A dipole field declines with distance quickly. The horseshoe magnet would need to be bigger than the room in order to provide the constant B field normally used in mass specs. That's why I think this experiment would fail, not for any of the ... uh.. other obvious reasons.
I feel like this needs more investigation as a "What If?"... Like how much accuracy of measurement is determined by velocity past the magnet, the strength/size/shape of magnet, the charge strength of hair vs. the amount of hair, does this become a better option in space...
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Wheeeeeeeee!
Where’s the water slide for LC/MS analysis?
3094 is 2×7×13×17
31 is prime
Alt text: https://explainxkcd.com/3094#Transcript