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PARIS (AP) -- Lance Armstrong literally had a bad hair day.

A French anti-doping inspector armed with a pair of scissors this week took six clumps of the Austin cycling great's hair for testing for signs of drug use.

The seven-time Tour de France champion says his hair was so "butchered" by the test that he had to get a buzz-cut to hide the mess.

If it sounds like a joke, it's anything but.

In France, hair tests are now being used to hunt down the use of banned substances in sports.

There, when anti-doping authorities say they want the scalps of cheats, they mean it.

By Armstrong's count, it's the 24th time since he resumed cycling in August that he's been subjected to an unannounced anti-doping control.

Armstrong, who's training in the south of France, says the sample-collector was a French doctor who flew in from Paris.

In Armstrong's words, the doctor "couldn't have been nicer. He was a total gentleman."

But a barber he wasn't, so Armstrong got a buzz cut to erase the stripes he left.

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