Keratin, the protein in human hair is very different from other proteins. Keratin resists any damage that might result from exposure to water or from everyday wear and tear. Keratin allows a human hair to retain all of its characteristics throughout a hair drug test. By the same token, keratin resists damage from shampoo, conditioners, mousses, gels or spray. For that reason, one can not wash out from the hair any evidence of drug use, such as evidence that that could show-up during a hair drug test. That is a problem for drug takers. There are also problems for the test givers.

While the advocates of the hair drug test point to its ability to eliminate an “invasion” of privacy, that advocacy comes almost exclusively from people who grew up in a western-oriented society. In the mind of a westerner, there is no invasion of privacy associated with the sampling of human hair.  Unfortunately, a very different thought might well pass through the mind of someone from a country with an Islamic culture.

In an Islamic society, a woman must cover her hair. Her head covering must prevent the appearance of even a wisp of hair. Such a woman would not want to have the administration of a hair drug test lead to the sampling of her hair. Such a woman would no doubt see the hair drug test as an invasion of her privacy.

Fortunately, body hair can substitute for scalp hair when one conducts a hair drug test. The use of body hair might become the test method of choice in the future, especially if one recognizes the extent to which the testing of hair creates a challenge to the members of certain religious groups. In fact, Muslim women do not represent the only group of people who could object on religious grounds to the administration of a hair drug test.

Sikh men too might issue a word of protest following any request that they remove their head covering and allow their hair to be sampled.  Sikh men never cut their hair. They then keep their long locks wrapped securely in some sort of head covering. That custom constitutes a sign of obedience to the Sikh teachings.

The above facts underline the possible need for replacing analysis of scalp hair with analysis of body hair. Yet what body hair should be tested? Some men have large amounts of facial hair, but women do not share with men that characteristic. For that reason, facial hair would not prove a good source of hair for a hair drug test.

Maybe the hair from the eye lash could be used in a hair drug test. The hair in an eye lash has keratin, just like human hair. It contains a basal hair follicle, just like human hair. It also has three layers, just like human hair. Such a hair, however, would not be that easy to obtain.

After all, who wants to have someone poking at their eye? If the eyelash is out as a source of human hair, then could the test-takers consider using the eyebrow?

Those are the sort of questions that remain unanswered. Those are the sort of questions that can put into better focus the looming difficulties that could arise in the future. Those are the sort of issues that could slow public acceptance of the hair drug test.

Hair Drug Test - how to collect a hair sample