Booming Buzzcuts in Tron
By Ryan Choi ‘25 & Henry Saito ‘25
Image of Eaton Bass ‘26, one of the trend participants, photo by Ying Kay Leung ‘26
“Everyone is going bald in Tron.” Owen Kiernan ‘24, a senior resident leader in Upper Tron, stated earlier this year. On campus in mid-September, many male students received the same haircut: the buzz cut.
A buzz cut is ubiquitous when you enter almost any army in the world, as it has a hidden meaning and a historical focus: focusing on yourself, not getting distracted by others, and, during the Civil War, standard hygiene practice in the military. This all started in the third week of September. It was convenient for Henry and I to record people’s thoughts and haircuts as we both live in Upper Tron, the dorm the trend originated from.
It began in the fourth-floor bathroom. After the students were done with study hall one night, the bathroom got busy as students were getting ready to get a buzz cut one after the other. The storm of mixed reactions trailed down to the third floor, where people began buzzing each other’s hair in the bathroom downstairs. James Carlock, a postgraduate student living on the third floor, believed his buzz cut was suitable. “It feels better, lighter on my head. Who knows, I might stick with it until the end of the semester.”
It came as a shock for Upper Tron residents when several photos of buzzcuts were sent to the dorm group chat. Dorm residents, including one of our dorm faculty, Scott Bloom, responded with laughter and were startled by the new trend. Due to the positive reaction in the dorm, more people were eager to get a buzz cut and follow along with their friends. Brotherhood is a strong theme in the Upper Tron dorm, so it was only a matter of time before more students followed suit.
The buzzcut trend got hot. Every day, students felt like they were seeing more people with buzzcuts. This caused mixed feelings in the NMH community. Some students supported the buzz cut, proud of what it symbolized in the army. One resident in the dorm, Musa Tamaradze '25, was surprised by all of his friends who hopped on the trend. Since Musa is a wrestler, he knew about all of the buzzcuts among his friends and claimed that “this haircut is pretty funny, but it’s also pretty cool that they’re doing it all together.” About a month later, Musa got his hair buzzed as well.
Similarly, faculty members expressed confusion as they did not understand why they would let go of their well-grown hair. Tiffany Thiri, a math teacher at NMH, said, “I’ve had multiple students in my class show up with buzz cuts this week. It was interesting to see them all do it as a group.”
All in all, the school community has had mixed feelings about the buzz cuts, but it’s reaching a quick turn of thoughts. While some might think it’s weird to do it all together, this might be a new tradition for Tron that will potentially catch on.
