A devastating fire could have been the end of The Barber Social. Instead, owner Alex Zimmerman is using it as the beginning of something new.
Alex found his way into barbering during the pandemic after years of cutting friends’ hair turned into a career. He eventually opened The Barber Social, building it into a place centered around more than just a fresh cut.
Then, a fire heavily damaged the shop and took much of the team’s equipment with it. With help from the Milwaukee community, the barbers are getting back behind the chair while Alex works on a new home on W. State Street.
Now, he’s thinking bigger, with plans for a family-friendly space featuring multiple services, community events and plenty of Milwaukee personality. We caught up with Alex to talk about his Milwaukee roots, the fire and what’s next.
Tell us about your youth and the experiences that helped shape your path.
My name is Alex Zimmerman, and I’m the owner of The Barber Social. I was born and raised in Wauwatosa, where I attended McKinley, Whitman, and then Wauwatosa West High School.
Growing up, I was always outside—playing sports, running around with friends, skateboarding through Milwaukee, and enjoying all the festivals during the summer.
Those experiences gave me a strong connection to Wauwatosa and the greater Milwaukee community. Looking back, that sense of friendship, community, and bringing people together helped shape what I eventually wanted The Barber Social to become.
Where did you study?
I attended the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater before going to trade school to study plumbing. I worked as a plumber until the COVID-19 pandemic, when I decided to make a major career change.
I had always cut my friends’ hair growing up, and during the pandemic, word started getting around that I knew how to cut. I became pretty popular and realized how much I enjoyed barbering—the creativity, conversations, relationships, and overall environment—more than working in the trades.
That realization led me to attend Paul Mitchell The School, where I earned my barbering license and officially began my career as a barber.
What do you do for work now?
I’m the owner of The Barber Social, and I’m also a working barber. Along with taking care of my clients, I manage the business, support our team of independent barbers, handle marketing and community partnerships, and work on creating new opportunities for the shop.
Since the fire, a major part of my job has also become rebuilding the business and developing our new location at 5063 W. State Street in Milwaukee.
Can you talk about your career journey?
My career began in the plumbing trade, but COVID gave me an opportunity to reconsider what I wanted to do with my life. I had been cutting my friends’ hair since I was younger, and during the pandemic, more and more people started coming to me for haircuts.
I realized that barbering combined so many things I enjoyed: being creative, talking with people, building relationships, and creating an environment where people feel comfortable. After earning my barbering license, I decided to turn that passion into a career and eventually opened The Barber Social.
Over the years, it has grown into much more than a place to get a haircut. It has become a team, a community, and something I’m incredibly proud to represent.
What does owning The Barber Social mean to you?
Owning a barbershop in the community where I grew up means everything to me. I now have the opportunity to serve many of the same people who supported and helped me throughout my life.
The Barber Social is more than just a business—it’s my way of giving back to the community that shaped me and helped me become the person I am today. Creating a welcoming place where people can connect, feel comfortable, and leave feeling their best is something I’m extremely proud of.
Can you talk about your community involvement?
Giving back has always been important to me and the entire Barber Social team. We’ve provided free haircuts at back-to-school events, visited local homeless shelters to offer haircuts, and participated in community events like Tosa Fest.
We’ve also donated our services to silent auctions and raffles supporting other fundraisers, and we’ve sponsored local youth sports teams. We believe a barbershop should be more than a place to get a haircut—it should be an active part of its community. Whenever we have an opportunity to use our time, skills, or resources to help someone, we try to show up.
Can you talk about what happened to your barbershop?
Unfortunately, our building caught fire and was so heavily damaged that we won’t be returning to our original location. We lost nearly everything inside the shop, including our tools, barber chairs, products, furniture, and equipment.
What makes the loss especially painful is that the shop had been carefully put together over the years. It was filled with unique antiques, family heirlooms, and meaningful gifts from clients—things you can’t simply replace by going to a store.
It wasn’t only the loss of a building. It was the loss of a space filled with memories and pieces of our story.
How has your team been impacted by the fire?
My crew and I lost almost everything we needed to do our jobs, including our tools and barber chairs. Each barber operates independently, so there isn’t an hourly wage or salary to fall back on. If we aren’t cutting hair, we aren’t earning money to support ourselves and our families.
Thankfully, we recently secured a few suites at Phoenix Salons in Brookfield that we’re sharing temporarily. That has helped us get back on our feet and begin serving our clients again, but we’re still working through everything we lost and preparing for our next chapter.
What can the community do to support your team and business?
We’ve been incredibly blessed by the support we’ve received from the Milwaukee community. We created a GoFundMe to help our team get back on its feet and cover some of the costs of building our new shop.
People can support us by donating, sharing our story, spreading the word, continuing to book appointments with our barbers, or offering their skills during the buildout. We’ve already had people reach out to help with construction, painting, and other parts of the project.
I’m currently building the new Barber Social at 5063 W. State Street, near Saz’s, and my goal is to have it open around the holidays. Every donation, appointment, shared post, and helping hand gets us one step closer to opening our doors again.
What do you like about living in Milwaukee?
I chose to keep The Barber Social in Milwaukee because I love the energy of the city and the people who live here. Milwaukee has a strong sense of community, and people genuinely want to support one another.
There are so many great small businesses here, and I love being able to collaborate with them, build relationships, and grow together. Milwaukee has supported us from the beginning, so keeping the business here and continuing to invest in this community was extremely important to me.
What do you want to see for Milwaukee’s future?
I want to see Milwaukee continue becoming a place where small businesses, creative professionals, and young entrepreneurs can take chances and build something meaningful.
I would love to see even more collaboration between local businesses and more spaces that bring different parts of the community together. Milwaukee already has so much character and pride. I want us to continue building on that while creating more opportunities for local families and business owners to thrive.
Is there anything else we should know about you or The Barber Social?
The new Barber Social is going to be much more than a traditional barbershop. My vision is to create a large, family-friendly community space where professionals from different industries can work together under one roof and offer something Milwaukee hasn’t experienced before.
It will be a destination where people can get a haircut, tattoo, nail services, waxing, and more. We also plan to host community events, fundraisers, and other experiences that bring people together.
The design will be heavily influenced by Milwaukee’s identity—from our sports teams to iconic local brands like Miller and Harley-Davidson. I want the entire space to feel unique, exciting, and unmistakably Milwaukee.
After everything we’ve been through, this new location is our opportunity to come back stronger and create something truly special for the city.