A buzz cut demands confidence. Hair often functions as a curtain of comfort, falling around the face or swooped into flattering updos that augment a look, softening or stylizing as needed. A buzz cut eliminates the option, forcing focus to the face and insisting on attention for its bold, irreverent, and self-assured nature. Celebrities know the power of shorn lengths—a buzz cut can elevate a sense of style, spark a global conversation, and change the direction of one’s career.
Whether you’re going through a life change that calls for aesthetic accompaniment or are simply ready to take a break from mane maintenance, there’s never been a better time to buzz. Here, 19 standout celebrity buzz cuts to inspire a major makeover.
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart’s covetable buzz cut marked the start of a chameleonic grow-out journey that helped shift the beauty landscape into the terrain of shags, mullets, and wolf cuts we know today.
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman may have buzzed her brunette for her role in V for Vendetta, but the actor owned the look in real life, too, allowing it to influence a sophisticated and slightly edgy red carpet era.
Doja Cat
Doja Cat parted ways with her hair and brows (those shaved in real time on Instagram) in 2022. "I feel like I was never supposed to have hair anyway. I don't like having hair. I never liked having hair," she said in an Instagram Live. "I cannot tell you one time since the beginning of my life that I've ever been like, 'This is cool.' I just do not like to have hair."
Jaden Smith
Jaden Smith’s buzz cut works overtime, once worn to the Met Gala and accessorized by his fresh-cut dreads, held in hand, once executed mid-concert in Toronto by the performer himself. His preferred cut has been shaded every color of the rainbow, from bleach blonde to pale pink to bright burgundy.
Iris Law
Like Kristen Stewart before her, Iris Law is something of a short hair savant—and she certainly knows how to carry off a buzz cut.
David Beckham
The footballer may kicked off his career with blonde, highlighted lengths, but David Beckham’s 2000-era buzz cut caused a global stir. In Netflix’s documentary, Beckham, Victoria Beckham notes that the move helped to mark Beckham’s evolution from a boy to a man.
Demi Moore
Another buzz born of a movie role Demi Moore’s G.I. Jane hair (or lack thereof) is made all the bolder when juxtaposed against the interminable mane she wears today.
Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson’s brunette buzz cut was the work of singer Sia and Hudson’s own son, then just six years old.
Agyness Deyn
Agyness Deyn’s bevy of short hairstyles has always been the model’s calling card, but she’s been outspoken about her love of the buzz. “I feel more feminine, having no hair,” the model told Vogue.
Adwoa Aboah
After an early career spent dealing with hairstylists unable to properly style Black hair, model Adwoa Aboah opted to make a buzz cut her signature style. Aboah’s buzz is prototypal, infinitely cool whether colored blonde, multi-tonal, or natural brunette.
Halsey
Another proponent of ever-shifting short hairstyles, Halsey’s low-maintenance buzz cut came mid-pandemic, a time when salon appointments were difficult (read: impossible) to come by.
Amandla Stenberg
Amandla Stenberg has an on-again/off-again relationship with the buzz, the cut adopted (and carried off) for roles and personal preferences alike.
Michaela Coel
Michaela Coel’s buzz was initially conceived as a means of representation. The actor shaved her head ahead of her role in Netflix’s romantic musical Been So Long, the better to change up what a modern love interest can look like. “And I knew when I get this job and I’m gonna shave my head and I’m going to turn up with no hair and they’re gonna have to make it work,” she told BET. “And they did.”
Andrew Garfield
Andrew Garfield’s generous brunette may have helped to define his visual presence at the start of his career, but the actor buzzed his head toward the end of promoting The Amazing Spider-Man 2, proving his zhuzh-able hair didn’t define him.
Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber, too, was oft associated with his glossy sweep of bronde, making his inaugural 2016 buzz a buzzy choice.
Cate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett may have parted ways with her blonde lengths in the early aughts for a film called Heaven, but it turns out that the buzz was among her preferred cuts whilst growing up. "When I was at school, I used to shave my hair really close. It was like a Victorian schoolboy haircut,” she told HuffPost. “It was just so easy.”
Jada Pinkett Smith
Jada Pinkett Smith rocks her buzz with all of the confidence that the cut requires—particularly noteworthy as the choice to shave her head was partially born of a struggle with alopecia.
Dree Hemingway
Dree Hemingway shaved her blonde lengths in 2018 to prepare for her role in Run With the Hunted, the cut granting her a new sense of edginess that extended from the silver screen to the fashion scene.
Lupita Nyong'o
Lupita Nyong’o can rock virtually any hairstyle (and she has). The actor shaved her head again in May, captioning her share, “Happy without hair!”