Fans and friends of Britney Spears rallied round the pop star last night as fears grew for her mental health.

The 25-year-old’s behaviour has become increasingly erratic, including reports that she had checked into a rehabilitation clinic but left after only 24 hours. In a bizarre sequence of events, Spears was filmed shaving her head in a Los Angeles hair salon on Friday evening before going to a tattoo parlour, where she reportedly had a tattoo of a pair of lips put on to her wrist.

Psychologists said yesterday that the behaviour was worryingly erratic and required attention, while fans of the pop star took to the internet to express their support for her.

Video footage from a Los Angeles television station showed Spears taking the clippers to her hair in full view of the paparazzi gathered outside.

Esther Tognozzi, the salon’s co-owner, told US Weekly that after Spears had cut off her brunette hair extensions she “just looked in the mirror and said with tears in her eyes, ‘Oh, my God, I shaved it all off. My mom is going to be so upset with me’.” JT Tognozzi, her husband and salon co-owner, said: “[Spears] didn’t want her hair. We have it here at the salon and we will probably auction it off for charity.”

Crowds of passers-by later gathered at the window of the Body and Soul tattoo parlour, as the singer, wearing a hooded tracksuit, and looking pale and drawn, ordered the tattoo. “She just wanted something real small on her wrist, something dainty,” said Max Gott, a tattoo artist. “She got some cute little lips on her wrist.”

Emily Wynne-Hughes, another employee, was quoted as saying that Spears “wasn’t making sense at all and you could tell she’s not in a good place at all, and that she is totally freaking out. After she left the shop we all just looked around and said to each other, ‘we just saw a huge celebrity on the verge of a nervous breakdown’”.

Her behaviour came on the same day as a variety of US media reported that she had checked into, then out of, a rehabilitation clinic owned by Eric Clapton. It was claimed that she lasted only 24 hours at the Crossroads clinic, on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

Spears, who became famous in 1999 with the hit Baby One More Time, has sold more than 70 million albums in a career that has recently become as notable for bad behaviour as it once was for her teenage innocence. After her separation from her husband, Kevin Federline, pictures of the singer baring her crotch have shattered her image.

Last night fans besieged the singer’s MySpace page offering their support.

Cary Cooper, Professor of Psychology and Health at Lancaster University, said: “She’s obviously quite a disturbed girl at the moment. She doesn’t know who or what she is. I think it’s very worrying, and I hope there’s somebody out there, in her family or friends, who will take charge of her.”

Bad press

— In 2004 Spears married her childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander in Las Vegas. The marriage lasted 55 hours

— In the same year, her video for Everytime had to be reedited to remove scenes showing her drowning in a bathtub after slitting her wrists

— She married dancer Kevin Federline in 2005. Their divorce was revealed in November, two months after the birth of her second son

— Fans were upset when photos were taken of her without underwear

— She was criticised last year after she was pictured driving with her baby on her lap

Source: Times archive

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