved off all of his head and body hair. Due to this, we were unable to do his hair test. At that point, we would have been able to do a urine drug test for the donor but the situation specifically required the donor to provide a hair sample. The donor now found himself in a situation where he could not comply with the testing procedures and he found himself in an awkward situation with the courts. Warning: If you find yourself in a similar situation and decide to be clever and shave your body, you may be in breach of court orders and land yourself in even more hot water.

I am hopeful that when you are reading up on hair drug testing on the internet you will find this article and reconsider shaving your head for any drug test. If you have more specific questions you can call our office, all consultations are confidential and personal information is handled with the utmost discretion. We are called We Care because We DO Care and it is our job to help you, the valued client.