What hair cannot measure (but is often claimed)
- Intolerances
- Vitamins
- Amino acids
- Absolute mineral deficiencies

Analytical Research Laboratories (ARL) – was founded in 1974 by Dr. Paul C. Eck. Since 1974, ARL has continuously refined hair mineral analysis as a screening method.
ARL is to this day exclusively specialized in hair mineral analyses – no blood tests, no urine samples. Analysis is performed by ICP-MS (Perkin Elmer NexION 2000B) for 21 minerals and heavy metals. ARL is also one of only two labs worldwide (besides Trace Elements) that do not wash the hair sample before analysis – this avoids the loss of water-soluble minerals (cf. NCBI PMC10414646).