What information can you take from a person's hair?

What information can you take from a person's hair?

Marilyn Sherlock (Trichologist) gives expert video advice on: How can diet affect your hair and scalp? and more...

The hair is a little bit like a tape recorder in that it's a dead substance once you can see it. Anything that's in that hair is trapped. For that reason, it is possible to analyse hair by burning it effectively and testing for the minerals that are in the hair, and it can also be used to test whether people have been taking drugs. But of course it's not current in use because it takes three months from the absorption of the drug or the mineral before it's at the surface of the scalp and you can actually get hold of it to move it and send it for testing. Providing you don't mind having a gap of at least three months, hair is a good way of telling what has actually gone on before.