Britney's freak show

Britney Spears, the singer and one-time poster girl of a million pre-teen bedrooms, has appeared in public with a shaved head, just a day after checking into a rehabilitation centre for a brief stay.

The descent of Ms Spears into something apparently far darker than mere "wild girl" high jinks left fans aghast and more expert observers wondering if this was less a publicity stunt and more a case of celebrity self-harm.

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The former Mickey Mouse Club child star's recent behaviour has been sufficiently erratic to prompt speculation that she is undergoing a fairly public breakdown of some kind.

Cary Cooper, professor of psychology and health at Lancaster University, said last night: "Shaving her head is definitely a call for help. People around her should be worried about her mental state. The past week shows she is very troubled."

This latest example of Ms Spears's increasingly bizarre antics rounded off a week that saw her swapping clothes with a stripper after yet another night of heavy drinking. In recent weeks, since splitting from her husband Kevin Federline last year, the 25-year-old has become a drinking companion of tabloid personalities Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, and been photographed stumbling in varying degrees of disarray in and around Los Angeles, or clambering from limousines without her underwear.

It was all a far cry from her upbringing in rural Louisiana. The daughter of a building contractor and a teacher, the second of three children, she was an accomplished gymnast, competing at state level. She also performed in local dance troupes and for her Baptist church choir.

On Friday night in California, the singer was filmed and photographed as she arrived at a Los Angeles tattooist's parlour and had her wrist tattooed. As she did so, 60 onlookers gathered outside and stared through the window of the shop in Sherman Oaks, at her sheared head, shocked at the contrast with her one-time image as an angelic teenage star.

As with all her extra-curricular activities, there was a ready market for images. Photographs of the bald Ms Spears were soon auctioned for upwards of £20,000, footage was screened on local news networks, and was soon being downloaded thousands of times on YouTube. One fan, Angelique Uram, who watched from the pavement outside the tattooist's studio was horrified at the look. "We could see her in the mirror, and her head is completely shaved. It looks terrible," she said. Police were called to control the crowd and helped the singer into her waiting 4x4.

People magazine's website claimed yesterday Ms Spears had been treated briefly at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Centre on the Caribbean island of Antigua, although the clinic would not confirm or deny her presence. Ms Spears's manager was not available to comment.

The former child Disney performer has been forced to grow up in public, re-emerging as a 17-year-old pop star. For five years after her first hit, Baby One More Time, she was on a never-ending whirl of recording, rehearsals, TV, concerts and a disastrous flop of a film, Crossroads.

But in 2004, as her singing work appeared to wind down, she started to display increasingly impulsive behaviour. She married a childhood friend, Jason Allen Alexander, in an impromptu Las Vegas ceremony. The marriage was annulled after 55 hours, her representatives claiming she "lacked understanding of her actions".

She then married Mr Federline, with whom she has two children, Sean Preston, 17 months, and five-month-old Jayden James. The couple filed for divorce last November. Ms Spears was visited by child welfare authorities last year after she was seen driving with her eldest son on her lap without a seat belt.