Hair drug testing is a relatively simple procedure. A strand of hair is removed from the participant's head to be sent away to a lab for analysis. 

There are other types of drug tests available on the market the two most common being urine tests and blood tests. While they are also very effective, the downside is that they can only detect drug use that took place within the last three days. Thus making it possible for a drug user to abstain from using illegal drugs long enough to pass a drug test.  There are sweat and saliva tests but these two tests are prone to inaccuracies. Hair drug testing is far more effective than the four mentioned drug tests.  It's quick and easy and can detect drug use up to sex months.  Most habitual and even occasional drug users are aware of this and are reluctant to take this test. The drugs are encased in the shaft which becomes permanent.  Shaving the head is the only alternative and this would appear quite suspicious.

A hair drug test is able to detect the five major drugs - marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates and PCP. Failing a drug test may have serious consequences. The employer or agencies that administer the tests have different procedures. While failing a hair drug test will likely result in a denial of coverage with an insurance agency, employees who fail a random hair drug test may be allotted a certain amount of time to discontinue drug use.

There is a bit of a controversial issue on hair drug testing. Studies have found dark-haired people are more likely to test positive for drugs because they have higher levels of melanin, which allows drug compounds to bind more easily to their hair. Let's say a dark haired person who may have had some kind of environmental exposure to cocaine, but they didn’t use the drug themselves. Like a police officer for instance. There was a case in Boston in which seven police officers all tested positive for cocaine. Six of the seven former officers had a second hair test conducted that came back negative within days of the positive result. All drug tests were analyzed by a different laboratory and all came back negative.

If you’re a parent and are afraid to test your son or daughter for drugs, a home hair drug test may be the option to take. You can acquire a strand of their from clothing or a hairbrush and test them for long use drug usage. If the results come back negative, then they are none the wiser. But, if their test should come back positive, you can look to help them in getting over their drug abuse problem.