(Note: The
PDT-90 Test does NOT accept body hair submissions. This article only applies to the HairConfirm
Standard/
Express product lines.)
The hair follicle drug test is a powerful drug test and one that people have many questions about. One particularly interesting area is the difference between body hair and head hair when you are testing for drugs. What should you consider when deciding what type of hair to submit for your
hair home drug test?
The first thing you should ask yourself is what time frame you are interested in. If you are concerned about drug use in the past 90 days, head hair is what you probably want to submit. In most cases it is easier to collect a sample of head hair in the necessary quantity - 90 to 120 strands - than body hair. When collecting body hair you want to collect more than you would when collecting hair, and provide at the very least 100 strands.
However, body hair submissions in a hair drug test situation do have one major advantage - body hair can tell you, if you provide an inch and a half of it in length, a year of drug use history. If you are worried that your child used cocaine in 4 months ago, you may want to submit body hair instead of head hair for your
hair follicle drug test.
The reason you can get more information by submitting body hair is that body hair grows more slowly than hair from the head. With either submission, the laboratory will only analyze the inch and a half closest to the root. This is true even if your hair submission is long hair from the head. But this also means that when you choose what hair to submit for your
hair follicle drug test, you should keep in mind that body hair grows slowly - it might not be wise to submit body hair if you want to find out about drug use a month ago.
Remember when choosing what type of hair to submit that you cannot mix the two types together when mailing your hair drug test to the lab.
We hope you found this hair drug test information valuable in selecting the type of home drug test you are interested in. Please direct any questions to cs@homehealthtesting.com or call us at 910-815-0209.