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15 Popular Fonts for a Barbershop Businesses

Retro style is a favorite when it comes to designing barbershop logos. This list has plenty of vintage fonts and some modern alternatives ready for branding.

Brand Design
October 3, 2023
6
min

Table of Contents

Modern barber shops are oases of hipster aesthetics. Some of these great fonts can help you appeal to this young, trendy audience and create a business clients will love.

Picture a hipster barber: looks like a mix between a tattoo artist and a biker, with the hair and skincare routine of a model.

Well, it’s precisely the kind of eclectic style you’re sure to see with barbershop font styles. Check your gender roles preconceptions at the door and dive into the colorful realm of these lovely fonts.

Our list includes both free fonts and ones requiring you to pay for commercial use.

Retro fonts from the 20th century

The second half of the 20th century (well, from the 1940s onward) is a huge source of inspiration for many hipster barbershops. Use these quirky fonts in combination with more modern and simplistic fonts to give your business a truly custom look.

There are plenty of great retro typefaces out there, so here are just a few options to give you a taste of style you can go for.

1. Zing Rust (free and paid)

This font family comes from Fontfabric and includes an impressive 521 typefaces. While most of them require payment, 6 are completely free for both personal and commercial use. You can have a lot of fun with this one, combining bold letters with script fonts and elegant serfs, as well as using icons and illustrations.

zing rust barber shop font.png

2. Nexa Rust (free and paid)

This font is popular with many Youtubers, but it also makes a terrific display font for any signage or headings on your web design. It is similar to Zing Rust, and you can also download 5 fonts from this font family for free.

nexa rust barber shop font.png

3. Ranger ($25 - $240)

This font’s commercial license costs between $25 and $230, depending on the type of use. So it may not be ideal for a niche business just starting out. However, if you’re considering a rebrand, it may give your business a retro edge that will help you stand out from the rest! It’s got a great 70s feel and if you remember the rad hairstyles people had back then, you’ll see how it can help your customers feel inspired!

ranger barber shop font.png

4. Cinderela (from $39)

Don’t be put off by this font’s “girly” name! It’s a gorgeous, versatile vintage style font you could easily imagine on a 1950s inspired car wash logo. Contact the graphic designer to obtain a commercial license.

cinderela barber shop font.png

Vintage fonts

Old English fonts and sign painting inspired typography are another major influence for modern barbershops. If you want your customers to feel like having their hair or beard trimmed is a special ritual, these beautiful typefaces can help take them back to a different era.

5. Hustlers Rough (from $16)

If you’d love to recreate vintage signage around your barbershop, this font can be a great choice. It’s very decorative and would look great on merch such as t-shirts and hats as well as your own line of grooming products.

hustlers rough barber shop font.png

6. Rumble Brave (from $15)

This gorgeous vintage font is practically perfect for barbershops and it comes along with plenty of interesting ornaments that you can use to really make signage stand out.

rumble brave barber shop font.png

7. Bridgnorth (free)

Blackletter or gothic style of classic old English fonts can sometimes be a little hard to read. That’s why this updated modern version is a truly marvelous choice to give your business a historic look without compromising the clarity of the message.

bridhnorth barber shop font.png

Intricate calligraphy fonts

Remember what we said about being eclectic? Well, a combination of different font styles is a terrific way to do that. You can pair a chunky retro font with nice cursive script font to strike that perfect balance between “manly” and artisanal.

8. Admiral CAT (free)

Retro styles and cursive fonts with elegant ligatures are definitely popular with modern barbershops, but sometimes being a little different can go a long way. This font is precisely the kind of quirky middle ground of style that will give your barber business a competitive edge. And best of all: it’s completely free for both commercial and personal use!

admiral cat barber shop font.png

9. Moonline Handwritten Font (from $8)

This is a terrific handwritten font to pair with some bold lettering, for example vintage slab serifs. It’s delicate but the lines still aren’t too thin, making it another great option for signage, like a plate with your working hours.

moonline barber shop font.png

10. Monoline Script Font (from $15)

This is a very similar cursive font, with a slightly more modern look. It has gorgeous ligatures which can make it a little difficult to read in smaller sizes. Used sparingly, however, it could make for pretty amazing barbershop logo design.

monoline barber shop font.png

11. Albertiny (free)

This unique font combines brush strokes and luxurious swashes to create a truly authentic look. It’s not free for commercial use, but honestly, an outstanding design is worth paying a little extra and this is the case with Albertiny. It’s an aesthetically pleasing typeface that your customers will surely notice and remember.

albertiny barber shop font.png

Modern typography

As a brick and mortar business, it’s super important that your print materials, interior, signage, packaging and merch all look great. But let’s face it, even as a local hotspot, you still cannot sustain a business without some online presence.

When choosing and downloading fonts,try to choose the OTF (Open Type Format). This will ensure that you get high-quality fonts when resizing them to fit a particular format. They usually contain more glyphs and symbols and are easier to work with in graphic design. The other most common file type, TTF (True Type Format) indicates an older font. They are automatically resized, so they are a better choice for DIY design projects.

The following fonts are great for barbershops with a more modern edge and their clean, crisp look is ideal for use as web fonts.

12. Noir (free)

What’s not to love about a free font that gives vintage a fresh, modern twist? The letters strike the perfect balance between elongated and square as the middle lines (on letters like E, A, G) are placed lower. It comes in two weights, regular and medium, as well as upper- and lowercase letters so there’s plenty of room to mix and match!

noir barer shop font (2).jpg

13. Besitoea (from $12)

This serif font is another modern variation on vintage styles, that goes above and beyond to deliver a unique look. It comes in all-caps in a standard character set. This decorative letter ‘O’ would look particularly great on a wordmark logotype.

besitoea barber shop font.png

14. Brandon Grotesque (free)

This modern sans serif font strikes a perfect balance between being minimalistic and decorative at the same time. It’s completely free and will easily fit more or less any purpose: from web fonts to a clean wordmark logo.

brandon grotesque barber shop font.png

15. Smythe Regular (free)

This great free font available on Google fonts is a super choice for online use due to its high readability. It’s got a little bit of a retro vibe without trying too hard. It’s still quite decorative and elegant, so it would make a good choice to highlight seasonal promotions, for example for Halloween or Christmas.

smythe barber shop font.png

Choosing barbershop fonts on a budget

With so many great free fonts available readily on Google, custom typography might not be something you’re ready to splurge on, if you’re just starting out.

The great thing about most fonts on this list is that they are free for personal use. That means you can download them, put them on your mood board and explore different options until you’re finally ready to make a decision. Of course, a bit of Google research might eventually lead you to a free font that’s similar to your favorite.

On the other hand, if you find a font you love, especially one you’d like to use on your logotype—don’t miss out on an opportunity to create a design that will attract customers and help your business grow!

Having lived and studied in London and Berlin, I'm back in native Serbia, working remotely and writing short stories and plays in my free time. With previous experience in the nonprofit sector, I'm currently writing about the universal language of good graphic design. I make mix CDs and my playlists are almost exclusively 1960s.

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