Promises Malibu Treatment Center’s latest celebrity resident claims she engaged in Friday’s impromptu head-scalping because she suffered from an infestation of head lice.

Brit reportedly complained to friends of a “strange itching” on her scalp, and said the “bugs” had “totally freaked me out”.

Brit was heard shuddering: “I had to get rid of the lice. They were horrible.”

A source close to Brit tattles: “She thought lice were eating her hair extensions, so she decided to get rid of them as soon as possible.”

Celebrity hairdresser Jonathon Long, who tends to the tresses of Girls Aloud and Westlife, says that if she did have the bugs Brit’s decision to shave her head may have been practical:

“It’s impossible to run a fine-tooth comb through hair with extensions so she would have found it very difficult to rid her hair of lice without drastic measures.”