In honor of his new look, many fans changed their avitars. Some made shirts with a screen printed picture of “new” Clay on the front. New pins were designed. The Clay who made them thud now had shaggy hair. All was right, even cheerful, in Clayland.

The “new Clay” was followed even more closely by the media. One busy evening Clay was spotted at a star-studded event, dressed to the nines (dttn g), sporting, of course, his snazzy "new" hairstyle. Pictures were taken. Some were posted on the internet. Imagine that! He looked hawt and sexy, and so did his hair. About a week later Clay was seen again at yet another event, this time a private, A-list only after party. (Wow! Two in the space of a week! Who would have thunk it? Rock on, party boy!). On this particular evening, a summer storm had blown through, and after running through a sudden wind to get inside, he arrived at the event with quite a few strands of hair sticking up, thus appearing to partially revert to the spiky "do."

Uh oh. Yep. You guessed it. More pics. On the internet. Followed by much commotion. Pandemonium even.

OMG, Clay went back to spiky hair!!! WTF! Why?? What happened??? OMG!! Fans are immediately driven to new extremes of speculation, angst, and infighting. Soon new rumors emerge and a huge new crop of "insider info" is passed along. Did RCA not like the new hair and thus force Clay to modify it with a few spikes? Did Faye leave him a helpful note under his milk bottles (still neatly lined) with the motherly suggestion? Did Clive/Roger/John/Nick/Simon/insert name here become insanely jealous of his new hawtness and brainwash him into the change? Did Steeve change his mind? Did Clay change his mind? Was a girlfriend’s opinion involved? What color was her sweater?

Within days, "good fan" vs. "bad fan" discussions changed to "new shaggy/moppy hair" vs "new/old/mixed/ spiky/shaggy hair." Loyalties were declared, new message boards appeared, photoshops abounded, new pins were designed. Those who had hated the new look were sure Clay had heard their cries and modified it. Some of those who had loved the shaggy “do” came to embrace the “new” new look, while others felt hurt that their “flexibility” was being taken for granted. Still others remained in WTH mode. A few announced they were leaving the fandom altogether (but made sure to check back regularly to read posts pleading for them to stay and to post again their reasons for leaving). Every fan waited for an explanatory blog, though some helpful fans reminded others that Clay was v. v. busy and might not have time to blog right now.

A few weeks later (sooner than QUITE SOON), Clay blogged. After hilariously answering the current “Clay’s least favorite brand of paper towels” quiz, Clay casually talked about the night of the event, including the big windstorm and the absence of mirrors at the party which led him to an accidentally spiky evening. He laughed –- “HA! HA! Wasn’t that funny?”

Oops.