Longer exposure window for greater assurance

Hair Follicle Drug Testing — The Superior Employee Screening Mechanism

You can rely on PROCOM to precisely follow laboratory guidelines, providing a comprehensive analysis of drug use over an extended period, making it an effective tool for employers seeking to recruit for a drug-free environment. Get help promoting the health and safety of your workforce. Explore how hair follicle testing solutions can support your organization’s goals.

What Employers and Employees Should Know

A Comprehensive Solution for Long-Term Drug Detection

Hair follicle testing is a unique and powerful tool that has a long detection window for drug and alcohol use. Every strand on your head features trapped biomarkers in the fibers as they grow at a rate of about 0.5 inches each month.

As an Employer:

As an employer, hair test collection provides you with deep insights and reliable information about your current or prospective employees.

As an Employee or an Individual:

As an employee or an individual undergoing a drug screening, hair test collection the advantage of accuracy and reliability.

Identifying Drugs and Medications for Long-Term Insight

Hair Drug Testing Provides a Full Spectrum of Substance Detection

Hair drug testing is the gold standard for long-term drug detection, offering insights into substance use that other tests may miss. From commonly used recreational drugs to less frequently tested prescription medications, this method provides a thorough screening process. Discover the extensive list of substances that can be identified through our hair drug testing panels.

How a PROCOM Partnership Can Help You

Hair Test Collection Benefits and Advantages

Drug testing using hair is very efficient, especially when paired with additional PROCOM drug and alcohol testing services such as a urine test. Whether you’re an employer who wants to ensure you’re running a drug-free workplace or a donor interested in learning what the hair follicle drug testing process is like, it’s important to know the benefits for everyone:
As an employer, you need a reliable and effective method to ensure a drug-free workplace. Hair follicle drug tests offer several significant benefits that make them the preferred choice:

Extended Detection Window

Hair tests can detect drug use for up to 90 days, providing a longer window of detection than urine or saliva tests. This extended period helps identify long-term patterns of drug use.

Non-Invasive Collection

The collection process is quick and non-invasive, making it convenient for both you and your employees.

Accuracy and Reliability

Hair tests are highly accurate and difficult to cheat, giving you confidence in the results and ensuring that your workplace remains safe.

Cost-
Effective

Despite their comprehensive nature, hair tests are cost-effective in the long run as an investment in a workplace filled with employees who have healthy lifestyles.

For employees, understanding the benefits of hair follicle drug testing can help you appreciate the commitment your employer has to workplace safety and health:

Promotes a Drug-Free Environment

Knowing that your workplace uses hair tests can encourage a drug-free lifestyle, contributing to a safer and more cohesive team.

 

Non-Invasive and Quick

The testing process is straightforward and quick, minimizing disruption to your workday.

Confidence in
Safety

Working in an environment where drug testing is taken seriously can give you confidence in your safety and the professionalism of your colleagues.

Fair and Accurate Testing

Hair tests are fair and accurate, ensuring that everyone is held to the same standard and that results are trustworthy.

Be the Substance-Free Company You Want to Be

Partner with the Drug and Alcohol Testing Experts at PROCOM

There’s a reason why PROCOM is the compliance partner of choice in Colorado and across the country. You’ll see that we do things differently, working with you one-on-one so you can be on top of drug and alcohol testing (both DOT and non-DOT) and in compliance with federal, state, or your own industry regulations. Take advantage of the PROCOM promise with:

Professional

Knowledgeable

Local

Approachable

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Get Answers to All Your Questions

What Everyone Wants to Know About Hair Test Collection Drug Screenings

At PROCOM, we understand that you may have questions about hair follicle drug testing. To help you better understand the process and its benefits, we’ve compiled a list of frequently asked questions.
If you have short hair, this type of test can still be used, and a sample can still be collected as long as it covers most of your head. If you’re bald or you’ve shaved off all your hair on your head, a body hair collection drug test can still be administered. If you have no body hair due to medical reasons, a hair follicle test won’t work.

Head hair has a more precise growth pattern, so generally, it is preferred over body hair (neck down). A continuous rate of growth of a half inch per month occurs on head hair. Body hair can also grow at half an inch per month, but depending on the person, it goes dormant anywhere from 2 weeks out to as long as 4-5 months (even more in some cases).

 

After 10-15 months from the start of growth, this hair falls out. For this reason, the BODY HAIR results are reported as approximately a “one-year” timeframe, though there is some flex in that timeline. It is important to remember that the BEST application of a hair test is to find out if a person has a substance abuse habit; it is NOT useful in trying to identify a specific date or narrow timeframe that someone may have used a drug.

Because a hair drug test measures both the amount of parent compound (i.e. THC) and the amount of metabolite (i.e. carboxy-THC), external contamination cannot cause a POSITIVE test result. Parent drug compounds are broken down into metabolites in the bloodstream. The bloodstream feeds the growth of the hair strand and embeds metabolites in the actual structure of the hair shaft. When we find metabolite in the test sample, we know that the drug was ingested, NOT simply on the exterior of the hair shaft.

Various shampoos and bleaches are advertised on the Internet and sold in shops with drug-related materials. They advertise they will “wash out” drugs from the hair. Since the metabolites are actually embedded in the structure of the hair shaft, they cannot be removed without actually beginning to dissolve the hair shaft itself.

 

Shampoos will not do this and severe bleaching (to the point where the hair is becoming brittle and softening) will only minimally reduce the metabolite concentration. Laboratory tests have shown that a severe bleaching process can only reduce the amount of metabolite by 2 to 5%. It would not be a significant enough reduction to change a positive test result to a negative.

This issue has been discussed at length over the last 10 years, but the bottom line is that there is no evidence that dark pigmentation in the hair will change a potential negative test to a positive result. Hair pigmentation has even been dismissed in the new Federal Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as having no impact on the results of hair testing.

When any type of drug testing is done on children, a primary concern is privacy. It is important to note that the only legally accepted collection procedure for a urine test is an “observed” collection. Most parents rightfully are concerned about the implications of an observed urine collection being performed on their child. The same concerns are not a factor in a hair test, which can be viewed as not significantly different from a trip to the barbershop or beauty salon.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Start Today with PROCOM's Hair Follicle Drug Testing

Now that you have a better understanding of hair follicle drug testing through our FAQs, it’s time to take the next step toward ensuring a safe and productive workplace. See what a PROCOM partnership can do for you and your future.