Hair Drug Test for Job

Hi fellow Monkeys. I was recruited by a pretty large company to be an associate. I went through the multiple rounds of interviews and was finally offered the job. Great! All is well. They need to do the background check and drug test.. standard..no problem. I am signed up to take the test Friday. Well, as it turns out, the test is not your standard piss test but a hair follicle test. Now I am freaking out. I dont do drugs, but I have smoked marijuana about 5 times in my short time on this planet years ago.

Exactly 90 days ago I was in Colorado and decided to partake in the legal edibles there. At this time I was not looking for a job and my current job could care less if you partake in weed. I only had about 20 mg of edibles, but I am extremely worried that this will show up on my test Friday. The last time I smoked weed was probably 5 years ago. My hair is about 1.5 inches long and I am told I will need 1.5 inches of hair on my head for the test.

Do any of you have any experience with this test? How sensitive is it to 20 mg of edibles 90 days ago? I have already given my current company notice...

How Sensitive is Hair Follicle Drug Testing?

Most of our users shared that hair follicle drug testing only tests for the past 90 days at maximum so the OP should be fine in this instance.

The website, Ipassedmydrugtest.com shares details about the process below.

A standard hair follicle screen covers a period of approximately 90 days, but is susceptible to time variation depending on the growth rate of your hair. The hair sample is cut as close to the scalp as possible and the most recent 3.9cm (or 1.5 inches) are tested. It is possible to go back even further than 90 days since the time period is limited only by the length of the hair sample, but is standardized to a 90 day history.

The test looks for Co***ne, Marijuana, Opiates, Meth, and Phencyclidine (PCP).

It is also important to note that if your hair is too short on your head, they can take body hair. According to ipassedmydrugtest:

It is challenging to precisely represent the time period of a standard screen with body hair so substances may be detected in body hair for up to 1 year after the substance left the blood stream.

Follicle Hair Drug Test Timeline - Will I Pass?

Since the edible was consumed 90 days ago, our users think that the OP should be fine for the hair drug test.

prof_harold_hillIf you truly only did it once, and it was only 20g, you are totally fine. Marijuana is one of the harder drugs to test for and it tends to only show up in your hair if there was repeated, chronic use (2x/week is an estimate I've heard).

Source: I smoked a lot of weed my sophomore year, but quit before becoming a junior. I was worried, so I went to my counselor at my college, and got this talk from her.

EazyMuthaf.ckinEOne edible exactly 90 days ago for a non-smoker you should be completely fine. I had a hair test for a big oil company, only stopped toking 2 or 3 months before hand (was an everyday guy). Was freaking out because I didn't know if it had been 60 or 90 days since my last time (90 is the limit for hair test), got my hair cut shorter. Went in to take the test, they said hair was too short and shaved my leg. Passed. In the <1% chance that you do fail hopefully you can get on the phone with someone in HR and explain your situation (only did it once, legally). Relax, you should be good brother

What If I Fail My Hair Follicle Testing?

If for some reason you fail the test, our users suggest simply calling someone in HR and explaining that it was a one-time thing that you did in a state where it is legal. Emphasize that this is not a habit of yours and that it would in no way effect your position working at the firm if you were fortunate enough to keep working there.

Read More About Drug Testing on WSO

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28 Comments
 
Best Response

Idea: OP should shave EVERYTHING. Head, pubes, asscrack. The whole 9 yards. Don't give them an inch.

"There's nothing you can do if you're too scared to try." - Nickel Creek
 
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My comment won't help you much, as it's Friday and your test day. But I have a great story about this and I'm going to share it anyway.

I accepted an offer with a F500 in November of my senior year. They said a drug test was coming, so I quit all the extra curriculars I had going on. Come March I still hadn't heard any word about this test, and with my last spring break approaching I said fuck it and went on an absolute bender in Cabo. When I get back to the US I'm just trying to not keel over, and when I check my email, the first one at the top was from my company saying "please visit this clinic next Friday to conduct a hair follicle test." Now I had beaten piss tests before, but never a hair test. I was absolutely fucked, and I'll sum up the hours of my research through forums and scientific journals to describe what I learned through my painful following 2 weeks:

First off, whatever is in your blood stream is incorporated into each hair follicle that grows every day. This means they can tell the EXACT day that shit went up your nose. While THC is in your system a little longer than most drugs, it is still in your cells and hair tests are WAY more sensitive than piss tests.

The first step was to bleach my hair. Fantastic timing, as I had multiple class presentations that week where I looked like fucking Ellen Degeneres. Then every day, multiple times a day, I got a shower cap and soaked my head with apple cider vinegar for an hour (burns like hell). After that hour, I massaged a lethal combination of Arm & Hammer laundry detergent and serious T/Sal dandruff shampoo to completely strip everything out of the cells. No lie, I had minor chemical burns developing at the end of these two weeks on top of serious self-esteem shredding from friends and females.

Then the morning of my appointment, I went to a salon and got my hair dyed back to a normal color. But my hair was so bleached and ruined by this point that the dye turned this hideous brown/orange color. So I printed out my form and read the title across the top, "Hair Follicle Substance Analysis." There was going to be no bullshitting this one at the counter. I drive over to this 3rd party clinic in a sketchy area of town and walk up to the front desk. I have vomit colored hair with dye still dripping down the back of my neck, and I'm figuring out how I'm going to explain to my parents that I failed a drug test and lost my job.

But the woman behind the counter doesn't even look up at my stupid ass hair, nor does she even read the form. Without taking her eyes from her cell phone, she places a cup on the counter and tells me to go fill it up in the bathroom. I didn't know whether to collapse from frustration or jump for joy, so with a shit-eating grin I pissed all over that cup before handing it back to the technician.

So was my pain all for naught? Maybe, but all I know is that I had a bomb final spring break, was scheduled to take a hair follicle test, and after using my method I still kept my job. And hopefully, this story will save some of you monkey degenerates in the future.

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