No, cutting hair does not help you pass a drug test.
Why Cutting Your Hair Won't Work for a Drug Test
Many people mistakenly believe that shaving their head or cutting their hair short will help them pass a hair follicle drug test. However, this is not an effective strategy for the following reason:
- Drug metabolites are inside the hair: Drug metabolites (the substances produced when your body processes a drug) are not just on the surface of the hair shaft. They are embedded inside the hair as it grows. According to research, metabolites of drugs accumulate not only on the surface of the hair shaft, but inside it as well.
How Hair Follicle Drug Tests Work
Hair follicle drug tests analyze a small hair sample, typically 1.5 inches long, cut close to the scalp. This length of hair provides a detection window of approximately 90 days. Because drugs are incorporated into the hair as it grows, the test can identify drug use over an extended period. Simply cutting the hair removes the length of the detection window, but does not remove drugs already present in the existing hair.
