HTMA Testing
Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis Testing
Minerals like magnesium, zinc, copper, and calcium don't just show up on a supplement label — they run the show behind the scenes for your energy, your stress resilience, your sleep, and your metabolism. When they're out of balance, it rarely shows up as one obvious symptom. It shows up as a collection of "off" feelings that are hard to pin to any one thing.
HTMA is one tool we use to start building that picture — not on its own, but alongside your symptoms, history, and other lab work.
Who Would Benefit From HTMA Testing?
HTMA tends to be a useful add-on for women who recognize themselves in more than one of these experiences: I usually suggest it as a first course of action in functional testing.
Ongoing fatigue or low resilience to stress that hasn't been fully explained by other testing
Muscle cramping, tension, or restlessness that seems disconnected from activity level
Hair thinning or slow hair growth alongside other symptoms
Sleep that's light, disrupted, or hard to stay in
A pattern of feeling depleted despite eating well and supplementing
Interest in tracking mineral trends over time rather than a single snapshot
Already working with us on gut or hormone testing and looking to round out the picture with a longer-term mineral view
What Is HTMA Testing?
HTMA (Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis) measures mineral levels within the hair shaft, reflecting mineral deposition over roughly the past 2–3 months. Because hair is a tissue your body actively builds over time, it can offer a longer-term view of mineral patterns than a single blood draw, which reflects what's circulating at that exact moment.
Minerals have been referred to as “the spark plugs of life”. They are the drivers behind so many reactions in the human body as they work as catalysts. I like to think of minerals as the bigger pieces of wood that keep a fire going over long durations of time, while a lot of other supplements act as kindling to get the fire started quickly.
Where it tends to be genuinely useful is in identifying mineral ratios and patterns (like calcium-to-magnesium or sodium-to-potassium balance) that can point toward how your body is handling stress over time, and in tracking trends across retests as we adjust your protocol.
Heavy metals may also accumulate in the hair, so HTMA can be a beneficial indicator of heavy metal exposure in the body.
How Is HTMA Testing Performed?
HTMA is the simplest of our functional tests to collect — no blood, no urine, no shipping delays waiting on a specific point in your cycle.
Sample collection. A small sample of hair — about a tablespoon, cut close to the scalp from the back of the head — is collected. This can be done during an in-clinic visit or at home if you're comfortable cutting the sample yourself, following our instructions.
What to avoid beforehand. We'll walk you through prepping for the sample, including guidance on recent hair treatments or product buildup that could affect accuracy.
Lab processing. The sample is sent to the lab for mineral analysis, typically returning results within 2–3 weeks.
Results review. We go through your report together, looking at individual mineral levels and key ratios, and connect the patterns back to your symptoms and health history.
Protocol and retesting. Because HTMA reflects a few months of history, we typically retest at intervals (often 3–4 months apart) to track how mineral patterns shift as you move through your protocol.
