The world is saying she’s gone insane and crazy. That this bald head thing is yet another step into the grips of utter madness - driven there by a decade of a public demanding nothing but perfection, two marriages with just as many divorces, very young single motherhood.. helped along by ample amounts of alcohol and drug abuse. Shaving her head is somehow an outward show of rebellion to all of the above, including any other lingering demons that lurk inside the shadows of Britney’s brain.

My theory is a bit different. It is as simple as this: her hair was a wreck and completely ruined by frequent colorings and extensions. No really! Just LOOK at that picture to the left - if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that she was wearing a bale of hay on her head!

Coloring
The damage done to regular hair because of frequent coloring and processing are well documented. You can literally fry your hair due to over processing and the only way to correct it is to cut (or shave) the damaged locks off and let your natural hair grow back in.

Extensions
Extensions can do extreme damage to locks. They are applied either with glue or woven (braided) into your own hair and then burned into place. The chemicals in the glue and the weakening of your own hair during the weaving process - not too mention the extra weight that the extensions create, pulling your natural hair down and weakening the strands.

Based on recent pictures over the past several weeks - I would guess that Britney’s hair is/was beyond a lost cause. Though, why she did the head shaving thing so publicly, one can only guess. Girl has got a lotta guts, tho - I can say that much. Not many women would brave the grocery store with a bald head - much less international television!

Update
UBritney.com has, apparently, come up with a statement from Larry Rudolph: “Britney has been through a tragic thing that hopefully will never happen again, shaving her hair was a sort of therapeutic thing for her … Britney knows that she needs help and is already going through counselling, she knows what needs to be done and is slowly re-building herself step by step.”

There are a LOT of rumors buzzing around as to what that ‘tragic thing’ is - - for now, I’ll not speculate here because the rumors I’m hearing aren’t very good.

This is for you Brit:

Update
The owner of the salon where Britney shaved her own head has spoken:

The singer turned up around 7PM to Esther’s Haircutting Studio in Tarzana. Though the shop was closed, owner Esther Tognozzi opened the salon for the singer.

Tognozzi told Access Hollywood that Spears asked to have her head shaved, but the shop owner refused telling Spears, “I won’t touch that.”

Britney then asked if she could cut her own hair. She was provided tools to do so by the salon.

The singer first shortened her hair with scissors before buzzing it off with electric shears. Tognozzi had to help Spears following the singer’s attempt at shearing her head, to even out Britney’s scalp.

According to Tognozzi, Britney did not speak much, exchanging just a few words about her baby with the shop owner. She also noted Britney said “mom’s gonna kill me.”

A source from the salon confirmed to Access Hollywood earlier today that they are planning to sell Spears’ lost locks on eBay. They will donate a portion of the hair collected from the crop to the Britney Spears Foundation, which was the salon’s own idea.

-Access Hollywood

Access Hollywood has also revealled that Britney did indeed go into rehab for a day - her publicist has spoken out, and apologized for lying:

In other Britney related news, a publicist for Spears at Jive Records, who earlier told Access Hollywood that Britney had not checked into a rehab facility called AH’s Executive Producer at home, late last night and apologized. The rep now confirms Spears did visit a rehab facility but did not stay. The Jive representative now also told AH’s Executive Producer that Britney left Antigua with her manager Larry Rudolph. They flew by private plane to Miami and took a commercial flight to Los Angeles.