Hair testing for alcohol use
At Lextox, we provide hair alcohol testing services via hair strand analysis. This provides a unique window of detection covering months, rather than days or hours. We offer segmental overview analysis, and provide fully defensible reports for UK court cases and child care proceedings that are in accordance with The Society of Hair Testing’s guidelines.
The recommended length of hair that an alcohol-in-hair test can cover is either 3cm or 6cm. For this type of analysis, if no scalp hair is available, then chest, leg and arm hair can be used.
Why choose Lextox?
- Legally defensible Analysis Results and Expert Reports accepted in every UK family court
- Our results are analysed within a domestic UK Lab accredited under UKAS 17025 with the important UK Lab 51 Quality standards
- Analysis in accordance with the Society of Hair Testing’s internationally agreed standards
- Direct contact with our experts, with over 100 years’ combined experience in hair drug and alcohol testing and can attend court to provide evidence for your case
- Competitive pricing in accordance with LAA codified rates
Hair alcohol testing explained
Our hair alcohol test detects two types of alcohol markers, the Fatty Acid Ethyl Ester; Ethyl Palmitate (EtPa) and Ethyl Glucuronide (EtG), as standard to help in the assessment of chronic excessive alcohol consumption. This ensures that there is a greater degree of certainty of the analysis results and helps in the mutual confirmation of the results.
EtPa and EtG are ‘by-products’ produced by the body in the presence of alcohol. For this reason EtPa and EtG are suitable markers for the detection of alcohol in hair when trying to asses chronic excessive alcohol use. To avoid confusion, we analyse samples of the hair strand for the alcohol markers, not the hair follicle. The hair follicle is a small tubular cavity within the skin that contains the root of the hair.
We perform EtPa & EtG and testing analysis as standard and strongly recommend that this is used in conjunction with other forms of evidence such as blood alcohol tests (PEth, Liver Function and Carbohydrate Deficient Transferrin). Clinical assessments and history of alcohol abuse to help obtain a more comprehensive picture of an individual’s alcohol use. An alcohol in hair test should not be used to monitor alcohol abstinence.
