The challenges in hair analysis from the perspective of an analytical chemist

Abstract

Head hair has nowadays become an attractive and commonly used biosample. Still, it is considered as non-conventional or alternative biological matrix, used to implement the information coming from other (so called conventional) bioanalytical samples, such as blood serum/plasma and urine, which only reflect exposure for a short period upon administration. Hair sampling is a non-invasive sampling procedure compared with bioanalytical methods for common biosamples. However hair has also certain difficulties in handing, sample preparation and data interpretation. These are briefly discussed herein.