Simultaneous testing for anabolic steroids in human hair specimens collected from various anatomic locations has several advantages when compared with the standard head hair analysis

Since the late 90s, hair testing for anabolic steroids in humans has found numerous forensic, clinical, and anti-doping applications. In most cases, analyses were performed on head hair, collected in the vertex regions. However, for various reasons (shaved subject, bald subject, religious belief, cosmetic treatment and aesthetic reason), hair collectors can face the lack of head hair, and therefore, body hair can be the unique alternative choice. Although there is no possibility to perform segmental analyses with body hair, their use has two major advantages: (1) In most cases, anabolic steroids are more concentrated in body hair when compared with head hair, which allows detecting abuse at lower frequency and for lower dosages; and (2) the window of drug detection is generally much longer in body hair when compared with head hair, particularly in male athlete presenting short head hair. To document the relevance of simultaneous collection of head and body hair, the authors present eight authentic cases of anabolic steroids abuse, including clostebol (one case), drostanolone (one case), metandienone (one case), 19-norandrostenedione (one case), stanozolol (two cases) and trenbolone (three cases). In all cases, body hair concentrations were higher than head hair concentrations. Even in three cases, no steroid was identified in head hair, although present in body hair.

Automated summary

Hair testing for anabolic steroids in body hair has advantages of higher concentration and longer detection window compared to head hair. This is demonstrated in eight authentic cases where body hair concentrations were consistently higher than head hair concentrations.