A buzz cut is one clipper guard run over the whole head, and the grade number tells you what it leaves behind. Buzz cut lengths work in eighths of an inch: a grade one leaves about 3mm, a two about 6mm, a three about 9.5mm, a four about 13mm. Grade, level, number and guard are four names for the same thing, so a "level 3" and a "grade 3" are the same cut. Our clipper guard chart sets out what each guard leaves behind in millimetres. Below a one you are into stubble and scalp. Above a five it stops behaving like a buzz and starts wanting to be combed.
The grade is the easy part. Picking the right one for your head is the bit men get wrong, usually by going too short on the first go.
Buzz cut lengths, grade by grade
| Grade |
Leaves roughly |
In inches |
What it looks like on the head |
| No guard |
under 1mm |
- |
Shadow. Scalp with a tint over it |
| 0.5 |
1.5mm |
1/16 |
Three days of growth. Still mostly skin |
| 1 |
3mm |
1/8 |
A week of growth. Colour without much texture |
| 1.5 |
4.5mm |
3/16 |
Short, but the scalp has stopped showing through |
| 2 |
6mm |
1/4 |
The standard buzz. Velvet, holds its own colour |
| 3 |
9.5mm |
3/8 |
You can feel it move under your palm |
| 4 |
13mm |
1/2 |
Short but soft. The first grade with any weight |
| 5 |
16mm |
5/8 |
Long enough to sit a parting into if pushed |
| 6 |
19mm |
3/4 |
Not really a buzz any more |
Two things about that table. The millimetre figure is stamped on the guard itself, and different makes of clipper differ by half a millimetre or so, which sounds trivial until you are choosing between a one and a two. And the jump that matters most is not between the numbers at the top but the one between no guard and a grade one. That is the step where your hair stops being hair and becomes scalp colour.
A one or a two: 3mm against 6mm
This is the choice most men are actually making, and the numbers undersell the difference. A two is double a one, not a notch above it. At 3mm the hair lies flat and the light goes straight through to the scalp, so from a few feet away your head reads as one colour with a shadow over it. At 6mm the hair stands up a little, holds its own colour and hides the scalp almost everywhere except the crown.
The other difference is time. Hair grows about a third of a millimetre a day, so a one has doubled in length in under a fortnight and looks like a different haircut by then. A two takes nearer three weeks to double. If yours seems to run faster or slower than that, the reasons hair grows at different speeds come down mostly to your genes.
If you are torn between them, the 1.5 is the honest middle at about 4.5mm. Plenty of men who think they want a one are happier there.
What does a grade 3 buzz cut look like?
A grade three leaves about 9.5mm, three eighths of an inch. That is enough for the hair to stand up off the scalp and show its own texture, so it reads as a short haircut rather than a shaved head. The scalp disappears almost everywhere, and you can feel the hair move when you run a palm over it.
It is the grade we steer first-timers towards, for three reasons. It covers a flat spot, the ridge of the occipital bone or an old scar that a one would put on show. Dark hair on pale skin at a three looks like hair, not like the drawn-on shadow of a one. And it is the safe side of the decision: if the three feels too soft once it is done, the barber can take it down to a two before you leave the chair.
It also lasts. At about a third of a millimetre a day a three takes roughly four weeks to double, against nine days or so for a one, so it holds its shape for most of a month.
Where it does not work as well is on thinning hair. At 9.5mm the hair is long enough for a sparse patch to show against a dense one, and a two usually hides it better (more on that below). Very thick or wiry hair at a three can also stand out and make the head look rounder, which is when a three on top with a two on the sides earns its place.
The longer buzz: a grade 4 or 5
At 13mm a grade four is still clipper work, but it has stopped looking severe. The hair has enough length to lie in one direction, which is why it sits better on a head with a flat spot or a scar than any shorter grade.
A grade five, about 16mm, is the upper limit of what we would still call a buzz. Fine or straight hair at a five starts to fall forwards and can be pushed into a rough side parting. Thick or curly hair at a five springs out instead and the head looks wider than it is, so on that hair we would usually suggest a four, or a five on top with the sides taken a grade or two shorter. Above a five the clippers leave a length that wants a comb and a little product, and at that point scissors on top usually give a better result. On a dense head that means weight taken out from underneath, not just length off, and the haircuts that hold their shape on thick hair are all built that way.
