Is Bald the New Bold? Britney Spears Shaves Head

In a seemingly constant bid for the spotlight, pop princess Britney Spears has taken a bold new step. Baldness.

Spears was sighted at the Sherman Oaks, CA tattoo parlor, "Body and Soul" getting a dainty wrist tattoo of pink and red lips. Perhaps the addition of the tattoo was meant to balance the subtraction of another body adornment - her hair.

According to celebrity tattler, TMZ, Spears could be seen inside the tattoo parlor bareheaded and bald, but as she left the shop with a bodyguard, Spears covered her new tress-less look with a hooded sweatshirt.

Could it be the fair-haired, golden mane princess longs to explore the plain-Jane side of life? Or could she have enlisted in President Bush's war in Iraq?

Or, would one dare to utter the unthinkable - lice! Surely Ms. Spears does not have lice. One should not assume that to wear panties or not to wear panties has anything to do with standards of personal hygiene.

As the sidewalk outside the tattoo parlor over-flowed with fans, the idle curious and a few paparazzi, some fans commented that they found the new look "less than flattering."

Less than flattering, blue even, is the klieg light Britney Spears has been under in recent years. According to multiple news sources, Miss Spears has been in a state of personal turmoil since the birth a second son, Jayden James Federline on September 12, 2006 and the end of her marriage to celebrity husband and rapper, Kevin Federline shortly thereafter.

Although Spears official website, www.britneyspears.com has gone dark (or euphemistically "is being updated"), a separate Britney Spears site, www.britneyspears.org has begun to focus on their star's most recent breaking-news event.

In video captured from ABC News 7, eyewitness Emily Wynne-Hughes paraphrases Spears saying she was "tired of having everything plugged into it (her hair) and she didn't want anybody to touch her, that kind of thing. Seemed like she was kind of sick of it all, whatever "it all" is.

She seemed very distraught and disturbed. She was very scatter-brained and wasn't really answering many questions."