How Do Detect Possible Substance Abuse Through Hair

I remember when one of my daughters was in junior high. I was cleaning her room and found a note unfolded on her night stand. I just glanced at it, I like to give my kids their privacy. However, when I glanced at it I saw the word “Pot”, so I decided to read more. In the note she asked her friend if she was going to join another friend and try some pot. I was just floored, my worst fears were coming true. My daughter had tried pot. I didn’t panic though, I calmly waited for her to get home and then asked her about it. She told me that she had not tried it and wasn’t going to. We had a long talk and everything was ok. I was convinced that she had not tried it.

Three years later I was trimming her hair and when I got the bottom I felt these little bumps on her hair. I stopped and leaned forward, whispering in her ear, “So do you want to tell me again that you didn’t try pot a few years ago?” Her face turned red with embarrassment. Then I said, “I can’t tell you how often you smoked it, but I had warned you that eventually I could tell through your hair.” Her head dropped and she admitted she had tried it once right before I had found the note but that she had not done it again. I sectioned her hair off and told her, “I will be able to tell, I told you that.” I ran my fingers slowly down her hair shaft checking for more bumps and found none. Then I told her that she lucked out. Had it not been for me feeling it on her hair shaft I would have never known. That is why I decided to write this article.

I have been a trained stylist since 1987 and I have touched millions of heads of hair. I have told my clients that everything you eat, drink and do all comes out your hair. It is like your bodies natural waste product. Everything your body does not use to run itself that can not be disposed of through your urine comes out your hair and nails. I am sure you know that they can take a hair strand and test it to see if you have used drugs, but you yourself can learn to detect some of the visual signs of substance abuse.