Testing information
Hair vs saliva, blood, breath and urine
Each method answers a different question. Hair is right for a pattern over months. It is wrong for whether someone is impaired right now.
- Five methods
- Detection windows
- Legal acceptability
How far back each method can see
This is the difference that decides most cases. Hair is what we provide, and the one thing it cannot do is tell you about the past fortnight — a sample has to grow above the scalp before it can be tested. Everything before that, it holds for up to a year.
HairWhat we provide
Up to 12 months
Urine
Up to 3 weeks
Saliva
Up to 3 days
Blood
Up to 3 days
Breath
Hours — alcohol only
The striped part of the hair bar is the most recent fortnight. Hair takes about two weeks to grow out far enough from the scalp to be cut and tested, so use in the last few days does not show up yet — a hair test looks back, not at right now. Each bar is drawn to the same scale, from today on the left to twelve months ago on the right.
Every method, side by side
Five methods against the five things that decide which one a matter needs.
| Attribute | HairWhat we provide | Saliva | Blood | Breath | Urine |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How far back it sees | Up to 12 months | Up to 3 days | Up to 3 days | Hours — alcohol only | Up to 3 weeks |
| How it is collected | Non-invasive | Non-invasive | Invasive — needle | Non-invasive | Supervised sample |
| Accuracy | Very high | Moderate | Very high | High for alcohol | Moderate |
| Evasion | Very difficult | Possible | Very difficult | Very difficult | Easiest to evade |
| In court | Usually preferred | May be questioned | Usually accepted | Accepted for impairment | May be questioned |
Scroll the table sideways to see every method.
The detail on each method
All five in full, nothing collapsed — including where hair is the wrong tool.
Hair testing
What we provideFrom about 2 weeks after use — the time hair needs to grow above the scalp — and back as far as 12 months
Highly accurate and reliable, and the usual preference for family court and custody matters. Longer detection window and 90+ substances in a single test. Higher upfront cost, but it removes the need for repeated testing across several months.
- Retrospective analysis
- Effective long-term retrospective analysis
- Legal acceptability
- Often preferred for its defensibility and accuracy
- Evasion risk
- Low — extremely difficult to alter or evade
- Cost
- Higher for a single test, lower over any monitoring period — one test covers what repeat urine or saliva collection needs months to cover
Saliva testing
Hours to a few days
Good for detecting very recent use. Covers fewer substances and is less reliable than hair, blood or urine. Low cost, but more prone to false positives and negatives.
- Retrospective analysis
- No long-term retrospective analysis
- Legal acceptability
- May be questioned, given the short window and higher risk of false positives and negatives
- Evasion risk
- Moderate — can be diluted or contaminated
- Cost
- Cheaper, but may lack the precision required for legal or forensic use
Blood testing
Hours to a few days
Accurate but invasive, and generally reserved for more critical scenarios because of its complexity and cost.
- Retrospective analysis
- No long-term retrospective analysis
- Legal acceptability
- Often preferred for defensibility and accuracy
- Evasion risk
- Low — hard to manipulate, but invasive and must be tested soon after collection
- Cost
- Typically expensive; requires specialised equipment and expertise
Breath testing
A few hours (alcohol only)
Very limited in scope — it measures alcohol only. Cheap and widely used for immediate impairment detection.
- Retrospective analysis
- No long-term retrospective analysis
- Legal acceptability
- May be questioned, given the short window and higher risk of false positives and negatives
- Evasion risk
- Low — reliable for alcohol and hard to evade
- Cost
- Cheap, but may lack the precision required for legal or forensic use
Urine testing
Days to a few weeks
Common in workplaces because it is inexpensive. The range of substances tested is limited and it is the easiest method to evade.
- Retrospective analysis
- Limited retrospective analysis
- Legal acceptability
- May be questioned, given the short window and higher risk of false positives and negatives
- Evasion risk
- High — can be tampered with, by dilution or synthetic urine
- Cost
- Cheaper, but may lack the precision required for legal or forensic use
The cost over three months, not the cost today
A hair test costs more than a single urine or saliva test. Over any period a court or an employer actually cares about, it costs less — and the money is only one of the four reasons.
One hair test, same 12 weeks (3 months)
$599
One appointment. 95 substances. No appointment fee, no per-drug extras.
Repeat urine testing, same 12 weeks (3 months)
$480–$720
8 appointments over 12 weeks, at a typical $60–$90 each — before counting time away from work.
Repeat-testing costs are indicative of rates commonly charged for supervised collection and are not a quote from any named provider. Our own fees are published in full on fees and pricing.
- One appointment, not a schedule
- A single 3 cm sample looks back about three months, and covers 95 substances in that one test. Repeat urine collection over the same twelve weeks is 8 separate appointments — and 8 chances for a missed or disputed one.
- No repeated time away from work
- One short visit, rather than half a day lost 8 times over 12 weeks. For anyone on shift work or paid hourly, that is usually the larger cost of the two.
- Nothing supervised, nothing invasive
- A small trim of hair from the crown, fully clothed, with nobody observing. Repeat urine collection is supervised by design, and the strain of that is the objection clients raise most often — particularly in family-law matters that run for months.
- Fewer disputed results to pay for
- Hair is very difficult to alter, so a result is less likely to be challenged, re-run or thrown out. A single contested test can cost more in legal time than the test itself.
Book a hair test
Same-day appointments are usually available at our Melbourne clinic, and results are back within 5–7 business days.