Why Test the Hair and Not the Blood for minerals?
When women start exploring minerals, burnout, or long-term depletion, this question almost always comes up:
Why would someone test hair instead of blood?
Let’s Unpack it…
It is a fair question. Blood tests are familiar. They are medical. They feel trustworthy.
Hair testing can sound strange at first. But the reason some practitioners use hair has less to do with replacing blood tests and more to do with what question we are actually asking.
Blood and Hair Tell Different Stories.
Blood tells us how the body is surviving right now. Blood is one of the most protected systems in the body. Your physiology will work very hard to keep blood minerals within a narrow range, even if it has to pull those minerals from tissues, bones, or organs to do so.
Because of this, blood tests are excellent for answering questions like:
Is something dangerously out of range?
Is there an acute deficiency or illness?
Is the body in immediate trouble?
But blood does not always show what it cost the body to stay regulated.
Research shows that minerals such as calcium and magnesium are tightly controlled in blood, even when tissue stores are depleted, which means blood results can appear normal while the body is under chronic stress or exhaustion (ARL Laboratories, https://arltma.com/newsletters/blood-vs-hair-analysis/).
Hair reflects longer-term patterns, not just a moment. Hair grows slowly, roughly one centimeter per month. As it forms, minerals are deposited into the hair shaft and then remain there.
This means hair can reflect:
Mineral patterns over the past two to three months
Chronic depletion or accumulation
How the body has been adapting over time, not just today
Rather than a snapshot, hair acts more like an archive. It shows the imprint of stress, nourishment, and mineral usage over a longer window (Nutritionist Resource, https://www.nutritionist-resource.org.uk/articles/what-is-a-hair-mineral-analysis-htma-test-and-is-it-valid).
Why Blood Can Look Normal When Someone Feels Depleted
Many women are told their labs are fine, yet they feel exhausted, anxious, inflamed, or emotionally fragile.
This can happen because the body prioritizes blood balance above almost everything else. When resources are limited, it borrows from deeper reserves to keep blood stable.
Hair testing can sometimes reveal those hidden costs. It may show low tissue mineral levels or long-term stress patterns that blood tests are not designed to detect (ARL Laboratories, https://arltma.com/newsletters/blood-vs-hair-analysis/).
This does not mean blood tests are wrong. It means they are answering a different question.
Stability Matters
Blood minerals can shift quickly based on:
Meals
Hydration
Stress
Sleep
Hormonal changes
Hair is less influenced by day-to-day fluctuations. You cannot change a hair sample with one good meal or a calm day. That stability is part of why some practitioners value it for looking at long-term physiology rather than short-term status (WebMD, https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/hair-analysis-test)..
What Hair Testing Can Be Helpful For
When interpreted carefully, hair mineral analysis may offer insight into:
Long-standing stress and burnout patterns
Mineral depletion over time
Toxic or heavy metal accumulation
Metabolic and nervous system adaptation
Some research supports hair as a useful indicator of chronic mineral exposure and accumulation, particularly for toxic elements that may not remain in blood once exposure has passed (National Library of Medicine, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12272604/).
important considerationS
Addressing the Controversy: Why Lab Quality Matters in HTMA
The Lab you Test through is the difference between an accurate reading and a skewed one.
So let’s have a gentle, honest conversation about why some folks raise an eyebrow at hair testing (HTMA). It’s not that the method itself is flawed( hair testing has been around for a long time!), but the quality of the lab doing the testing really matters.
Why Lab Standards Are Crucial
One of the biggest reasons some people question the accuracy of HTMA is because not all labs are created equal. In fact, there’s a big difference between labs that follow the highest standards and those that don’t. The main issue is that many labs wash the hair samples before testing, which can skew the results and make them less reliable.
The Two Labs That Get It Right
Now, here’s the good news. There are two highly reputable labs known for doing things the right way. These are Trace Elements Inc. in Addison, Texas, and Analytical Research Labs (ARL)in Phoenix, Arizona. These labs have strict protocols and do not wash hair samples, which helps ensure that the results reflect the true mineral content. This is not a standard other HTMA labs are holding. Washing the hair at the lab changes the results greatly.
According to Trace Elements Inc., they use advanced techniques and strict quality control to maintain accurate HTMA readings. They emphasize that following proper protocols is key to reliable results. Similarly, ARL is known for maintaining rigorous standards that help practitioners trust the insights they gain from HTMA.
In short, the controversy around HTMA often comes down to lab quality. By choosing reputable labs like Trace Elements and ARL, you’re working with those who uphold the highest standards. That makes HTMA a much more reliable tool for understanding your mineral patterns.
Here at Ancestral Mother, we use Trace Elements Lab, and are planning to train in ARL in the near future.
An Important Disclaimer
This is important to say clearly:
Hair testing is not meant to diagnose disease. It is a pattern-reading tool. Its usefulness depends heavily on thoughtful interpretation and on being paired with symptoms, history, and sometimes bloodwork.
So Which Is Better?
Neither. They simply serve different purposes.
Blood tests are best when:
You need clinical diagnosis
There is concern about acute deficiency or illness
Immediate intervention may be required
Medication is involved and blood levels need to be checked
Hair testing can be helpful when:
Symptoms are chronic and unexplained
Bloodwork looks normal but the body feels depleted
You want to understand longer-term mineral patterns and stress adaptation
You are in a state of chronic, prolonged stress & fight or flight patterns
You want to better understand why certain patterns keep cycling in your life
You are experiencing adrenal fatigue, burnout and exhaustion, or symptoms that no other modality is shedding light on.
Together, they can offer a fuller picture than either one alone.
A Simple Way to Think About It
Blood shows how the body is coping today. Hair shows what the body has been living with.
Both matter. Neither tells the whole story on its own.
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