A small sample of a person's hair is sent to a laboratory for measurement of its mineral content. It is claimed that by measuring trace element and mineral concentrations in the hair that a persons overall health and nutrition status can be determined. Some performing hair analysis have even claimed to be able to diagnose disease conditions.
Labs performing hair analysis typically test for multiple elements.
Legitimate uses for hair analysis Hair analysis, when used by a proper analytic laboratory, can detect the presence of certain toxic heavy metals such as lead, arsenic and others that should not be present under normal circumstances. It is not useful in correlating concentrations present in the hair with concentrations present in the body. Hair analysis may have limited use when studying differences in heavy metal concentrations or certain minerals between population groups as a whole. Problems with hair analysis Multielemental hair analysis uses a single test to determine values for many minerals simultaneously. Why multielemental hair analysis is not useful 1.