A buzz cut, induction cut or wiffle is a very short haircut.

The cut is usually performed using hair clippers without a comb guard. The sides are cut closely and then the top is either shaped or cut to the same short length all over. The cut takes just a few minutes to perform. A buzz cut can make the face look more defined. The buzz cut is popular among people who want a short, low-maintenance hairstyle

Hairstyle

A hairstyle, hairdo, or haircut refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human head. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming, fashion, and cosmetics, although practical, cultural, and popular considerations also influence some hairstyles.-History of...

. Far fewer women than men get their hair clipped off.

There are many different variations of buzzcuts. One variation leaves some bangs

Fringe (hair)

Fringe are a shaped cutting of the front part of the hair so that it is combed forward and hangs or curls over the forehead. A classic fringe is cut fairly straight at or above the eyebrows, but fringes can also be ragged or ruffled, spiked up with hair gel, swept to one side or the other, and...

 (fringe) so they can be spiked upwards using hair products, such as wax or gel. With side fades, the side hair slowly fades shorter and shorter until the hairline ends, or the shortest clipper number is reached. In some cases, clippers are used to shear the hair short on the sides and back of the head, resulting in a short haircut, but not the classic buzz.

A flattop is similar to a buzz cut, with the exception that the hair

Hair

Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....

 on the top of the head is not cut as short, and is deliberately styled to stand up. The longest part of the hair in the flattop cut is the front, being one to two inches in height. It is cut to be flat, resulting in a haircut that is square in shape. The style was popular in hip-hop culture during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it was known as the Hi-top fade

Hi-top fade

A hi-top fade is a style of haircut where hair on the sides is cut off or kept very short and hair on the top of the head is very long . The hi-top has been a trend symbolizing the Golden Era of hip hop and urban contemporary music during the late 1980s and the early 1990s...

.

The buzzcut was a fashionable unisex

Unisex

Unisex stands for the meaning that either gender or sex will be able to, but can also be another term for gender-blindness.The term was coined in the 1962 and was used fairly informally...

 hairstyle

Hairstyle

A hairstyle, hairdo, or haircut refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human head. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming, fashion, and cosmetics, although practical, cultural, and popular considerations also influence some hairstyles.-History of...

 in the late 20th century. In the 1990s celebrities like Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner

Kevin Michael Costner is an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and businessman. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Academy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...

, George Michael

George Michael

George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...

 and David Mamet

David Mamet

David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...

 pioneered a uniform buzz as opposed to the traditional flattop. Other celebrities noted for wearing their hair in this way included Jason Sehorn

Jason Sehorn

Jason Heath Sehorn is a former professional American football defensive back in the National Football League.-Early years:Sehorn was born in Sacramento, California...

, Susan Powter

Susan Powter

Susan Powter is an Australian-born motivational speaker, nutritionist, personal trainer and author, who rose to fame in the 1990s with her catchphrase "Stop the Insanity!" She hosted her own talk show The Susan Powter Show in the 1990s.-Life:Powter was born in Sydney, Australia in 1957, living...

, Sinéad O'Connor

Sinéad O'Connor

Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....

, Benjamin Granger and Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman

Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...

.

In many countries, armed forces

Armed forces

The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body, and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external aggressors. In some countries paramilitary...

 recruits are given buzz cuts when they enter training, originally to prevent the spread of lice, but now for ease of maintenance, cooling, and uniformity.

A buzz cut may be used to reduce the shock of hair loss when chemotherapy

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....

 is administered. The hair still falls out but the effect is reduced and so is less traumatic.

See also

• Bob cut
  Bob cut
  A "bob cut" is a short haircut for women in which the hair is typically cut straight around the head at about jaw-level, often with a fringe at the front.-The beginning:...
  
  
• Butch cut
  Butch cut
  A butch cut is a type of haircut in which the hair on the top of the head is cut short in every dimension The top and the upper portion of the back and sides are cut the same length, which ranges between one quarter of an inch and three quarters of an inch, following the contour of the head...
  
  
• Crew cut
  Crew cut
  A crew cut is a type of haircut in which the hair on the top of the head is cut relatively short, graduated in length from the longest hair at the front hairline to the shortest at the back of the crown. The hair on the sides and back of the head is usually tapered short, semi-short or medium. A...
  
  
• Depilation
• Hairstyle
  Hairstyle
  A hairstyle, hairdo, or haircut refers to the styling of hair, usually on the human head. The fashioning of hair can be considered an aspect of personal grooming, fashion, and cosmetics, although practical, cultural, and popular considerations also influence some hairstyles.-History of...
  
  
• Head shaving
  Head shaving
  Head shaving is the practice of shaving the hair from a person's head. At different times and places people have shaved their heads for very diverse reasons: practical, religious, cultural, or aesthetic—so a shaven head has widely varying connotations depending on the context.-Early...
  
  
• High and tight
  High and tight
  The high and tight is a military variant of the buzz cut. It is a very short hairstyle most commonly worn by men in the armed forces of most countries. Due to the functionality of this hairstyle, it is also popular with law enforcement officers and other public safety personnel...
  
  , a military variant in which the crown of the head is somewhat spared
• Shape-Up
  Shape-Up
  Shape-Up is the name given to a hairstyle that is a cut around the hairline. It is usually mixed and matched with other hair styles, but on many occasions is done alone.It is typically found amongst men who utilize the Caesar cut...
  
  
• Skinhead
  Skinhead
  A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and then spread to other parts of the world. Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian rude boys and British mods,...
  
  
• Social role of hair
• Tonsure
  Tonsure
  Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...