It was only last Wednesday that Simon Amstell warned his guests on Never Mind The Buzzcocks not to joke about Britney Spears because the show’s taped in advance and her story changes by the minute, before going on to ‘cover himself’ by making up a series of increasingly ridiculous stories. But no matter how ridiculous Amstell went for the sake of comedy, he could never have predicted this one.
The troubled singer stormed into an LA hairdressing salon on Friday evening and demanded that the stylist cut all of her hair off. Quite reasonably, salon owner Esther Tognozzi suggested Spears might possibly want to think about such a drastic makeover. "Are you sure you're not having a bad day?" Tognozzi recalled asking Spears. "And tomorrow you'll feel differently about it? Why don't we wait a little bit?"
Spears insisted, and after stylists still refused, she grabbed the clippers and started shaving off her locks herself, until she was completely bald. Britney then travelled to a tattoo parlour to complete her new look, getting a pair of bright red lips on her wrist and a black, white and pink cross on her lower hip.
Tattooist Emily Wynne-Hughes witnessed the gruesome scene. 'We just saw a huge celebrity on the verge of a nervous breakdown.' She seemed really distraught and disturbed. She was very scatterbrained. It was crazy, very surreal. She's definitely crying out."
