Britney Shears

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Britney Spears appeared in a tattoo parlor in the San Fernando Valley with her head shaved completely bald.

Video on KABC-TV showed the newly shorn Ms. Spears with tiny tattoos on the back of her neck as she sits Friday night for a new tattoo - a pair of red and pink lips.

"She just wanted something real small on her wrist, something dainty," Max Gott, the tattoo artist at Body and Soul in Sherman Oaks, told the TV station. "She got some cute little lips on her wrist."

Derrik Snell, who works at the tattoo parlor, said Spears showed up without notice and stayed for about 90 minutes as about 60 fans, photographers and gawkers gathered outside.

"She seemed fine," Mr. Snell said. "I didn't really notice (the hairdo) at first, she had a hood on when she showed up."

Before heading to the tattoo parlor, Ms. Spears grabbed an electric clipper and shaved her own head at a San Fernando Valley salon Friday night, CNN reported.

"I tried to talk her out of it. I said, 'Are you sure you're not having a bad day and tomorrow you'll feel differently about it? Why don't we wait a little bit?'" salon owner Esther Tognozzi told the network.

"She said 'No, I absolutely want it shaved off now.' Next thing I know, she grabbed the buzzer and she went to the back of my salon and she was shaving off her own hair," Ms. Tognozzi said.

The appearance came the same day as reports on TV and Web sites that Ms. Spears, who has drawn criticism for her recent partying and sloppy behavior, had briefly checked into rehab.

Larry Rudolph, Ms.Spears' manager, couldn't be reached for comment.

Syndicated entertainment TV show "Extra" first reported that Ms. Spears had entered a treatment facility. Celebrity Web site TMZ.com then said the singer had entered a treatment center but had checked out one day later. Neither revealed their sources.

People magazine's Web site, citing "a source," said Ms. Spears had gone in and out of rehab, and identified the facility as Eric Clapton's Crossroads center in Antigua, in the Caribbean.

"Access Hollywood" then said the reports weren't true, but didn't cite a source.

A woman who answered the phone at Crossroads told The Associated Press that she couldn't confirm or deny anyone's presence at the facility.

Angelique Uram, a Ms. Spears fan who stood on the tattoo parlor's sidewalk for Friday night's spectacle, was aghast at the singer's new look.

"We could see her in the mirror, and her head is completely shaved," she told KABC. "It looks terrible."

Police arrived to control the crowd and helped Spears' bodyguards guide her into a waiting SUV, her head covered by a hooded sweatshirt.