Willie Nelson cuts off his famed pigtails

AUSTIN, Texas — Country music fans have come to expect a little eccentricity from legendary crooner Willie Nelson, but he pulled off a real shocker this time.

He cut his hair.

"Oh Noooooo!," wrote one fan who saw a picture of Nelson's new do on the website of Nashville TV and radio personality Jimmy Carter.

Nelson's waist-deep, reddish pigtails have long been one of the singer-songwriter's signature features. But spokeswoman Elaine Schock said Nelson, who's been hanging loose in Hawaii, got his hair cut in the past couple of weeks. She said the Texas-born performer didn't make a big fuss about the makeover, but she thought he might have grown tired of dealing with long locks.

"There's a lot of maintenance," she said.