Just had a hair follicle drug test...

[Asethi]

Hi there, looking for some input here and maybe i'm over-reacting..

Basically I've never been a huge pot head or anything, I smoked 2 or 3 times between April and June of this year and stopped. I had an interview for a warehouse job at the beginning of October and had 2 interviews. After the 2nd interview, they told me they hired somebody back and they would call me if something opened. Now I figured this was there way of telling me they were not interested. I was out on vacation in November, I was at one of my good friends birthday party and everybody was smoking, I was offered some and at first I didn't want to smoke and told my friends I was maybe waiting to hear back from a job and long story short kind of felt pressured into smoking. I can honestly say I only had 2 or 3 little hits and did not feel high in the slightest bit. I smoked on November 13th, I got back home on November 16th and got a call back from the job I interviewed with almost 2 months ago offering me the position. They said they had to run a background check which would take a couple weeks, and then go ahead with a normal drug test. Now my immediate instinct was to go purchase one of those over the counter drug tests from the store. On the 19th I went out and bought one and surprisingly passed. Now im not sure if its because I didn't have enough in my system for it to show, or if the product was faulty...

Two more weeks go by and I bought another over the counter drug test just to be sure, this was a couple days ago on the 2nd. I pass AGAIN, and these things have over a 99% success rate. So today is the big day where I meet with the company to take my drug test, I show up and they tell me its going to be a hair test. I've NEVER had a hair test in my entire life and my current job is one of high security clearance and not even that does a hair test, so why would a warehouse job require one? Anyways I was pretty nervous driving to the drug test place to give a hair sample.

They took it from my armpit's seeing as my hair on my head is too short. They didn't pull it from the roots or anything they just snipped off some and put it in a little bag. I've read that people say to cut your hair after smoking, but I don't cut armpit hair and I never would of thought that they would do a drug test testing my armpit hair... Do you think that even though I passed 2 urine tests within 2-3 weeks of smoking only 2 or 3 minor hits of pot, that I will pass my hair follicle test? I've heard that they can go back a while (sometimes years) but I'm wondering if I barely have enough in my system to even show considering both urine tests were 99% accurate and I passed.

Has anyone else had a similar situation or know anything about hair drug tests? I've google'd and can't find some solid info and hoping to post on here maybe to find some advice. I know I shouldn't have smoked almost a month ago, but I figured it wasn't a big deal and I wouldn't hear back from the job I had an interview at...won't find out my results til Tuesday hoping for the best.

[Mcbenchpress]

You'll be fine.

[Independent voter]

I hate testing. I'm always worried that I'll fail even though I'm too cheap to buy drugs.

[Asethi]

You'll be fine.

I hope so :3 this jobs paying roughly 50 grand a year starting

[ellieg]

ehh im not sure. I heard hair follicle can test up to 6 months ago. I don't wanna alarm u but I personally am not 100% sure you are good to go.

[Celista]

You're probably fine...the follicle tests can in fact go back years...in any case don't worry about it, you'll find out soon enough.

My dad was in the military growing up and he had to avoid poppy seed muffins due to drug testing, apparently the poppy seeds would show up as an opiate when drug tested. :/ Not sure if that is still a thing.

I love lemon poppy seed muffins so I find it particularly sad that there were whole groups of people out there who couldn't eat them out of fear of them showing up in drug tests. :sadface:

[Asethi]

I kind of feel like hair testing is a violation of privacy in a way, my armpits feel weird now and the whole situation has left me with a uncomfortable feeling.

Not like I have anything to hide, but is a hair drug test REALLY necessary? Ugh

[Celista]

ehh im not sure. I heard hair follicle can test up to 6 months ago. I don't wanna alarm u but I personally am not 100% sure you are good to go.

I think they can go farther back then that. In any case, worrying about it won't help him, some trace marijuana showing up on a test might not necessarily disqualify him anyways.

[Asethi]

ehh im not sure. I heard hair follicle can test up to 6 months ago. I don't wanna alarm u but I personally am not 100% sure you are good to go.

Yeah I've heard that as well, even these products like shampoo's that they gaurantee make you pass sometimes set you up for a false reading making them see that you're trying to not get caught.

[Celista]

Not like I have anything to hide, but is a hair drug test REALLY necessary? Ugh

No it's not, but if it bothers you then don't work for them. Really, you don't have to work for a company that does shit you don't like...if more people did this then more companies wouldn't have shitty hiring practices.

[Celista]

Well..honestly I'd expect they test you for hard drugs....if they don't hire somebody about a tiny amount of pot...wtf is this shit?

Yeah, I wouldn't want to work for that company anyway.

[ellieg]

I think they can go farther back then that. In any case, worrying about it won't help him, some trace marijuana showing up on a test might not necessarily disqualify him anyways.

True. I was just making sure hes not 100% certain hes gonna pass based on what a few people online say. Don't quit your current job if u have one I mean.

Yeah I've heard that as well, even these products like shampoo's that they gaurantee make you pass sometimes set you up for a false reading making them see that you're trying to not get caught.

Ya ive only ever done urine tests. I faked one with a friends piss one time. I hate drug tests in general.

[freakyduck]

Pretty sure the reason they do a hair test is so they can check for more "hard core" drugs...people can easily test for marijuana with a urine test, though, i don't think urine can be tested for the other "hard core" drugs like heroine or cocaine or the like.

I think you'll be fine.

I got hired for a job to work in a fairly popular liquor store(long time family owned company in the state i live in) chain and during the orientation the owner of the company (which had been passed down a few generations) told everyone they didn't care about a drug test that showed marijuana use when getting the job and they didn't care if you used while you worked for them so long as you didn't come in to work high or use while you were working. Of course, they told us that if we failed a drug test that was given as a result of an accident or something, they would still terminate the employment. It just really stuck out to me that a company would be so open minded in relation to marijuana use and that it doesn't have quite the same effect on the body/mind that other drugs or even the alcohol we were selling does. This was a few years back, like 6-8 years ago and not in a state that has legal marijuana even for medicinal purposes.

Today i would imagine less and less companies concerned with marijuana use, but they will still test for anything else. Likely why they did a hair test and not just a urine test.

[cordrann]

I kind of feel like hair testing is a violation of privacy in a way, my armpits feel weird now and the whole situation has left me with a uncomfortable feeling.

Not like I have anything to hide, but is a hair drug test REALLY necessary? Ugh

The whole basis for this thread seems to be that you DO in fact have something to hide.

[Tuesdays]

I think piss is a 30 day check and hair is a 90 day check.

[StayTuned]

I can only agree with Celista, wtf is this company that tests you for such a job? I wouldn't want to work for them out of principle. But to be honest, you'll be fine. If not, trust me it won't bother you - you'd hate working for them anyway.

[Ornerybear]

a lot of companies will still hire you if you test positive for marijuana.

I think (could be wrong, someone feel free to say so), that they can see the concentration or frequency and that may be part of them seeing if you are a pothead or not

No idea though. you'll just have to wait and see.

[SL1200]

If my understanding of the hair test is correct, you're going to fail that drug test.

[Asethi]

I currently work at an airport and haven't left my current job, this one just pays about $5 more per hour and thats pretty big for around here. I just hope all goes well and ill give an update when i hear one. Seriously if it does come positive i'll just tell the boss look ill go out right now and buy a drug test and you can watch me pass. Oh well, hope for the best, prepare for the worst I guess.. Thanks everyone!

[Dragoncurry]

Geico wanted to hair follicle test me. I didn't take the job, but their whole process was annoying as fuck.