Hayden Panettiere showed off her sleek new super-short hairdo at an event at the California Science Center on Thursday evening. Her beauty secret?

"I fried it. I wanted to dye my hair and I went red, without taking into consideration how long it would take to get back blond." So off it went.

Panettiere was there to host a dinner benefiting the HeArt Project, which honored her former boss, "Heroes" creator Tim Kring, and his wife, Lisa, a social worker. The HeArt Project brings economically disadvantaged teenagers together with arts professionals.

"Art is my life, and people don't realize how important it is," said Panettiere, who has used the spotlight to help save the whales and other causes.

"Of course you need book smarts to be successful, but it's the street smarts that come from art that is.

The most important thing in becoming who you are as a person, and it's obviously such a huge part of my life."

Next up for Panettiere -- she's just joined the cast of "Scream 4." Another "Heroes" regular who turned out for the Krings was Adrian Pasdar, who said he might sign up to work with some of the HeArt Project's kids. "Some of the organizations closest to home are some of the most beautiful ones and the most effective ones," he said.