The History of the Barber Pole

I was walking home this morning when I passed a barber shop on Court Street here in Athens. I got curious what the meaning of the red, white, and blue pole meant because I’ve seen them my whole life but never realized what purpose they originally served. Here is the history of the barber pole according to Wikipedia:

Image from Wikipedia.org

The origin of the barber pole is associated with the service of bloodletting.^[1] During medieval times, barbers performed surgery on customers as well as tooth extractions. The original pole had a brass basin at the top (representing the vessel in which leeches were kept) and bottom (representing the basin which received the blood). The pole itself represents the staff that the patient gripped during the procedure to encourage blood flow.

In the middle ages in France a decree was issued banning facial hair in men. This helped the barber trade to organise. Later, their role was defined by the College de Saint Come, established in Paris circa 1210, as academic surgeons of the long robe and barber surgeons of the short robe.

The red and white stripes symbolize the bandages used during the procedure: red for the blood-stained and white for the clean bandages. Originally, these bandages were hung on the pole to dry after washing. As the bandages blew in the wind, they would twist together to form the spiral pattern similar to the stripes in the modern day barber pole. The barber pole became emblematic of the barber/surgeon’s profession. Later the cloths were replaced by a painted wooden pole of red and white stripes.

After the formation of the United Barber Surgeon’s Company in England, a statute required the barber to use a blue and white pole and the surgeon to use a red pole. In France, surgeons used a red pole with a basin attached to identify their offices. Blue often appears on poles in the United States, possibly as an homage to its national colours. Another more fanciful interpretation of these barber pole colours is that red represents arterial blood, blue is symbolic of venous blood, and white depicts the bandage.

Spinning barberpoles are supposed to be oriented so that the red (blood) will appear as if it was flowing down.