The Freedom and the History of My Buzzcut

I’ve worn my hair in a buzzcut for most of my adult life and although I’ve experimented with different styles over the years, I keep coming back to my #3 buzzcut. There’s a sense of freedom that comes with a buzzcut.

Shaving my head represents liberation from norms I never lived by anyway. But those norms are everywhere, and I see them on most women my age who wear their hair in more conservative styles. These styles never worked for me.

It’s not that I haven’t tried. I spent a good part of 3 years growing my hair into every conceivable length and style at the suggestion of a friend and in the end what I saw in the mirror just wasn’t me.

For the past 30 years I went to my hairdresser every 2-3 weeks to buzz my hair back into shape. A few months ago I started watching some YouTube videos, bought some clippers on Amazon and started buzzing my hair myself.

A Little History of the Buzzcut

Although shaving one’s hair goes back to prehistoric times the buzzcut is a specific style that involves using clippers and sometimes a guard to go as short as you can go without going bald.

Buzzcuts were first seen on soldiers of the Roman Empire (established in 27 BCE) according to The Encyclopedia of Hair by Victoria Sherrow. It was then seen again in the 1800s in the military because inductees into the French Foreign Legion were required to have their hair cut extremely short as a method of cleanliness and to prevent lice.

In the 1950s the buzzcut remerged when the US military began requiring induction cuts. Women in the US military got buzzcuts too unless they agreed to wear their hair in a ponytail, bun or pinned back.

The subcultures of the world started copying different versions of the buzzcut in the 1950s and 1960s. For example, the skinheads wore this style to create fear and to give the impression they were ready for combat.

In the 1980s people became open and experimental with the buzzcut and by the 90s the style became more mainstream in pop culture and women were buzzing their hair as a form of feminist activism.

The buzzcut has also become a symbol of expressive rebellion and in recent years it’s even became trendy with social media celebrities.

For me, my buzzcut is a way to control how I appear to the world. It’s my symbol of independence, my suit of armor and my protection against a conventional lifestyle.