This summer’s hottest hairstyle is a platinum blond buzz cut. Cara Delevingne, Kristen Stewart, Zoë Kravitz and Katy Perry have all sheared and bleached their hair in recent months — and stylists say New Yorkers are falling for the daring look, too.
“A platinum, shaved head is both feminine and strong, and I think that it’s a direct correlation to the rise of feminism in this country right now,” says celebrity colorist Aura Friedman, who’s taken Kravitz’s cropped hair ultrablonde. “Having that kind of ‘GI Jane’ shaved head is a bold, liberating move, and I think that’s what women are looking for these days.”
But Friedman says that for some stars, the look is less a political choice and more of a last resort. “A lot of celebrities that do have that look have gotten it as a result of having [dark] hair, and going blond in too aggressive a manner,” she says. “In the end, the damage . . . may [force] you to cut your hair.”
For those without dried-up strands, a supershort cut can be an easy way to go platinum without harming hair. “On a shaved head, all you do is throw the bleach on it, and it’s a quicker process,” says Friedman.
As long as you adjust for face shape, hairstylist Nunzio Saviano, founder of the eponymous Upper East Side salon, swears it works on anyone — even those without movie-star cheekbones. “If you have an elongated face, you don’t want a lot of height on top,” he says. “If you have a rounded face, you can go tighter on the sides and have more volume on top.”
All you need is the confidence to pull it off — and a little spending money. “Anytime I cut one of my clients into a [buzz], they think, one: makeup, and two: jewelry,” Saviano says. “And then they go shopping right away.”
Here, five New Yorkers share what made them go bright and buzzed.
She’s never felt more glamorous
Post scribe Hannah Sparks took the platinum plunge. “I’ve always adored Michelle William’s platinum pixie cut, but I’ve never had the courage to make such a drastic move,” says Sparks, 29.
Cutler Salon colorist Rachel Bodt (she’s dyed platinum patron saint Tilda Swinton’s icy locks) made the transition a breeze with a sandy blonde to suit Sparks’ skin tone.
While short-hair dye jobs are typically speedier than long ones, her crop took nearly 7 hours — time she says was well-spent. “Much love to my fellow brunettes, but I believe in trying just about everything once,” says Sparks. “I’ve never felt more glamorous.”
Longer locks were dragging her down
By the summer of 2015, Janell Hickman was tired of shelling out for her bob-length hair. Between getting it styled and relaxed, Hickman, 31, who works as a senior editor at the fashion site Gilt, “was spending over $200 a month on just my hair before tip, color and cut.” So she headed to the salon and asked for a buzz.
This May, she decided to take it a step further and bleach her supershort hair at downtown salon Hairstory — first opting for a Champagne pink, then a butter blonde, and, most recently, platinum. “I thought, worst-case scenario, I could just shave it off,” she says. But the look was a hit with her co-workers and her clique. “One of my good friends said her friend took my picture to the salon,” she says.
The drastic change pushed her to switch up other aspects of her style, too. “I felt like I needed to be more cool and more funky,” she says. “I did go through my closet and kind of purge stuff, and order some things, to have more edge and personality.”
On the list of tossed items: her go-to bright lipsticks. “Now I stick to neutral, because it feels a little aggressive to have blond hair and a bold lip,” she says.
Hickman gets touch-ups every few weeks, and says she’s picked up a few tips along the way. Instead of bringing celeb photos to the salon for inspiration she says it’s “really helpful to bring Instagram images of other girls,” since they’re likely less styled and more realistic.
This new mom wanted a new look
Soon Beauty Lab hairstylist Tia Marosy, 32, had been considering a bold cut for a while before she took the plunge.
“After I had a baby I was just feeling pretty blah about my appearance,” says the Sunset Park resident. Post-pregnancy hair fallout left her strands thinner than usual, and early mornings with her son meant she had less time to style her shoulder-length hair.
So after weeks of deliberation, she forced herself into a chair at the Carroll Gardens salon where she works, asked for a “really short buzz,” and dyed her dark brown hair white-blond.
“I was kind of apprehensive about being a new mother, and worrying that people would judge me on my new look,” she says. “Initially, I was on the fence about it, because there’s nothing to hide behind.”
Though at first the result was “shocking,” her hair has since settled into a pixie cut, and she’s had clients request a cut or color like hers.
She warns that the supershort look isn’t exactly low-maintenance.
“On one hand, it’s easier, but on the other hand it’s a lot of upkeep for the color and the cut,” she says. “When it starts to grow out, you get that hedgehog look,” as brown roots contrast with blond tips. Bleach every few weeks keeps the frosted look at bay, while regular trims around the sides and back prevent a mullet.
She became the center of attention
Beauty copywriter Sarah Weir is no stranger to the short shear — she’d chopped her locks into a pixie during college after a breakup. So when her hairdresser, Saviano, told her that her recent Tilda Swinton-inspired cut left her hair the perfect length to go platinum, she went for it.
“I didn’t tell anyone I was getting it done, because I was kind of worried I was going to back out,” says the Upper East Side resident, 27. “When I walked into my office, one of my coworkers stood up and screamed.”
Even Weir took a few beats to get used to the change. “When I saw myself after I got it colored, I was like, ‘I look like an “X-Men” character!’ ”
The baby-blond look isn’t for wallflowers, she warns.
“When I first colored my hair I was so self-conscious — I was riding the subway like, ‘Doesn’t everyone know this isn’t my hair?’ ” Strangers were oddly curious about the look. “I’ve had multiple men come up to me and ask me if my hair color is natural,” she says. “I never knew men were so concerned about my natural color!”
Women are more complimentary. “People love to tell me they like my hair,” she says.“I feel like everyone . . . has the urge to do something crazy. When they compliment me, they’re acknowledging the crazy.”
She feels edgy and empowered
Elizabeth Spiers, the 40-year-old founder of media company the Insurrection, buzzed and bleached her hair in January 2016.
“After I’d had [my son] Ford, the long hair started looking less youthful — maybe Amish,” says Spiers, who lives in Bay Ridge. “I just started to feel kind of frumpy . . . so I just went into the salon and told the woman, ‘Look, I want it short, and I want it to look kind of punk.’ ”
Vanessa Martini, her stylist at Fox and Jane in Brooklyn, suggested that she take advantage of the length and go platinum, so she “impulsively did it” and ended up with a white-blond close crop.
Her husband loved the transformation, but as a TV political commentator, the daring ’do has opened her up to plenty of other feedback.
One viewer wrote that he was upset she was “promoting the transgender lifestyle” in the comments section of an online article she’d written — an observation she laughs off: “First of all, I think you’re conflating androgynous with transgender, but if there is a transgender style, it sounds kind of awesome to me, so I’m going to take it as a compliment.”
That same day, she says, a cameraman on set said her hair looked “so badass.”
But she deems other people’s opinions antithetical to the cut itself. “This is a haircut I have because I like it,” she says. “I’m not trying to appeal to someone else.”