The other thing the longer grades buy you is time, because a week of regrowth is a small share of 13mm.
If you want the whole head properly bare rather than short, that is a different service. A head shave with a straight razor and a hot towel is £18 for 30 minutes, and it gives you a finish clippers cannot.
Which grade suits your head
Contrast between your hair and your skin. This decides more than anything else. Dark hair on pale skin at a grade one looks stark, almost drawn on. The same grade on light brown or grey hair barely registers. If your hair is dark and you want the buzz to look like a haircut rather than a shadow, start at a two.
Your head shape, which you have never seen. Nobody knows the back of their own head. Every man has an occipital bone, most have a flat spot or an old scar, and a one-guard buzz shows all of it because there is no length anywhere to soften a dip. This is the honest argument for a three over a one on a first attempt.
Thinning or a receding hairline. A buzz is often the right answer here rather than the last resort. Thin hair looks thin because dense patches sit next to sparse ones, and the eye goes straight to the gap. Take everything to a 2 and that contrast mostly disappears, because at 6mm nothing is long enough to look sparse next to anything else.
Your beard. A buzz with a bare face can read as severe on a long, narrow head. A grade two on top with a trimmed beard puts weight back at the jaw and balances it. We would rather set the two lengths against each other at the start than have you shave the beard off a week later.
The weather. A freshly buzzed scalp has never seen the sun, and a grade one is not shade, so in summer the crown wants a hat or some sun cream for the first fortnight. In winter the same head feels the wind off the canal at Little Venice on the first cold morning. Either way a three does the job of a hat better than a one.
One grade all over, or graduated
A true buzz is one guard everywhere. On our menu that is the Crew Cut, £10 and 20 minutes, despite the name (our crew cut explainer covers why the two get mixed up). Nothing to do at home afterwards. It is the cheapest cut on the menu and one of the harder ones to get right, because with no length to hide behind, the neckline and the ears are the entire haircut.
Most men who ask for a buzz actually want a small step in it:
- A grade up on top. A three on top and a two on the sides. Barely visible as a change but it gives the top a bit of shape and stops the head looking round.
- A buzz with a taper. One guard over the top and back, then the sides drop away below the temple. It keeps the ease of a buzz and looks deliberate rather than functional.
- A buzz with a skin fade. The top stays at a two or three, the sides go to nothing and blend up. Sharpest version, and the one that needs you back in the chair most often. Our comparison of skin and taper fades covers which of the two to put underneath it.
Once the sides and top are different lengths you have crossed into fade territory, and the price and the time go with it: £17 and 30 to 40 minutes rather than £10 and 20.
Asking for a buzz cut
Say the guard number, then the neckline, then whether the top is different. That is the whole instruction.
"A two all over, square the neckline off" is enough for any barber here to cut it correctly. Useful additions:
- "Natural neckline" if you want it left rounded as it grows, which is kinder if you go five weeks between cuts
- "Take the corners off the hairline" if the temples have gone back and you would rather they looked softened than squared
- "Leave the sideburns level with the tragus" if you have an opinion about it, because otherwise we will set them where they suit your face
- "Go over the top twice against the grain" if you have thick hair and want the grade to sit true rather than a fraction long
One thing worth taking from us: go a grade longer than the one you have in your head. You can take a three down to a two in ninety seconds without rebooking. Going the other way costs you a month.
Living with it
Hair grows about a centimetre a month, so the shorter the grade the faster it stops looking like the cut you asked for. The one and the two run out fastest, as above. A four takes five or six weeks to double and looks intentional for most of them. That, more than anything, is what you are choosing when you pick a number, and it is the same calculation behind how often to book a haircut at any length.
Growing a buzz out is the awkward part nobody warns you about. From about week eight to month four it is too long to be a buzz and too short to sit down. Come in for a tidy on the neck and around the ears and leave the top alone, and it gets through that stage looking like a plan rather than neglect. We have set out every stage of the grow-out, with what to book at each one.
Six chairs are running from 9am Monday to Saturday, walk-ins welcome, and a buzz is twenty minutes. If you are unsure which grade, come in and we will hold two guards against the back of your head and show you both in the hand mirror first.
