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Hair analysis has the virtue of showing a 'history' of drug use due to hair's slow growth. Urine analysis might detect drugs taken in the past 2–3 days; hair analysis can sometimes detect use as far as 90 days, although certain cosmetic treatments (e.g. dyeing hair) can interfere with this.
Drug-induced pigmentation of the skin may occur as a consequence of drug administration, and the mechanism may be postinflammatory hyperpigmentation in some cases, but frequently is related to actual deposition of the offending drug in the skin. [2]: 125–6 The incidence of this change varies, and depends on the type of medication involved.
Hair drug testing is a method that can detect drug use over a much longer period of time than saliva, sweat or urine tests. Hair testing is also more robust with respect to tampering. Thus, hair sampling is preferred by the US military [66] and by many large corporations, which are subject to Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988.
Cannabis use is detectable with hair tests and is generally included in the standard hair test. Hair tests generally take the most recent 1.5 inches of growth and use those for testing. That provides a detection period of approximately 90 days. [5] If an individual's hair is shorter than 1.5 inches, this detection period will be shorter.
Hair grows at approximately the rate of ½ an inch per month and takes about 5 days to grow out past the external layer of skin. Psychemedics’ standard test uses a 1 ½ inch sample of head hair, which provides an approximate 3 month history of drug use. Body hair can also be collected if head hair is not available. [2]
The Fitzpatrick scale (also Fitzpatrick skin typing test; or Fitzpatrick phototyping scale) is a numerical classification schema for human skin color. It was developed in 1975 by American dermatologist Thomas B. Fitzpatrick as a way to estimate the response of different types of skin to ultraviolet (UV) light. [ 2 ]
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In mainstream scientific usage, hair analysis is the chemical analysis of a hair sample. The use of hair analysis in alternative medicine as a method of investigation to assist alternative diagnosis is controversial [1] [2] and its use in this manner has been opposed repeatedly by the AMA because of its unproven status and its potential for healthcare fraud.