Amy Winehouse gets more press for her cracked-out shenanigans than her songs, and today is no different. The Grammy-winning songbird and drug addict was photographed this morning at the doorway of her London home in a mesh tank top, eating cheese on toast, and sporting a brand-new, mop-top hairdo.  While her hair certainly looks healthier than it did during the days of her iconic, ratty beehive, that’s about all of Amy that’s looking better these days. As she ix-nays the up-do, let’s take a look at the past fashions of Ms. Winehouse:

1. Normal

Natural hair! Flattering makeup! Healthy body weight! Amy looks effortlessly pretty here.

2. Beehive Beautiful

Amy appearing at the Style Awards just a year ago, looking professionally coiffed and chipper. Work it!

3. Looking Like “That Girl”

Skeletal-skinny with her shirt on inside-out, Amy appears to be letting things go. Maybe she should go to rehab…yeah, yeah, yeah.

4. Absolutely Cracked Out

Smeared makeup, dirty face, withered nose, and hair looking more like a bird’s nest than a beehive.  And the coup-de-grace, that braindead expression, solidifies this photo as Amy’s definitive low point.

5. The New ‘Do

The jury is still out on the hair. Personally, I think it makes her look like my grandmother, though it is a step up from that forest-like animal trap she had before. But Amy, dear Amy- please get it together! Wasn’t winning a Grammy so much more fun than sharing cheesy toast with paparazzi?

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I was never really attached to my hair until I spent three years growing it out and discovered how amazing long hair can be. It’s versatile, insulating, attention-getting, and the perfect thing to hide behind when I want to take a quick nap in class.But, long hair demands a ton attention, guzzles shampoo and somehow becomes a receptacle for meals. The other week I almost had it when my eight inch ponytail got caught in a subway door. When your hair becomes hazardous to your health, it’s time to consider a cut.

Yesterday, I went and got my first (professional) haircut in six years. Yeah, no more dorm-room cuts from Celeste the hippie-hairdresser for me! I ponied up thirty bucks for this “trim,” and to my dismay, I ended up looking not like my old self — sans split ends, but resemling a local news anchorwoman. It’s pretty bad. My new, sculpted coif doesn’t exactly represent my personality and most definitely doesn’t go with my threadbare – and – holes themed wardrobe.

So, I’ve reached a fork in the road: Do I continue down the path of less resistance and wait for the layers to eradicate themselves and form split ends again? OR… do I chop it all off? I’ve been having fantasies about the latter, and while it seems like it would be liberating, I’m pretty sure I’d regret it in a week. Or an hour.

I mean, Selma Blair wears the fiercest pixie cut on the continent, but seeing recent pics of Katie Holmes’s new do, I’m thinking maybe the short cut is only for true crazies (with excellent bone structure).

Needless to say, I take my hair very seriously. Any haircut or dye job I get is agonized over and meditated on for days. Once the deed is done, it’s another week of roller coaster emotions for me. “I love it!” “UGH! I HATE IT!” “It’s still got a good length.” “OH MY GOD, NO ONE WEARS THEIR HAIR THIS SHORT!”

You get the picture.

My BFF from Leeds calls my constant state of conflict over my hair, “the big stress.” She would know. She has bleached, cut, and extended her hair more times than I can count. Actually, it was due to her prodding that I went mostly blonde last year, a huge step for a strawberry blonde like me who until then had only lightly highlighted my golden curls (and even that was tentatively as all my hair stylists swoon over my natural color and scowl when I ask them to change it).

Why do I care so much? Why is my mane a point of hubris and joy one day, and one of despair and dismay the next? Was it the many years I spent as a Little Orphan Annie look-alike? (Actually, it was my Kindergarten nickname.) Or was it the Felicity-esq fiasco that occurred in junior high when I chopped it all off? (Hey, you may not think it looks that bad, but that show’s ratings dropped like crazy after the cut). I can’t believe it was any one event specific to me though, as every girl I know cares about their hair as much as, if not more than, their wardrobe. Is our strength really in our hair? It seems to be the case as almost every celebrity has much admired or at least much discussed hair. Bad hair day? Bad reviews.

This brings me back to the present. After my yearly (that’s as often as I can bring myself to do it) hair appointment last Saturday, I now have a medium length even mixture of red and blonde that I am actually not hating. Or am I? The color is fabulous, my bangs are perfect; but it’s all a little… short. I look around my office and see that every girl but I has hair down to her boobs, while mine is now barely past my shoulders. Enter my newest dilemma:

To extend, or not to extend?

Now, I’m way too poor to opt for my British friend’s long, professionally attached locks of human hair, but I also don’t want to be stuck with the same short hair for another year. What’s an obsess-o girl to do?

I may have found my answer in Jessica Simpson’s synthetic HairDo line. I know, I know, FAKE hair!? But in a world where change is good, but permanent change is way too expensive and scary for me, this seems like a practical compromise.

Now, I am no stranger to synthetic hair in my up-dos. I’ve slowly progressed from a Claire’s small $10 fake hair piece (kind of like this), to my $40 curly hair clip, (a little less hair than this.) and believe it or not, they’ve always blended pretty perfectly with my hair. No one even blinks an eye at the thought that my clipped up tresses may be fake. The obvious difference with the fake hair I’d be buying is a) I’d have to buy it online and b) It’s kind of obvious when your hair grows 8 inches in a day.

But you know what? If a celebrity has made it possible for you to have the long beautiful hair you’ve always wanted with the snap of a clip and for only $75-100, by golly go and do it! Other people be damned. (This site also has pretty affordable short human hair extensions. Anything above $100 is out of my price range, but I haven’t seen anything above $800 on the site so far.)

My mother is always saying that the energy I spend on my hair could be put to so much better use, like serving my community or contributing to my cause célèbre, (which I’m already doing, btw) but if I had the long gorgeous hair I’ve always wanted, perhaps I, like the celebrities whose hair my fake locks will be modeled after, can also sell products that will fight poverty and AIDS.

Of course, world hunger will have to wait until after I show off my fake hair at all my favorite NYC clubs, and go in and out of jail. If I’m going to go celeb, I’m doing it all the way.

So in times like these, there is only one thing a girl can do- get a new Do.

Losu.org put together a fantastic list of 16 modernly sexy hairstyles that are certain to get you back on your game.

The Wavy Shag                                                                                The Short Shag

The Long Shag                                                                                             The Pixie

Which Do is Your Fav?

Click here to see more hairstyles.