More than 70 photographers snapped images of Britney Spears shaving her head after a breakdown in 2007, and they became famous almost instantly throughout the world.

A tattoo artist who saw Britney the night she shaved her head has revealed the devastating explanation the singer provided for chopping off her hair in fresh remarks from the documentary Britney Spears: Breaking Point.

Britney had gone to the house of her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, after leaving a rehabilitation center in Antigua, wanting to see their children, Sean and Jayden. When he refused, Britney went to a local hair salon and asked hairstylist Esther Tognozz to shave her head. Tognozz claims in the documentary that she tried to urge Britney not to, but that as soon as she turned her back, Britney had taken the clippers and began shaving her own head.

( Image: Bauer Griffin/MEGA)

Her bodyguards did nothing.

Tognozz recounts in a new Channel 5 documentary that “she had two bodyguards supposedly keeping an eye out to make sure the paparazzi were not getting any pictures.”

‘I had blinds at the side of the salon back then. I had a sliding glass door and I kept saying: “There’s nobody over there, why do you keep opening up the blind?”.

‘Well, I found out days later why he was opening the blind because a photographer was hiding there to take pictures.’

The saddest aspect was Britney’s reaction when she realized what she’d done, as her manic smile gave way to panic and grief.

She was distraught and worried that her “mum was going to be p***ed.”

Britney then went to a neighboring tattoo parlor and asked tattoo artist Emily Wynne-Hughes for a tattoo of a woman’s lips and a crucifix. Wynne-Hughes, who has never talked publicly about that night before, told documentary interviewers, “[I heard] an insane roaring sound outside. I wasn’t sure what was happening, if there was a riot outside and then the flashes came.”

“I noticed her hair was gone. I remember asking here, ‘why do you shave your head?'”

She says Britney revealed to her, “It was, you know, ‘I just don’t want anybody, anybody touching my head. I don’t want anyone touching my hair. I’m sick of people touching my hair.'”

Britney had been a performer since she was a youngster, so it’s understandable that the long hours spent in hair and make-up took their toll on her.

Since her debut with…Baby One More Time in 1998, Britney’s image has been heavily influenced by music executives.

According to reports, they oversaw every aspect of her look, right down to her panties.

In response to Tognozz’s assertion that her bodyguards did not interfere, Wynne-Hughes backed up Tognozz’s claim. “It just didn’t seem like they cared very much. I’ve felt this insane sense of anxiety and energy that felt so negative… It just seemed like everybody was waiting for the crash to happen.”