History of Barbers - Denver Barbers

A barber's pole is a type of sign used by barbers, a pole with white and red stripes. They have however been known to be of different colors. For example, it was common practice to have black and yellow stripes in the City of Baltimore, Maryland until the early 20th century in honor of the Calvert Colors used by Lord Baltimore.

Origin of barber pole in hairdressing and surgery

The origin of the barber pole is associated with the service of bloodletting.[1] During medieval times, barbers also performed surgery on customers. 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.

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 out 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.

Prior to 1950 there were four manufacturers of barber poles in the United States. In 1950, William Marvy of St. Paul, Minnesota started his barber pole manufacturing business. Mr. Marvy made his 50,000th barber pole in 1967, and by the early part of 1996 over 74,000 poles had been produced. The William Marvy Company is the sole remaining manufacturer of barber poles in North America. In recent years, the sale of spinning barber poles has dropped considerably, both because very few new barber shops are opening and many jurisdictions prohibit moving signs of any kinds as unsightly or visually disrupting.

Optical illusion

A spinning barber pole is the basis for a famous motion perception illusion, in which the stripes appear to be traveling down the length of the pole, rather than around it.

In an episode of Dragnet in the 1950s, Friday and Smith stand in front of a barber shop at one point. The shop has a double barber pole and the spirals turn outward, and so the illusion is of an arch moving upward.

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