The Barber’s Pole, 1210 – Remember the barber-surgeons

The barber’s pole with its red and white spiral stripes has symbolized the barber’s trade for centuries. The emblem dates from a time when barbers not only cut hair but also extracted teeth and performed surgical procedures such as bloodletting, a practice in which blood was drained from the body in a dubious effort to improve health. Red, bloodstained bandages, perhaps partly cleaned, were placed outside the barber’s shop to dry. As they blew around a pole in the wind, they created a pattern that eventually became an advertising symbol in the form of a spiral-striped pole.

In 1096, barbers formed their first official organization in France. In the 1210s, to distinguish academic surgeons from barber-surgeons, the Collège de Saint Côme et Saint Damien in Paris required the former to wear long robes and the latter short ones. Not all barber-surgeons should be regarded as crude practitioners. French surgeon Ambroise Paré began as a barber and became the most famous surgeon of the European Renaissance.

In 1540, barber-surgeons and academic surgeons in England united in a single association, the United Company of Barber Surgeons, but the two classes had different work. Barbers displayed blue and white poles and could extract teeth and perform bloodletting, but were forbidden to carry out advanced surgery. Academic surgeons, meanwhile, were not permitted to cut hair or shave customers.

During bloodletting, customers gripped the staff tightly to make their veins visible and facilitate blood flow, while barbers cut their arms and drained blood. Bloodletting leeches were also used. The first barber’s pole was topped with a brass basin representing a leech bowl.

In the United States, the best-known manufacturer of motorized rotating barber poles was the William Marvy Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, founded in 1950. By 1967, it had sold 50,000 poles.

Description of the article image: The stripes on the barber’s pole date from a time when barbers performed surgical procedures and bloodletting. Red stripes represent bloodstained bandages. (Blue may partly be a tribute to the colors of the US flag.)

Historical figures mentioned in the article: Ambroise Paré (1510–1590)

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