Los Angeles, Feb. 21 (Reuters): Britney Spears has entered a rehabilitation center, her spokesman said yesterday, after the troubled pop star’s recent wild ways escalated this weekend to a bizarre incident in which she shaved her own head.

“Britney Spears has voluntarily checked herself into an undisclosed rehab facility today,” publicist Larry Rudolph said. “We ask that the media respect her privacy as well as those (privacy concerns) of her family and friends at this time.”

Rudolph did not elaborate on the treatment Spears was seeking or where the facility was located — though People magazine and www.tmz.com both reported that it was in Los Angeles and that the 25-year-old singer checked in at the urging of family members.

Since her split with husband Kevin Federline in November after two years of marriage, Spears has raised eyebrows with heavy partying, sometimes with celebrity heiress Paris Hilton, and a series of pictures that caught the Grammy-winning entertainer wearing no panties under her short skirts.

This January, Spears posted an impassioned letter to her fans on her official website (www.britneyspears.com) in which she acknowledged that her image had taken a beating.

But on Friday reports swirled that Spears had entered rehab on the Caribbean island of Antigua, only to drop out 24 hours later.